Now We Know Why Robinson Cano Needs $310 Million

Robinson Cano does not think that he is necessarily worth $310,000,000 but that is the number he needs to make over the next 10 years because him and babies mother are in a bitter child support battle. I did not even know that Robbie had a son but he has a three year old little boy from a woman named Jackelin Castro. The court date is set for November 7th in the Dominican Republic. Cano has been giving his baby mama $600 a month but apparently that is not enough. Too bad he did not hire Jay Z as an agent about three or four years ago because then he wouldn't have that 100th problem...

Rangers Tried To Trade For Cano In July

The Texas Rangers tried to trade for the Yankees second basemen Robinson Cano this July before the trading deadline. The Yankees quickly told them that Cano was not available and the talks ended there. The Yankees could have rebuilt the farm and set us up for a long time with a Jurickson Profar trade but hindsight is always 20/20.

Granderson Wants To Remain A Yankee

"Am I waving 'hello' or 'goodbye'?"

Seeing as how power is hard to come by these days, it isn't out of the question that Curtis Granderson could receive a multi-year offer from a team. However, Granderson's agent Matt Brown made it clear that a return to the Yankees was his client's first choice.

That’s his first choice. He absolutely wants to stay there [New York]. It looks like we’re probably headed down that [qualifying offer] road. - Matt Brown, agent for Curtis Granderson.

The only reason Granderson isn't getting prepared for a 5+ year contract worth around $100 million is two freak injuries this past season. The first was a hit by pitch that occurred in his first at bat of Spring Training, which resulted in a broken forearm. And the second happened in his 8th game after returning, which was a broken bone in his hand courtesy of another hit by pitch. Talk about some bad luck.

There’s no getting around [it], missing 100 games the year you’re becoming a free agent isn’t great. - Brown

Like I said in the beginning, we're talking about a guy that hit 84 home runs in the previous two seasons. That's ten more homers than Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Braun hit during that same time span. If it wasn't for the fact that Curtis had a combined batting average of .247 in 2011 and 2012, then he'd be looking at a big payday regardless of those broken bones.

Your 2014 Yankees Before Free Agency Begins

With impending free agency and retirements of the likes of Robinson Cano, Lyle Overbay, Hiroki Kuroda, Curtis Granderson, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Kevin Youkilis, Boone Logan, Travis Hafner, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes the Yankees have a lot of holes to fill this off season. With Brian Cashman in his contract season he could essentially be working the phones for his job this November and December. Let's look at the holes that Brian Cashman and company has to fill and replace as of today.

C - Francisco Cervelli (arbitration eligible for 1st time)
1B - Mark Teixeira ($22,500,000 - 3 years remaining)
2B -
SS -  Eduardo Nunez (arbitration eligible)
3B -  David Adams (pre-arbitration)
LF - Alfonso Soriano ($5,000,000 - 1 year remaining)
CF - Brett Gardner (arbitration eligible for 3rd time)
RF - Ichiro Suzuki ($6,500,000 - 1 year remaining)
DH -

BN - Vernon Wells ($21,000,000 - 1 year remaining)
BN -
BN - Jayson Nix (arbitration eligible for 2nd time)
BN - Chris Stewart (arbitration eligible for 1st time)

SP - CC Sabathia ($23,000,000 - 4 years remaining including vesting option)
SP - Michael Pineda (arbitration eligible for 1st time)
SP - Ivan Nova (arbitration eligible for 1st time)
SP - David Phelps (arbitration eligible)
SP -

RP - Adam Warren (league minimum)
RP - Vidal Nuno (league minimum)
RP -
RP - Preston Claiborne (league minimum)
SU - Shawn Kelley (arbitration eligible)
CL - David Robertson (arbitration eligible for 3rd time)

Other notable players on and off the 40 man roster:

C - Austin Romine
SS - Derek Jeter (2014 player option)
OF - Zoilo Almonte
SP - Manny Banuelos
SP - Jose A Ramirez

Alex Rodriguez ($25,000,000 - 4 years remaining) may be suspended for the entire 2014 season with his salary not counting against our luxury tax. Vernon Wells will have a $0 impact on the luxury tax between what the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are paying him plus what we paid him last season.

GM: Brian Cashman ($3,000,000 - 1 year remaining)
Manager:

Current Estimated 2014 Payroll using AAV*

$63,525,000 before arbitration eligible players sign

All these players have to be resigned or replaced and on top of that, if that were not enough, we also do not have a manager or a pitching coach at the end of this season either. Yikes...

*With the new collective bargaining agreement they use the average annual value of the contract to calculate a teams payroll and not what the actual payroll is. For example Alex Rodriguez would only make $25,000,000 but his AAV is $27,5000,000 so we will use the latter number in our calculations.

2014 Spring Training Uniforms Released

The new 2014 Spring Training uniforms have been released league wide and here is the first sneak peek for the New York Yankees. Not a huge change from last years uniforms but it is Spring Training so it doesn't really matter all that much. The Yankees are one of five teams, the Red Sox, Reds, Twins, and Padres, to have a different home and road uniform, seen above. The Yankees do not put names on the backs of their uniforms but nine other teams will not put their names on the back of the Spring Training uniforms including the  Blue Jays, Rangers, Twins, Athletics, Angels, Rockies, Cubs, White Sox, and Orioles.

Here are the rest of the uniforms:

This Day In New York Yankees History 10/3

On this day in 1947 during Game 4 of the World Series Yankees pitcher Bill Bevens came within one out of having the first no hitter in a Fall Classic game. Cookie Lavagetto was sent up to pinch hit for the Dodgers Eddie Stanky and hit a double. The Dodgers would have an improbably comeback and win the game 3-2.

On this day in 1995 the New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, and Atlanta Braves are the first teams to ever win a divisional championship series game in the playoffs. This is the first year the wild card was added to the playoff system.

Mariano Rivera Up For Two Player's Choice Awards

Mariano Rivera is up for two Player's Choice awards for this season, the Man of the Year award and the American League Comeback Player of the Year. The winners will be announced on MLB Network on November 4th at 8:00 pm ET.

Here is the list of the finalists for all the awards:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

• Most Outstanding Player: Miguel Cabrera (Tigers), Chris Davis (Orioles), Mike Trout (Angels)
• Most Outstanding Pitcher: Yu Darvish (Rangers), Aníbal Sánchez (Tigers), Max Scherzer (Tigers)
• Most Outstanding Rookie: Chris Archer (Rays), José Iglesias (Tigers), Wil Myers (Rays)
• Comeback Player of the Year: Scott Kazmir (Indians), Victor Martinez (Tigers), Mariano Rivera (Yankees)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

• Most Outstanding Player: Paul Goldschmidt (Diamondbacks), Andrew McCutchen (Pirates), Yadier Molina (Cardinals)
• Most Outstanding Pitcher: José Fernández (Marlins), Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), Francisco Liriano (Pirates)
• Most Outstanding Rookie: José Fernández (Marlins), Shelby Miller (Cardinals), Yasiel Puig (Dodgers)
• Comeback Player of the Year: Marlon Byrd (Pirates), Francisco Liriano (Pirates), Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies)

Player of Year Award: Miguel Cabrera (Tigers), Chris Davis (Orioles), Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)
Man of the Year Award: Carlos Beltran (Cardinals), Raúl Ibañez (Mariners), Mariano Rivera (Yankees)

Chicago Cubs Will Try & Lure Away Joe Girardi

The Chicago Cubs have had internal discussions regarding bringing in the Yankees manager Joe Girardi after firing their own manager this week in Dale Sveum. Joe Girardi's contract runs through October 31st of this year and becomes a free agent starting at midnight on November 1st and the Cubs plan on making a big push on that day. The Yankees seem worried about this as they are hesitant to let Girardi speak with other clubs before his deal runs out.

The Yankees and Brian Cashman have announced that they planned to meet with Joe Girardi this week to discuss a possible new contract for the manager. Speculation has been that the Yankees have had to, and are willing to, give Girardi a significant raise to keep the skipper. No idea whether he will tuck and run to Chicago or stay with the Yankees but the early numbers are pointing towards Girardi heading back to Chicago to help the ailing Cubs.

Rafael DePaula Ranks 17th In Latest Prospect List

Rafael DePaula has ranked #17 in the Low A South Atlantic League top 20 prospects list released by Baseball America today. DePaula was the only Yankee to make the list while the top two players were Eddie Butler of the Colorado Rockies and Tyler Glasnow of the Pittsburgh Pirates. DePaula sits comfortably at 91-93 MPH but can hit 95-97 when he really needs to dial one back to get an out. Repeating his delivery and other delivery issues have kept him back from having more than an average breaking ball or further developing his change up but the fact that he has not been pitching professionally long still gives us hope for the future. DePaula is in his age 22 season and posted a 2.94 ERA and a 2.03 FIP in 64 innings for the Charleston Riverdogs before being promoted to Tampa with the Yankees.

Brendan Ryan Wants To Stay A New York Yankee

Yesterday we reported that Mark Reynolds wanted to stay a member of the New York Yankees after spending the latter part of 2013 with New York and now Brendan Ryan wants to stay as well. Ryan was acquired in September as a defensive back up for Derek Jeter and Eduardo Nunez before Jeter went on the DL for the fourth and final time this season. Ryan was immediately rushed into the starting role and, for lack of a better word, excelled at it.

Now we all know that Ryan has no bat, his .220/.258/.305 triple slash with a home run in 62 plate appearances this season made that obvious, but his defense is the best we saw out of anybody all season long. If the Yankees could bulk up elsewhere offensively, namely right field, designated hitter, and catcher, we could afford to have Ryan as a back up. Obviously all this depends on Derek Jeter coming back healthy and fully from a multitude of leg injuries in 2013.