The Yankees have a bunch of looming decisions. The most immediate decision has to deal with offering arbitration/tendering offers to Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Dustin Moseley, Sergio Mitre, and Boone Logan. There are two no brainers in here: yes, offer arbitration or tender contracts to Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. They’re definitely deserving of it and have performed well enough to get a decent contract.
Boone Logan should also be tendered a contract since he’ll probably still be cheap, considering he made just $590,000 in 2010 and performed well enough in the second half to justify a return.
In a perfect world, Sergio Mitre and Dustin Moseley would be non tendered and allowed to be free agents. However, as Joe and Mike over at River Ave. Blues said during yesterday’s Podcast, one of them will probably be brought back just for depth. I hate Sergio Mitre and Dustin Moseley is about as worthless to the Yankees as you can get, but either one will be cheap and very easy to let go when he lays an egg. Mitre showed a bit more, though, so I assume he’s the one who will be returning while Mr. Moseley will be looking for a minor league deal somewhere.
There are other pitching related decisions to be made, too.
The Rangers are apparently ready to offer Cliff Lee a five year deal. So, the decision for the Yankees will be whether to beat the Texas offer in years or money. My philosophy is always to overpay in money, rather than years when it comes to pitchers. The Yankees should sit back, see how much the Rangers were offering for five years, and then try to beat it by a few million. They should only go to a sixth year if that is an absolute sticking point for Mr. Lee and his agent.
Next, there is the Zack Greinke trade talk that’s been floating around. I’m not going to hold my breath on this trade, but it’s something nice to dream about. If the Yankees feel they can get this hypothetical deal done without having to trade Jesus Montero to Kansas City, they should absolutely pull the trigger (again, assuming ZG waves his NTC and allows himself to be acquired by the Yankees). I wonder if this is a possible plan B to Cliff Lee or just a plan A-2. That is, if one happens, does it cancel out the other? This leads me into another decision.
Will the Yankees wait on Andy Pettitte? The Yankees have a (very very very very) small chance at landing both Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke. However, if both are accomplished, that means they’d have no room for Andy Pettitte, unless they moved A.J. Burnett to the bullpen–which they’re not about to do–or traded him, which would be damn near impossible at this point. This makes me think that Lee is Plan A and a possible-but-not-at-all-probable Zack Greinke trade is Plan B. While I’d love to jump at the chance to get ZG, I’d prefer to sign Lee and Pettitte for just money, while holding on to the prospects that it would take to acquire Greinke.
What do you readers think? Do you think the Yankees should ditch Lee and pursue a Greinke trade? Should they wait on Andy Pettitte before implementing a Plan B? Should they let both Mitre and Moseley walk?
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One Response to Decisions, Decisions
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TIQ IQ
Kind of surprised the Yankees decided to non tender Alfredo Aceves but after herniating a disc in his back and now breaking his clavicle it looks like the Yankees don’t feel too good about his recovery chances, there is a chance we sign him to a minor league deal and bring him back but either way we can’t count on Alfredo in 2011. I had my doubts on his recovery anyway after the back.