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Yankees Notes: Posada, Rivera, Nakajima, Chavez

Earlier today, we learned that Jorge Posada will announce his retirement in the next couple of weeks.  The catcher spent his entire career with the Yankees and earned five All-Star nominations across his 17-year career.  In his final year in the Bronx, Posada hit .235/.315/.398 with 14 homers in 387 plate appearances..

• Posada instructed his agents, Seth and Sam Levinson of ACES, not to make calls on his behalf this offseason, a source told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  However, the agents fielded calls and accepted offers as Posada waited until after the holidays to make his final determination.
• Speaking of members of the Core Four, closer Mariano Rivera has said he might know by Spring Training whether he intends to keep pitching when his contract expires after this year, but won't say which way he's leaning, writes Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger.  The 42-year-old posted a 1.91 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 1.2 BB/9 last season.
• General Manager Brian Cashman isn't sure if the club will have interest in Hiroyuki Nakajima when he'll be an unrestricted free agent after the 2012 season, writes Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News.  As expected, the Yankees are now in on Eric Chavez after being unable to come to terms on a deal with Nakajima.
• McCarron also writes that Cashman & Co. believe that other teams are seeking too much on the trade market in return for pitching.
• Nakajima is a classic example of the flaws in the posting process, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  While waiting one more year isn't a terrible outcome for the shortstop, it had serious consequences for another Japanese player, right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma.  Iwakuma nearly had a four-year, $36MM deal with the A's last offseason but wound up inking a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Mariners this week.
• Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter) hears that Nakajima was offered about $1MM by the Yankees, but the bigger issue for him was the role he would have had with the Bombers.  The infielder was a starter and a star player for the Saitama Seibu Lions.

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