Yankee GM Brian Cashman had a conference call yesterday with members of the media where he all but closed the book on Johnny Damon. Brian Hoch of MLB.com has the story:
NEW YORK — Johnny Damon was hoping to find his team by the end of this week, and it appears that his employer will not be the Yankees.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman all but closed the door on Damon’s four-year tenure in pinstripes on Tuesday, telling MLB.com that the free-agent outfielder remains out of the club’s financial reach.
“I’m not having any discussions on him,” Cashman said in a telephone interview. “His abilities exceed the money that I have.”
Damon himself appears to understand this reality more than many fans. He made the following statement:
In a text message sent to the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, Damon said that he has choices on the market, but discussions with the Yankees indeed stalled after the club signed Johnson in mid-December.
“Never started again,” Damon said of the negotiations. “They have their budget.”
About the notion of the Yanks adding money to their budget, Brian Cashman doesn’t sound like he’s going to push very hard on this one, which is the only way more money would be added to the budget. He said:
Though the Yankees have been steady with their intent to reduce payroll from their 2009 figures, it has been speculated that Cashman could go to ownership and request an increase, as he did last year to fit in both Mark Teixeira and Andy Pettitte. The general manager downplayed that possibility.
“I’ll always try to get the budget pushed, but you’re not always successful,” Cashman said. “The Steinbrenner family has been extremely generous for adding talent, but you can’t do everything.“
Manager Joe Girardi chimed in and agreed:
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on Tuesday at the B.A.T. Dinner in New York that he had spoken to Damon recently, and the outfielder’s spirits were high. The same could not be said for the odds of Damon returning to the Bombers.
“I don’t think anything is completely shut until it’s completely shut,” Girardi said. “But we’ve talked about our budget and what we have, and it has to work within everyone’s framework. I don’t see it getting done, but you never say never.
So let’s tally this all up. The GM who would be making the signing doesn’t see it happening, the player himself doesn’t see it happening, and the manager who has to deal with both of them doesn’t see it happening. About the only one trying to keep this flame alive is Scott Boras, for obvious reasons.
What many fans overlook is the way that the Nick Johnson signing and Javier Vasquez trade played into this. The money that the Yanks had available earlier in the off season has been spent elsewhere. The 2-14 offer to Johnny doesn’t exist anymore, that’s where Scott Boras blew this one for his client. Even if the Yanks were to sign Damon on the cheap (say 5-7 mil) those much-needed days at DH that kept him going last year are no longer available. That’s another reason why Cashman is credible saying he only has a part-time LF job open. I don’t think Johnny can physically hold up as an everyday player position anymore, and given his lousy defense (much of which I believe is health-related) he will be more productive getting a few days a week at DH. As I’ve totaled this equation from both sides, it simply hasn’t added up to me for a long time.
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4 Responses to Cashman further closes the door on Damon
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TIQ IQ
“Even if the Yanks were to sign Damon on the cheap (say 5-7 mil) those much-needed days at DH that kept him going last year are no longer available.”
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According to Damon’s B-R.com page, he only DH’ed in 4 games last year. If that’s the case, the quote I’ve pulled from your column is factually inaccurate, unless you consider four days as “much-needed.”
Over the course of 576 games played in New york, Damon has DH’ed in 101 of them, or 17.5%. While he — and any player of a certain age, really — can benefit from the occasional game at DH, it’s disingenuous to paint Damon with the DH-only brush since that’s never been his role and has proven that he can perform well as an offensive player, even with 130+ games in the outfield.
Very well put – I agree that Johnny is an everyday LF until he proves otherwise. I don’t think there is a case to say he needs regular DH duty yet. He can easily meet the value of the contract he is going to get if it is in the 5/7 mil range so it is win win even if he rode the bench once a week.
The issue is Boras should grab that better offer if it is out there and end this run-around or ask the Yanks to field something appropriate and by appropriate I mean 5-7 mil. But I get the feeling he is still trying to push for 10/yr and that is just not in the cards.
Question of the day, then, is as follows:
Is Johnny (a) peeved; (b) extremely peeved; or (c) absolutely furious with Scott Boras?
To an outsider, it does seem that he has been singularly poorly represented throughout this whole affair. There’s no way that a hitter with his talent and production should still be scrabbling around to find a club, in the last week of January.
I think it’s clear that the Yankees have adopted the right approach here, but it’s very sad to think that a great guy like JD, who could have played an important role in pinstripes for a couple more years, may end up completing his career in another city.
Damon is probably hurt and upset that he’s still unemployed at this point but I’m not sure that it’s raelly Boras’s fault here. The market has changed inhow it treats aging outfielders with suspect defense and I’m not sure Boras bears the responsiblity for that fact.
Could Damon have potentially signed the 2Y/$20M offer reportedly offererd in early December? Sure, but I don’t think it’s his agent’s fault. Damon has the ability to make his own decisions and he got caught at a time where the market just doesn’t value him as highly as it once would’ve.