Cano Has No Other Offers But Yankees Offer

I know it is still a little early in free agency to really worry about such things but Robinson Cano, according to Dan Martin, has yet to receive another offer other then the Yankees reported offer. Many teams may be waiting to see if Cano rejects his qualifying offer as expected tomorrow before making a formal offer to the All Star second base free agent. Joel Sherman has already reported that the Yankees cap for Cano is going to be six to eight years and $180-$200 million, something I have been saying the maximum should be all along.

The market will not be set until at least the Winter Meetings in December if history is any indicator of this market so Jay Z and Robbie shouldn't be too worried just yet. They will have to come down off their $305-$310 million ten year contract demands if they want to play ball, especially with the draft pick compensation that is expected to come with Cano.

Yankees Not Interested In Joba Chamberlain Reunion

The Yankees are not one of the twelve or so teams discussing whether or not to bring Joba Chamberlain into their bullpen for the 2014 season. The Yankees have seemingly grown tired of Joba's antics and home run givings and a reunion seems extremely unlikely at this point. Any guy can throw in the mid to upper 90's but if you do not have the control, the secondary pitches, the mindset, or the confidence to go with it then it's pretty useless as the Yankees learned the hard way the last two seasons.

Joba is 28 years old and is coming off of a season in which he posted a 4.93 ERA and 5.64 FIP in 42 innings including a hard to watch 6.53 FIP in the second half. The guy throws hard and has done it on the big stage before so he is going to get a job somewhere no doubt with the "change of scenery" and "low risk high reward" moniker attached to him.

Are The Yankees & Dodgers Trade Partners?

With the news that Carlos Beltran has declined the St. Louis Cardinals qualifying offer in search of a three or four year deal the Yankees may be out of the running for the 37 year old but that does not mean the Yankees may not get an upgrade in right field. According to Ken Rosenthal the Dodgers are shopping outfielders Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier in an effort to make room for probably Rookie of the Year Yasiel Puig. Should the Yankees be interested in and make a run at either Ethier or Kemp? We're purposely ignoring Carl Crawford because he is not a fit, I don't like him, and it's just not going to happen this year or ever.

Kemp obviously has his injury question marks as well as Ethier and both are owed big money long term going forward so should the Yankees take a look? Kemp is in his age 29 season and Ethier is 31 so they would both be younger and probably upgrades over Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki but do they fit into the $189 mill;ion luxury tax goal? Doubtful but let's take a closer look.

Matt Kemp:

2014 – $21M, 2015 – $21M, 2016-2019 – $21.5M annually (6 years / $128 million)

AAV: $20,000,000

Andre Ethier:

2014 – $15.5M, 2015 – $18M, 2016 – $18M, 2017 – $17.5M, 2018 – $17.5M club option ($2.5M buyout) (4 years / $69 million plus option hat would make the $17.5 million a guaranteed year AAV wise).

AAV: $16,500,000 without option

AAV: $16,667,666 with vesting club option

Obviously, assuming health of course. Kemp is the better option here as he can still play center field and would easily be able to switch to a corner outfield spot later in his career. Kemp is also the better all around player and does not have the obvious glaring holes and splits in his offensive game. The problem will be that the Dodgers know all of this if I know all of this and the price will be much steeper unless we can sell them on the whole Boston Red Sox esque fiscal reset by taking him off the Dodgers hands and getting them to pay some of the salary. I don't see the Yankees acquiring either of these players when the day ends but Matt Kemp would be a huge upgrade for us offensively, defensively, and in the Wives and Girlfriends section of the site so my vote and support is in the Kemp corner.

The Big Awards Are Being Given Out Starting Tomorrow

The Baseball Writers Association of America, or the BBWAA, will start handing out their big time awards starting tomorrow through Thursday. Each award will be handed out daily at 6:00 pm ET on MLB Network by the BBWAA secretary treasurer Jack O'Connell. The Yankees are shut out of these awards unfortunately so we will just have to watch and admire from afar.

Here is a list below for every award, what day it is given out, and the finalists for each award. I have bolded who I expect to win the award. Enjoy..

MONDAY

AL Rookie of the Year: 

Chris Archer, Jose Iglesias, Wil Myers

NL Rookie of the Year: 

Jose Fernandez(should win it), Shelby Miller, Yasiel Puig

TUESDAY

AL Manager of the Year:

 John Farrell, Terry Francona, Bob Melvin

NL Manager of the Year:

 Fredi Gonzalez, Clint Hurdle, Don Mattingly

WEDNESDAY

AL Cy Young Award: 

Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Max Scherzer

NL Cy Young Award:

 Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Adam Wainwright

THURSDAY

AL Most Valuable Player: 

Miguel Cabrera, Chris Davis, Mike Trout

NL Most Valuable Player: 

Paul Goldschmidt (should win it), Andrew McCutchen, Yadier Molina

Yankees hitters Williams, O'Brien struggle in 3-2 loss to Desert Dogs

Yankees hitters Peter O'Brien and Mason Williams combined to go 0-for-7 with 4 strikeouts tonight as the Scorpions lost their third consecutive game to the Glendale Desert Dogs, 3-2. Individually, Williams went 0-for-4 with two Ks in this one, while O'Brien went 0-for-3 with the other two Ks. Needless to say, that's not very good. 

With this loss, the Scorpions are now officially eliminated from AFL postseason participation. That's unfortunate, but do we really care? I just want the Yankees prospects to play well, I could care less about the entire team. But still, if the Scorps had won the AFL title this year, I'd crack a smile. 

This Day In New York Yankees History 11/10

On this day in 1978 the New York Yankees traded the 1977 Cy Young Award winner Sparky Lyle, Dave Rajsich, Larry McCall, Domingo Ramos, Mike Heath, and $400,000 to the Texas Rangers for left handed pitchers Dave Righetti and Paul Mirabella, right handed pitcher Mike Griffin, and outfielder Juan Beniquez. What made this deal interesting was earlier in the year Graig Nettles spoke of Lyle by saying he would go from "Cy Young to sayonara" making his prediction a reality.

On this day in 2006 the New York Yankees traded Gary Sheffield to the Detroit Tigers for pitching prospects Kevin Whelan, Humberto Sanchez, and Anthony Claggett.  The deal included a two year extension for Sheffield worth $28,000,000 through the 2009 season. Nothing ever came of any of the three pitching prospects but Sheffield had to watch from home as we won the 2009 World Series so there is always that memory to hang on to.

Yankees May Be Interested In Ryan Hanigan

The Cincinnati Reds signed a two year deal with catcher Brayan Pena giving them three catchers currently on their 40 man roster making Ryan Hanigan likely to be the odd man out. The Yankees have reportedly had interest in Hanigan in the past and may have interest in him again even though they have four catchers of their own on the 40 man roster in Francisco Cervelli, JR Murphy, Austin Romine, and THE Chris Stewart.

Hanigan struggled mightily in 2013 in his age 33 season posting a triple slash of .198/.306/.261 with only two home runs in a very home run friendly ballpark in Cincinnati. Hanigan is still arbitration eligible and is expected to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,300,000 in 2014 which may end up keeping him out of New York with the looming luxury tax threshold goal. If you look at Hanigans BABIP of .216 in 2013 and compare it to his career .283 BABIP you may find the reason why Hanigan struggled so much and may be reason enough to take a waiver on him  if the price is right.

Hanigan takes his walks, career 12% walk rate, and is tough to strike out which is always nice to have at the bottom of your order in the American League. Hanigan is also solid behind the dish, unlike the myth that is THE Chris Stewart, as evident in Ryan leading the league in caught stealing percentage to years in a row with a 45% success rate in 2013 and a 48% rating in 2012. Hanigan is also well known for his framing pitch ability so there is always that to look forward to as well.

The Yankees need to worry about their own catching situation before looking to take someone else's problems off their hands as one of our catchers has to go. There is zero possibility that the Yankees go with four catchers on the 40 man roster, that is before Gary Sanchez is protected from the Rule 5 draft. The Yankees for this reason will simply not have enough room on the 40 man for another catcher, even Brian McCann, without  a move or two going down via trades. If the Yankees were interested in Hanigan I would hope it would be as a back up catcher and not a starting catcher but either way I cannot see Hanigan in pinstripes in 2014.

Carlos Beltran To Decline Qualifying Offer

Carlos Beltran has said that he'll reject the qualifying offer given to him by the St. Louis Cardinals. Seeing as how the Cards have plenty of young talent, I see no way they re-sign Beltran, so I think it's safe to say that he will be available.

Carlos is reportedly looking for a three or four-year deal, which would likely be the final contract he'll sign in Major League Baseball. It makes sense that he'd try and cash in after two great years in St. Louis, in which he hit .282/.343/.493 with 56 home runs, not to mention some postseason heroics.

There will be plenty of competition for Beltran's services, so a 3+ year deal is not out of the question at all. However, I think a two year deal with an option for a third sounds more likely. Due to his age, I'm not sure Carlos will last three more years in the outfield, so having the DH spot available in a couple of years could be key.

Sabathia Pleads For Cano To Come Back

"It will never be behind me entirely. Some of that, what happened last year will drive me to hopefully be better in the future. Keeping that back there will help, not getting too comfortable and working, trying to get better and watching video, just trying to get better in every way and I think last year was a good reminder of that."

Last season CC set a career high in ERA, WHIP, and home run rate. Going by WAR, it was Sabathia's least valuable season of his career. Even if it weren't for the fact that three out of five starters from last season's Yankees are no longer under contract, the team needs their "ace" to get back on track.

So it's good to hear that CC hasn't suffered any setbacks this offseason, and is currently working out at full strength. Hopefully he and Larry Rothchild, who is now officially back as the Yankees pitching coach, can figure out what happened and fix it.

However, it's not just CC that needs to figure things out. Brian Cashman is going to be a very active man this winter, as he looks to plug a number of holes on the team. And Sabathia knows this...

"We’ve got some spots open and hopefully some of these young kids can step up, but we’re going to have to go out and look for some new guys."

Along with those "new guys" is Robinson Cano, who could be looking at a $200 million contract. The big guy is pleading with the second baseman that he comes back with the Yankees. When he was asked what advice he'd give to Robbie, this is what he had to say...

“Stay here. I’ve played with him [Cano] for five years now and I think he’s the best second baseman in the game. Obviously he is one of my dear friends, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

Sabathia said free agency wasn't fun for him, as uprooting his family was very stressful.

quotes courtesy of The New York Post

Yankees Interested In Bringing Back Eric Chavez

Dan Martin of the New York Post has reported that the New York Yankees are interested in bringing back Eric Chavez to the team in 2014. If this deal happened it would make so much sense for the Yankees as they would have their guy at third base if Alex Rodriguez was suspended and would also have a viable backup option for Mark Teixeira at first base a couple days a week. Chavez battled health issues again in 2013 after leaving the Yankees for his hometown Diamondbacks and the 35 year old has acknowledged that he can no longer play everyday which works perfectly into our plans next season. If Alex Rodriguez is suspended and we are looking for a good backup for Eduardo Nunez at third base and for Mark Teixeira at first base then I think Eric Chavez is the perfect fit for the Yankees.