Old friend Peter Abraham of Boston.com compiled a list of the remaining players still available on the current free agent market. Here it is:
1B: Russell Branyan, Carlos Delgado
2B: Orlando Hudson, Felipe Lopez
SS: Orlando Cabrera, Miguel Tejada
3B: Joe Crede, Melvin Mora
DH: Jim Thome, Jason Giambi
OF: Rick Ankiel, Reed Johnson
OF: Johnny Damon, Xavier Nady
OF: Jermaine Dye, Gary Sheffield
C: Bengie Molina, Jose Molina
SP: Joel Piniero, Vicente Padilla
SP: Jon Garland, Pedro Martinez
SP: Ben Sheets, Braden Looper
SP: Chien-Ming Wang, Mark Mulder
SP: Erik Bedard, Jarrod Washburn
RP: Kiko Calero, Chan Ho Park,
RP: Ron Villone, Kevin Gregg
RP: David Weathers, Jamey Wright
It’s amazing how much quality talent is still available at just about every position. It also goes a long way toward explaining why, despite recent signings, there has been little movement from the Yanks or Brian Cashman. If he’s even in the market for a Left Fielder (which is an open question) there are still plenty of good players available.
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7 Responses to Remaining Free Agents
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TIQ IQ
Correction: There are a couple good options left for LF. Dye had a terrible year, and is mainly a RF, and a BAD one at that. Sheffield… no. Ankiel is lefty I believe, which defeats the purpose of having a lefty/righty platoon.
Basically, the decent options are Johnny, Reed Johnson, Nady, and maybe Tatis, although even him I wouldn’t want.
Depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re looking for an everyday player, then yes, it’s a short list. But if you’re looking for a platoon partner for Gardner, then all of the Righty bats make some sense to varying degrees.
I think Jay is right on the money here: there are a few good options (Damon, Nady), a decent option (Johnson) and several sub-optimal to bad ones (Sheffield, Dye, etc.).
The day Sheffield comes back, I become a Padres fan.
I hate to tell you this, but he’s not a bad option as a platoon partner for Gardner. Has power, kills Lefties and you could use Gardner as a late inning defensive replacement. If he’s ready to accept a limited role, he could work.
I think having a RH bat that can play CF and isn’t a dark hole as a hitter would improve the team a bit more than most bloggers seem to think. He could spell both the CF and LF against lefties with a big platoon differential. I’m a Gardner fan, but having no fall-back plan for his possible failure doesn’t make sense to me.
Will the Yankees let remaining free agents Reed Johnson, Xavier Nady and even Johnny Damon sign with another team? Yes, the Yankees are being patient but for how long?
If they keep on doing this, it’s better for the Yankees to save their most valuable “$ 2 million” and let their minor players like Juan Miranda see some action next season.