After a few of the slowest days this year for Yankee-related news, we now have a load of stuff to pore over from just last night. I’ll recap them quickly and let the rest of our writers break things down more over the rest of today. Here goes:
Yanks to re-sign Mo-As Matt posted last night, the Yanks and Mariano River are quietly (ahem) getting close to re-upping on a 2 year deal. Salary will be the same as the 15 mil he’s earned for the last 3 years. His production hasn’t declined, so there’s no need to offer him a pay cut.
Yanks cut Aceves, Moseley-While Dustin Mosely did a respectable job for the Yanks last year, guys like him are a dime a dozen and available at a moments notice when needed. But the Aceves non-tender came as a big surprise to most Yankee observers, myself included. I’m an unabashed fan of the Mexican Gangster and I know the Yanks like him a lot as well, the manager was quoted last year saying they missed him greatly when the bullpen struggled early last year. But I’ll assume the Yanks are making a calculated bet here. As a player who will be out until March, there shouldn’t be much demand for him. They can re-sign him to a minor league deal with assurances he’ll make the MLB squad out of camp and use that 40 man spot to protect one of their young arms from the Rule 5 draft. Montero, Brackman and Betances will need to be put on the 40 man this year, so it’s getting a bit crowded. This is what happens when you have a good farm system.
Mark Feinsand on Troy Tulowitzki’s extension:
Sources said Wednesday that the Yankees felt emboldened by the new contract signed by Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who inked a seven-year, $134 million extension that will keep him in Colorado for the next 10 years. Including the three years that Tulowitzki had remaining on his current contract, he will earn an average of $15.7 million per season, giving the Yankees the belief that the $15 million per year they had offered Jeter was more than fair.
But Tulowitzki will earn an average of $19.1 million during the new portion of his contract, topping the $18.9 million annual average salary that Jeter earned during his recently completed 10-year, $189 million deal.
Nice job by Mark clearing that up. Everyone’s acting like the Tulo contract averages 16 per and Derek is delusional, turns out the Yanks are simply matching it. Offering Derek 3 years at 17 per with a 6 mil buyout is a 19 mil AAV for the contract.
The AL and NL non-tenders-Most years the non-tender lists are largely filled with junk, but this year there are some very interesting, useful guys on that list, a few of whom are former All Stars. Heading the list is former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks. After Mo and Rafael Soriano, he’s arguably the best reliever available this year, unless you love Matt Guierrer or Grant Balfour for some reason. His stuff is fine (avg 94.9 MPH) and his 2.59 FIP was far below his 4.44 ERA last year. Missing tons of bats with a 10.42 K/9. His slider was a bit down last year, and his .368 BABIP was up (.306 career avg) which might explain his subpar season. It’s not often that a non-tender figures to get multiple years, but Jenks certainly does. The only question is whether he’ll accept a setup role or not. Another doozy by Kenny Williams.
Other interesting non-tenders are Matt Diaz, Scott Hairston (Larry at Yankeeist did a nice breakdown of both yesterday) Russel Martin, lefty JP Howell and former Yankee Chien Ming Wang. We already know for sure the Yanks are interested in Russell Martin, they narrowly missed dealing for him last night.
BTW-A belated Happy Hannakuh to all of our Jewish readers from one of the goyem. Seems early this year, no?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
13 Responses to Yankee news and notes-December 3rd
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Kenny Williams is just a horrible GM. How do you turn down offers for Jenks last year and wind up non-tendering him a few months later? It’s not as if they were in a pennant race, they finished 6 games back in their division and 7 out of the WC.
“Everyone’s acting like the Tulo contract averages 16 per and Derek is delusional, turns out the Yanks are simply matching it.” And why, exactly, should they match a deal for Tulo, who is a vastly superior player at this point to Jeter? The Yankees continue to bid against themselves.
That’s fair, Tulo is a FAR better player at this point of their careers. I was going to mention that myself, but didn’t want to get sidetracked.
Derek does have value to the Yanks that goes beyond his production, however. 3000 hits and Derewk retiring as a Yankee will all add to the Yankee bottom line and brand. Overpaying him is reasonable, Vince Gennaro estimated his value at 20 mil.
“They can re-sign him to a minor league deal with assurances he’ll make the MLB squad out of camp and use that 40 man spot to protect one of their young arms from the Rule 5 draft. Montero, Brackman and Betances will need to be put on the 40 man this year, so it’s getting a bit crowded. This is what happens when you have a good farm system”
This is just plain wrong…Brackman was already on the 40 and Montero did not need to be protected. Those that were protected were put on the 40 a while back and had nothing to do with Aceves being non tendered..
Right, Brackman was signed to a MLB deal out of NC. My bad. I’m assuming Jesus will make the club out of ST, which I probably shouldn’t do.
Come on Cash, let’s go pick up Martin.
I’d like them to pick up Martin, Howell and Jenks. But the player has to be happy with the situation as well. If I was to bet on it, I think they’ll only land Howell.
I like Martin and Howell but Jenks is probably a no for me the more I think about him the less appeal I see, he has lost a lot of velocity over the years and with it his effectiveness plus I’m not sure having someone that “big” around Joba is a good idea, he needs to lose weight not feel he can gain some.
You really think Howell is the guy among lefties? I know the Yankees will look at him and I would love to get him on a minor league deal with a ST invite but the guy didn’t pitch at al last year and is coming off shoulder surgery right? I think Fuentes and Sherrill should be above Howell on the list based off health at the least plus with Fuentes you have a former closer which adds value Howell and Sherrill don’t have.
Thanks for the link, Steve! Just saw this now; much appreciated.
Two quick points:
1- Agree that Matt Diaz would be a good pick- up. Doesn’t have the power of Thames but he’s terrific against left handed pitching, though he doesn’t have a lot of plate discipline. His drop in production in 2010 was due in large part to an injury to his thumb that put him on the DL for an extended period. Not great in the field but certainly serviceable. Could fill in when any of the outfielders need a rest, DH or play the OF against left handed pitching and handle a position on a full-time basis for a period of time if one of the OF’s were to go on the DL.
2- Kenny Williams has made a number of questionable moves over but I don’t think that non-tendering Jenks is one of them. Jenks made $ 7.5 million in 2010 and with the bump from arbitration the White Sox would have owed $ 9-10 million to a pitcher who missed the last month of the season due to injury. Considering that Sale and/or Thornton seem to be viable options as closers,in my opinion, they can pay considerably less to some other decent options to complete the bullpen and use the rest of the $ to fill other holes.
If you’re not in a pennant race and don’t plan on tendering him a contract, then you have to trade him for whatever you can get. Now he gets nothing.
Sorry but the White Sox were 1/2 game ahead as of the July 31st trade deadline, tied for first as late as August 11th, 4 games out as of the August 31st waiver deadline when they picked up Manny and 3 1/2 games out as late as September 6. They were in the race at all relevant timss when they could have moved Jenks. Can’t fault Williams for going for it.
Me and Mo kind of had this conversation yesterday about Diaz and he is definitely someone the Yanks should look into but my main 2 outfielders from the non tender list are Scott Hairston since he is a lot like Diaz except he has more power potential and 2 years younger and Lastings Milledge. Both have had their share of down turns but both can play both corners (and milledge CF in a pinch) and they both have enough talents and ability to catch lightning in a bottle like we did with Thames.
Milledge is the most interesting name simply because he is still just 25 years old and has a lot of talent still maybe a bench role on a team with a bunch of hard workers and buisness like approaches is what he needs to help him unlock it.