Possible Free Agent Targets

Dotel would require giving up a draft pick. Gomes, Amazego, Hairston, Nady and Arredondo interest me though he won’t pitch in 2010.

Reed Johnson is better defensively than Gomes and hits lefties well.

Fernando Tatis: Is this guy your #1 target or are you just ordering them randomly? Because a guy that is 34, is very injury prone, can’t play defense, and only hit 8 HR in 340 AB’s last year playing in an inferior league/division isn’t really appealing to me. I understand our need for RH power off the bench, but I wouldn’t give this guy more than an invite to spring training. I’d rather see what Jamie Hoffmann could do as a go-to RH off the bench.

Mark Loretta/Miguel Cairo/Nick Green: All decent infield defense with little or no offense. Don’t we have a guy (Ramiro Pena) that already fits that description, except probably plays better D than any of these guys?

Jerry Hairston Jr.: I wouldn’t mind having him back in the same role as last year, but would prefer they go after a better offensive player to platoon in left and can hit lefties well (Reed Johnson?).

Alfredo Amezaga: Similar player to Hairston but he can’t hit lefties, which doesn’t make sense for this team. A utility OF for this team is going to have to be able to complement Gardner. I’d rather sign Hairston as a super utility guy and stick with Hoffmann in the LF platoon.

Damon/Gomes/Nady: Now that Bay and Holliday are off the market, teams that were interested in them will turn to Damon as a fallback, which will raise his price and put him out of reach for us. I don’t see Gomes as much of an upgrade offensively over Hoffman/Gardner to make up for the incredibly steep drop in defense. Nady, on the other hand, would be a great platoon guy with Gardner if he comes back healthy and within our price range.

Thome: No room for both he and Nick Johnson on the team.

Arredondo/Calero/Dotel/Mahay/Takahashi: I’d like to sign Arredondo to a 2yr contract with a team option for a 3rd. Low base 1st year while he rehabs, incentive laden 2nd year, and the team option 3rd if he works out. I also wouldn’t mind Calero if he came cheap because he’s proven, when healthy, that he can pitch well in the AL when he was with Oakland. Dotel will probably prove too expensive to consider considering his experience and past production. Mahay and Takahashi wouldn’t really UG our combination of Marte and Logan, so I’d pass they accepted a spring training invite to compete with Logan for the 2nd lefty spot.

Of those that would interest me would be Damon, Nady and Arredondo. We still have to wait for the price to drop on Damon and Nady, but Arredondo would be a great low risk high reward pickup.

The rest of those guys are just not really upgrades over what we have. We have 3 or 4 AAA type infielders so I’d rather just let one of them win the utility job than give it to Hairston, Loretta, etc. Thome doesn’t work because he can only DH and we already have Nick Johnson who will only DH. Fernando Tatis is actually an interesting one. He’s a decent right handed hitter and he can play both corner IF’s and both corner OF’s. He’d be a good depth signing, although I like Reed Johnson better than him because of his great numbers vs. lefties.

Do you think Johnny Damon burned some bridges with the Yankees a couple years back when he mysteriously left the team during spring training and almost retired? According to Torre’s books several of the Old Guard were furious during that season for his poor play and lack of effort.

He certainly turned it around but I would certainly be furious with someone being paid millions who basically tanked an entire season.

Gardner & Hoffman platoon until mid-season is the best option in my opinion.
 
Evaluate and if necessary get a full-time LF rental for the remainder of the season.

We are only looking for a #9 hole player

I think that Boras is damaging his client trying to maintain his own reputation. Johnny Damon is more valuable to the Yanks than any other team because the ballpark suits his current swing and because he already enjoys playing in NY. Damon is intelligent enough to realize that the Yanks are paying for his future, not his past. His defense has slipped. The Yanks can tolerate this because they already have late-inning defensive outfield depth in Gardiner and Hoffman, although Gardiner may play more often than this implies. Jeter’s range on bloopers helps also. The Yanks can rest Damon more. He just has to instruct his agent to be more realistic; I think the Yankee price is about right. If he won’t come, I liked what I saw from Hairston unless Miranda is much better on defense than I suspect or unless Pena busts out offensively.