Alex Rodriguez broke his hand last night, when he was hit by a pitch from Felix Hernandez in Seattle. The injury is expected to sideline Rodriguez for six to eight weeks, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter). Not surprisingly, the news will affect the Yankees' summer shopping list. Here are the latest notes from the AL East…
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman said he’ll engage the market for a third baseman, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. The Yankees will consider all third base options, including Chase Headley of the Padres, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (on Twitter). It seems unlikely that the Yankees would meet the Padres' asking price for Headley, Heyman writes (on Twitter).
- The Red Sox asked the Marlins about Hanley Ramirez before last night’s trade, but Boston’s interest was in acquiring the infielder and flipping him to a third team, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports. It sounds as though the Red Sox were going to flip Ramirez to either the A’s or the Dodgers, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter).
- The Orioles announced that they signed 25-year-old Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia to a minor league contract. The Orioles will assign the 6’5”, 195-pound switch-hitter to Double-A Bowie. Urrutia did not play in 2011 following an unsuccessful attempt at defection, according to the Orioles. He established residency in Haiti after successfully defecting from Cuba.
Trade for Hanley, and then take on his salary in a trade to another team, so you upgrade on your prospects maybe? Unless that was the plan I don’t see the point in trading for Hanley just to turn around and trade him to someone else.
They must have wanted someone specific on either the A’s or Dodgers and needed Hanley to get them.
True, I guess they could have been trying to get pitching help from the Dodgers or As.
Heard rumblings of them sending an outfielder and prospects to miami, which would mean that bonifacio would probably take over 2B fulltime.
Probably just to shed Crawford’s contract, as rumored. Even if they had to eat Hanley’s contract, they get out from under Crawford’s horrifying contract.
Given the actually return for Hanley, I feel like this plan wouldn’t have really worked anyway.
Probably would have meant the Red Sox taking on some of the salary to get a better player; the only reason the Dodgers got him so cheap is because they took on all of his salary.
uuuugh, no more unnecessary salary x_x
Switch hitter [not much platoon split], very good patience, already pushing his career high for homers in the worst hitters park in the majors.
Has a large sample size of work already.. you know he’s going to hit around .260+, but the past two years he’s really been more selective at the plate. He can handle 3B nicely and he doesn’t turn 29 until next May.
I know Alex has that big contract, Cash. I know Chase probably doesn’t want to play a lot of OF. I know you want to keep that DH slot open to rest guys.
But.. get it done.
You are killing Headley’s value if you don’t play him at third, he is one of the best defensive 3B in the game and when he did play OF couple years back he was well below average, if the yanks trade for him what makes the most sense is playing him everyday at 3B and giving Arod when he comes back the DH. But it will take a lot of talent to get Headley. Probably take Mason Williams+
Wow…no thanks. Mason Williams straight up would be too much imo to pay from a Yanks perspective. Let me clear though, he is probably WORTH that price but just not something the Yanks should do just to fill in for Arod. We have productive DH’s too so even if they moved Arod to DH he’s taking away AB for other productive hitters.
Agree, Yankees should be fun short term with Chavez
I would like to keep Mason around, along with the other top hitters. I wouldn’t be surprise to see if Milwaukee wants to dump Aram’s salary. Otherwise they may call philly and see if wiggington or polanco are available, both are free agents at the end of the season, and aren’t really needed now that howard and utley are back.
Well, I agree. I want him at 3B, I’m just speculating on any shifts that might happen — maybe Swisher leaves, I don’t know, or Swish DHs a day and Alex plays 3B and Chase spots a day in RF.
He’s definitely a more comfortable player at 3B and he’s hitting pretty nicely over there this year.
EDIT: Just adding.. Mason Williams+? How much plus? Mason Williams is already one of our top guys with the stick. I like Austin a little better, so I’m not opposed to it, but let’s stop acting like the Padres have money and have a place to play Headley when Gyorko comes up.
Too bad this happened last night and not before the Rays snagged Ryan Roberts, he would have been a good filler. I still think the Yankees will be okay though, A-Rod is good but nowhere near as important to the lineup as he used to be. They still have cano and granderson.
Wouldn’t Aramis Ramirez make a lot of sense for the Yankees? It wouldn’t take much to get him from Brewers who wouldn’t mind getting out from under the $34 million they still owe him for 2013 and 2014 and Ramirez is still productive enough to be a viable DH option for the Yankees going forward.
“Viable DH option for the Yankees”
They have 50 million already tied up in viable DH options.
I don’t think the Yanks want to be saddled with his salary when they’ve been able to get such great production from guys like ibanez, jones and chavez for very little the last two years.
Yankees don’t want the 2014 obligation when they are looking to get under 189M
What if the Brewers ate some of his contract and in exchange, the Yankees sent slightly-better-yet-still-not-their-best prospects Milwaukee’s way?
The Yankees can have Aramis Ramirez for Bichette jr. and Campos…
Those days are hopefully over. That’s a definite “Boss in the 80’s” move.
I agree, no way.
LOL, if Aramis Ramiez is worth that much than the Phillies could have gotten the world for Cole Hamels.
Congrats, King Felix! You just became a hero to both non-Yankee fans AND baseball purists!
Dodgers will get almost two good years out of Hanley then they will trade him to the A’s for a nice package of prospects.