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NY Daily News | Mark Feinsand: Speaking to reporters before his 660th career home run last night, Alex Rodriguez continued his 2015 trend of saying all the right things. Acknowledging the impending milestone bonus battle with the Yankee front office, Rodriguez is confident that the situation will work itself out, choosing to focus on his on-field performance. Perhaps this mindset helped him end his only plate appearance of the night with a fly ball over the Green Monster, and more importantly might allow the organisation and player to rebuild a relationship that has been fairly toxic in recent times.
CBS Sports | Jon Heyman: If you, unlike Rodriguez, wish to keep a close eye on the impending dispute, Heyman's article covers a lot of the facts and numbers involved, along with a fairly in-depth view at some of the arguments likely to be used by both sides. Buried deeper down, among other notes, is a quote from a Yankee source saying the team has no interest in trading for Cole Hamels to replace Masahiro Tanaka in the rotation.
Hardball Talk | Bill Baer: Baer takes a deeper look at the suggestion that the Yankee front office might not view Hamels as an ace as much as a big name. Admittedly it does seem unlikely that the Yankees would push their chips into the middle with an expensive trade for Hamels at this point, even if they are sandbagging a little by suggesting he isn't an ace.
NJ.com | Ryan Hatch: The Yankees may not be trading for Hamels, but they do have some internal rotation options coming back into the major league picture. Hatch takes a look at the recovery paths of Chris Capuano and Ivan Nova. Both players threw in an intersquad game yesterday, with Capuano ahead of Nova in terms of being stretched out. The Yankees need all the rotation depth they can get of course.
Grantland.com | Jonah Keri: There can never be enough coverage about the awesome Yankee bullpen. Keri points out that, despite the expensive contracts elsewhere in the team, the early season success of the Yankees is owed in significant part to its shutdown relief arms. Keri suggests the possibility of a Kansas City Royals-style Cinderella path to postseason success for the 2015 Yankees.