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Newsday | Steven Marcus: The Yankees are headed to arbitration with Dellin Betances. The last time the team actually went to arbitration was when they defeated Chien-Ming Wang in 2008. However, the conversations between the Yankees and Betances’ camp were that “if we file, we trial.” Betances filed at $5 million and the Yankees filed at $3 million. I get that the Yankees will likely get their way because “save totals” and sure it’s good to save money, but it makes no sense for them to fight for $2 million when it comes to one of their best players.
New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: Remember Ellsgard (or Gardsbury I guess)? Remember how much fun that was? Well if the Yankees have their way, the “Ells” part of it is going to return to prominence. The Yankees have plans of making Jacoby Ellsbury a productive hitter again. The catcher’s interference master is working with Alan Cockrell, the team’s hitting coach, to move his contact point 3-4 inches so he hits the ball more than he hits the catcher’s mitt. Hopefully this works out well for him.
New York Post | Dan Martin: The Yankees rotation looks bleak right now outside of Masahiro Tanaka and possibly CC Sabathia; however, help might be on the way. James Kaprielian, selected in the first round in the 2015 MLB draft, says he wants to eventually be the ace on the Yankees’ staff. The trio of Kaprielian, Justus Sheffield, and Chance Adams show a possibly bright young future in the Yankees rotation, as the organization has high hopes for all three of them. It would be nice to see them pan out and help the team out in the future.
New York Daily News | John Harper: For the longest time, the Yankees would spend time hyping/marketing their major league players. Now the Yankees are in unfamiliar territory, and actually focusing on the young prospects in the farm system, like they did during this past week’s Winter Warm-Up event. With that, they’re sending a message to look past the 2017 season and look to the future. Good things are coming.