New York Yankees News: 12/12/11

Mood Music - The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden

It makes a lot of sense to avoiding handing out contract extensions. The last thing that a team wants is a player crowing for a new deal in the middle of a season or angling to "re-negotiate" when they're feeling under-appreciated and under-paid.* A blanket policy of "you're not getting a new contract until your old one ends, so don't bother asking" is a good way to curb this, but Mike Axisa of RAB wonders if the Yankees might be wise to relax this philosophy in order to lock up Robinson Cano.

*This happens much more in other sports than in baseball, but it always interests me that players seem to have a much easier time escaping contracts that underpay them than teams do escaping albatrosses. If the Yankees can not re-work their deals with A.J. Burnett, Alex Rodriguez, and Rafael Soriano to better reflect their play, the players should be equally bound. In baseball, they almost always are.

Although it is a dangerous precedent and Scott Boras always pushes for his clients to hit unrestricted free agency, I would definitely kick the tires and see what it would take. Trying to lock up Cano's age 29-35 seasons with no competing offer on the table seems a lot more inviting than trying to out-bid for him when he is a 31 year old free agent.

• It is looking more promising that Hiroyuki Nakajima will sign with the Yankees and take a utility role. With the age and fragility of the left side of the infield, the more options and flexibility on the bench, the better.
• Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia, and Jorge Posada hanging out and playing some ball in Panama City.