Javier Lopez Comes Off The Yankees LOOGY Board

Just a few days ago the New York Yankees and left handed reliever Javier Lopez expressed mutual interest in each other but it looks like Lopez is now officially off the Yankees board. Lopez and the San Francisco Giants are said to have agreed on the years on a mutli year deal and the money and are just finalizing everything now. Lopez will stay with his Giants and the Yankees will have to look elsewhere if they want to replace Boone Logan.

Lopez is 36 years old and is coming off of a season where he pitched to a 1.83 ERA with a 8.5 K/9 ratio and a 2.7 BB/9 ratio in 39.1 innings pitched in 2013. Lopez is basically the equivalent of Joba Chamberlain against right handed hitters but is the equivalent of Mariano Rivera to same handed batters and would have been nice to have but not on a multi year deal.

Yankees & Javier Lopez Have Mutual Interest

To say the Yankees are interested in someone this offseason is like saying do you want a chocolate glazed donuts fresh from Dunkin Donuts, hell yes I do and hell yes we are interested. Today the Yankees and Javier Lopez expressed mutual interest in a deal for the 2014 season to bring the lefty to the Bronx. If the name sounds familiar it is because Lopez has been with the San Francisco Giants for the last few seasons and has been pretty dominant the last three seasons.

According to Javier's agent, Barry Meister, their goal is to make sure "Javy plays with a winner, and plays with a team that's a contender. That's the most important thing to him, he wants the innings to be meaningful."

Lopez is 36 years old and has dominated same hand batters for the last few years to the tune of a .156/.208/.222 triple slash in 2013. Lopez strikes out enough guys which is evident by his 25.4% ratio the last three seasons and gets a ton of ground balls, 63.5% over the last three season, which will surely help him in Yankees Stadium. Lopez also has two World Series rings and all the experience and all that jazz that comes along with the deep playoff runs.

Lopez sports a mid 80's fastball and a high 70's slider that is his out pitch. I would not expect Lopez to get all that much money in the offseason market with Boone Logan, Eric O'Flaherty, etc already out there but you never know. If he comes cheap sign him up, if not let's go with Cesar Cabral and Vidal Nuno and call it a day.