Top 50 Free Agents & The Yankees

MLB Trade Rumors has released their annual list of the top 50 free agents in all of baseball and predicted where they would sign and the Yankees showed up seven times on the list. Now let us remember that six of those guys were on the 2012 team but still that is a pretty big number. Let's take a look at the list and see what MLBTR had in mind.

The 6th best free agent this offseason according to MLBTR was Nick Swisher surprisingly and they have him going to the AL East rival Baltimore Orioles. This would be hard to watch every day but I do not want him back with the Yankees so I guess I could deal. He is matched with the O's because of his ability to play right field, left field, and first base.

Torii Hunter was named the 20th best free agent and MLBTR has his coming over to the Yankees to replace Nick Swisher. The Angels are highly unlikely to resign Torii and even more unlikely to offer him a qualifying offer and his willingness to sign a shorter term deal makes him attractive to the Yankees. He takes enough walks, hits for enough average, and hits for enough power to make him a good fit for the Yankees.

MLBTR has Hiroki Kuroda (9th best free agent), Rafael Soriano (17th best), Russell Martin (21st best), Mariano Rivera (39th best), Andy Pettitte (43rd best), and Eric Chavez (49th best) all coming back to the Yankees and I cannot say I disagree with much of it. The Yankees are looking for veteran leadership and a strong staff and guys like Hiroki Kuroda, etc can really do that for a team. MLBTR has Ichiro, 40th best free agent, going to the Tampa Bay Rays to wreak havoc over us all season long.

It is looking like it is going to be another long and interesting winter in Yankeeland.