Around the Empire: Yankees news - 1/13/17

FanGraphs | Paul Swydan: After Brian Cashman put up a “for sale” sign at the trade deadline last year, it’s been widely accepted that the Yankees aren’t looking to contend right now. Instead they are rebuilding so they can contend in the future and for a long time. While they may not be expected to contend, one shouldn’t count them out so quickly. Based on certain projections, it seems that there’s an argument to be made for the Yankees as contenders. At least they’re closer to contenders than they are pretenders.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Reiterating what’s been known all winter, Brian Cashman said that Greg Bird and Tyler Austin will have a spring training competition for the starting first baseman job. While it’s technically true, Cashman has previously stated his preference for Bird to win the job, so it’ll probably take a lot for Austin to have any realistic shot at winning this battle. Additionally, even though they entertained offers for him, the Yankees seem set with Chase Headley as their starting third baseman for the third straight year. However, there is hope for Miguel Andujar to possibly make some noise and compete for a job in 2018.

The Score | Lucas Casaletto: The paparazzi are being quite disre2pectful of Derek Jeter and his wife. The former Yankee captain has received permission from the city of Tampa Bay to extend the six-foot fence around his estate to eight feet to block people from just hanging out around his house. Generally Tampa Bay has a strict law that fences can only be three or four feet in height, however the Jeters got support from their neighbors and the city granted permission in this special case. One can only imagine the paparazzi were there trying to tell Hannah Jeter how attractive she is in order to potentially get some free steak.