Ken Davidoff is reporting what we all figured - the Yankees are likely to decline arbitration with Chien-Ming Wang, making him a free agent once the Dec 12th deadline passes. Peter Gammons points out that if Wang doesn't sign with another team, the Yankees would still be able to re-sign him after May 1st.
This makes no sense to me. Wang made $5 million last year, and it seems certain that he'd "earn" the maximum 20% pay decrease in arbitration based on his awful 2009.
I know that shoulder surgery is far more complicated, and often far less successful, than Tommy John surgery. And it doesn't seem like anybody knows for certain how far along he is (or isn't) in the rehabilitation process. But we do know that some GM is going to cross his fingers and sign Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard, or Rich Harden this offseason, probably for at least $4 million guaranteed, and the only way that Wang differs from any of them is that he's actually pitched more than 200 innings in a season in the last half-decade.
Wang is far from a sure thing at this point, but somebody will take the gamble on his comeback. I just hope it's the Yankees.