The Yankees and pitcher Sergio Mitre avoided arbitration, reaching an agreement for $850K plus incentives tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. Mitre had Tommy John surgery in July of '08, and was released by the Marlins in September of that year. The Yankees signed him a few months later and were able to retain him for 2010 even after declining his option.
Mitre, 29 in February, served a 50-game PED suspension as he recovered from the elbow surgery. He ended up tossing 54.3 strong minor league innings and 51.6 ugly big league frames. He could become trade bait if the Yankees go elsewhere for their fifth starter.
Ugh, how does this guy do it. Well hopefully he is minor league fodder because with
Sabathia
Burnett
Pettitte
Vazquez
Hughes
Gaudin
Aceves
Logan or Melancon
Robertson
Marte
Chamberlain
Rivera
I don’t see where he fits this team. Hopefully he is banished to Scranton-Wilkes Barre and never sees the light of day in Yankee Stadium.
“He could become trade bait if the Yankees go elsewhere for their fifth starter.” There is a 0% chance Sergio Mitre is the 5th starter to begin the season, barring multiple injuries. He’ll probably be trade during spring training.
Not sure if you’re getting the meaning of 0%.
I hope he becomes trade bait
Doesn’t the player have to be considered enticing to another team before he can be called “bait”?
“I hope he becomes trade bait”
LOL, someone would actually trade for him.
His numbers are HORRIBLE
2004 – 2-4, 6.62 ERA, 51.2 IP, 71 H, 38 ER, 20 BB, 37 K
2005 – 2-5, 5.37 ERA, 60.1 IP, 62 H, 36 ER, 23 BB, 37 K
2006 – 1-5, 5.71 ERA, 41 IP, 44 H, 26 ER, 20 BB, 31 K
2007 – 5-8, 4.65 ERA, 149 IP, 180 H, 77 ER, 41 BB, 80 K
2009 – 3-3, 6.79 ERA, 51.2 IP, 71 H, 39 ER, 13 BB, 32 K
I don’t know what Cashman sees in him. He would annoy the hell out of me last season, every time the Yankees gave him a lead he gave it right back and he wasn’t even in the 3rd or 4th inning of the game. Pure Garbage.
Wow Mitre sure has a terrible rap sheet. A juicing pitcher coming off of major surgery struggling in the major leagues, great signing!!
I guess they did this for insurance in case one of their regulars go down because they are already set on their rotation. Which might I add is looking pretty strong!
Yanks already have their #5 starter and his name will be either Joba or Hughes. I seriously doubt Cashman would send both to the bullpen in order to dedicate innings to Mitre. He only signed for $850k so it’s not exactly a big deal. He and Gaudin are depth moves. If he were traded I doubt we would get anything of signifigance.
Can we get another 19-8 season out of Wang??? Please?
You couldn’t if you tried.
NY cant, but another team will IF he drops his slider and sticks w the sinker as his primary. When a pitcher does it 2 yrs in a row, it aint no fluke. I hope the Nats sign him so I can watch him play. They’re like the Yankee JV team.
Chances are Joba is gonna be the #5, his arm is built up enough to go around 200 innings. With Hughes coming outta the pen last season, he would be under his own Hughes Rules with inning limits in 10′. For $850k this deal isn’t all that bad, Mitre could usually hold it together for a couple of innings, and he would probably be pretty decent coming out of the pen, especially as a ground ball pitcher.
They do say that its the 2nd year before a full recovery after TJ surgery. And this is Mitre’s 2nd yr. Who knows.
Is this the year the Yankees stop coddling Chamberlain and Hughes and let them have a full season as a starter?? I’m sick of this, we gotta limit their innings crap. It’s finally time to see what they actually have to offer and if they fail they fail but you’ll never know unless you try.
SwiftRead, the problem with Gardner in center is that he doesn’t have much of an arm. Granderson has a very good arm.
Gardner has a decent arm–average–but the big difference is his speed. Plus Ive read that Granderson takes circle approaches to the ball. IMO I’d have Granderson in LFb/c he replaces Damon’s power and is a defensive upgrade. As is Gardner over Melky in Center. Remember–Brett did earn the regular CF position last yr. But who knows… maybe NY will sign Jerry Hairston to solve everything (thats a joke)
Gardner was the opening day CF but Melky did take the position back after the season started.
No, he wasnt. Gardner was the regular center fielder through July 26th until he broke his thumb (and was hitting 275). Melky was platooning w Swisher in right up until then…
BBRef Gameday Splits –> baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?n1=gardnbr01…
A great article on it –> bleacherreport.com/articles/316746-defense-yankees…
Some of you ask what was Cashman thinking. I’d like to believe he wants to have as much depth as possible for the starting rotation and this one costs $850k versus say Sheets, who is looking for upwards of $12mm and he has not thrown off the mound, at least as we’ve seen for two years. For example Penny and Smotlz got rocked last year in the AL East, Mitre was not quite as bad as them and they costed a hell of a lot more and didn’t even finish the season with the team. Signing pitchers that can eat up 3 or 4 innings, giving up a few runs, for less than $1mm a year, is not that common these days.
If Cashman was serious about having depth, then he’d shed Gaudin & Mitre and sign Wang on the cheap. The Yanks still have some great prospects though too.
Are you going to give up on this?
SEASON TEAM W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HBP BB SO
2005 New York Yankees 8 5 4.02 18 17 0 0 0 0 116.1 113 58 52 9 6 32 47
2006 New York Yankees 19 6 3.63 34 33 2 1 1 1 218.0 233 92 88 12 2 52 76
2007 New York Yankees 19 7 3.70 30 30 1 0 0 0 199.1 199 84 82 9 8 59 104
2008 New York Yankees 8 2 4.07 15 15 1 0 0 0 95.0 90 44 43 4 3 35 54
After last season, I don’t think anyone knows what to expect from Wang, any team that signs him his going to have to hope he pans out. He was roughed up last season and maybe was hurt all the time, but it was ugly stuff early on last season.
Plus Wang has been hurt before, he had major arthroscopic surgery in 2000, missing all of 2001 as a minor leaguer with the Yankees.
It will be interesting to see if the Yankees attempt to resign him based on what the market is offering.
How is he trade bait, seems like a pretty bad pitcher. I can see how Gaudin could get you something though.
Poor Sergio, takin’ a poundin’ here. So I better say something. As someone who watched almost every Yankee game last year, Sergio actually had several pretty good starts. He’s a groundball pitcher and when those groundballs found holes, well, that’s when the trouble would start. With runners on and having to come in more, the situation would escalate. Now there would be some frustration watching Sergio pitch, without a doubt, and I’m not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but he did show a little promise at times, he was coming back from Tommy John, and I’m sure he’ll end up at Scranton as an emergency starter. BTW, for those pining for Wang, the Yanks wouldn’t mind giving him a chance to get straightened out, but not at the 5-6 mil. he would have cost in arbitration.
Won’t pony up a few extra mil for Damon who would be markedly better than Gardener yet will spend on a horrible pitcher who did NOTHING for the Yankees?
I don’t really understand the whole pitching depth argument with Mitre. In his career, his lowest ERA (in the national league!) was a 4.65 with a WHIP of 1.48. Yes, he is a sinkerballer and Girardi likes his work ethic (apparently), but what good does a 5th/6th starter do for the team if he is essentially an L waiting to happen? I guess every team needs a long relief guy for clean up duty.
As for the people criticizing Cashman, try to see the big picture:
1.) They just won the world series and have the bulk of their team from last year (in fact they have a better starting rotation now and potentially a better bullpen as Hughes or Joba will in all likelyhood end up their next season).
2.) He is privy to information we are not regarding free agents. The last thing the Yankees need is another injury prone player not being productive.
3.) He works IN CONJUNCTION with the organization’s needs / wants / requirements.
Be thankful Matsui and Damon are gone. Let us not forget that the 2 players combined cost for the Yanks was 26 million last year. Are any of you people telling me you’d rather the Yanks spend that 26 mil on those guys who are utterly useless defensively and (will soon be on the offensive decline as well) than on the HUGE free agents that will potentially be available this season and certainly next off season? Such names as Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Joe Maur, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonalalez will all surface. Hmm…no brainer.
It is no wonder that guys like Damon aren’t being signed elsewhere. They are built for Yankee park. The other 80 games a year he becomes very much his age. All but 3 of Damons HRs happened at NY. It’d be crazy to pay more than 5-6 million for his production. Damon knows this. Boras knows this. Case closed. As for Matsui, The angels paid 6 million for him. He wanted 13 from NY. No player takes a 7 million dollar pay cut. Funny that the world series MVP would devalue so fast. Way to stick to your guns Cashman, and not way overpay for what once was rather than what will be.