The Yankees agreed to sign Andruw Jones to a one-year deal, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). The Scott Boras client signed for $2MM and can make up to $1.2MM more by reaching incentives.
The Yankees were looking for an outfielder who can hit lefties and can handle left and center field. Outfielders Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner both bat from the left side, so Jones, a right-handed hitter, will spell them against tough southpaws. He has an .863 OPS against lefties in his career, including a .931 mark in 2010. The 33-year-old hit 19 homers for the White Sox last year, playing all three outfield positions.
The Rays, Rockies and Braves were among the teams that showed interest in Jones this offseason. Meanwhile, Johnny Damon, a rumored alternative for the Yankees, will presumably have to seek employment elsewhere. The Angels could use an outfielder with on-base skills, so they are one possible suitor for Damon.
Damon, Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millwood are among Boras' most noteworthy unsigned clients, now that Jones has agreed to terms.
Any other over-the-hill ex-Dodgers you’d like, Yanks? I think Eric Gagne and Angel Berroa could be had.
Last I checked Marcus Thames is gonna be roaming the Dodgers outfield LOL. Jones will be a solid 4th outfielder.
At least Thames can hit for a higher average. Jones is more like a solid 2nd DH.
andruw jones is twice the player that Thames is
We are talking weight, right?
Have you seen Thames play the outfield? I have. The guy is going to be useless in a league where he can’t DH.
Have you seen a few previous Dodger LF’s? They’ll never know the difference…
Then why not sign one like Vlad who can give you better defense than Thames and probably a better bat as well?
I don’t see what average has to do with position, and Jones plays better defense than Thames anyway.
Thames’ average will be quickly overshadowed by his horrendous fielding. Someone should have reminded Ned that there are no DHs in the NL. Plus Thames’ career batting avg is a whopping .248, nothing to write home about.
Yeah you guys are right. I’ll just stick to my original joke above, haha.
The one that wasn’t funny about a second DH? Andruw has the second highest defensive WAR in the history of baseball, and he’ll still hit 20 home runs in that mini park.
Ned loves acquiring DH types for the OF: Thames, Manny, Gibbons
And how can you leave out Andre Ethier?
not really considering he kills lefties and can run the bases 9 for 9 in stolen..at worst throw 2-3 caught stealing in there…and he plays a average CF now a days and a+++ left and right field..in other words unless a team has an up and coming OF prospect that is at the AAAA level they want to ease in then go with that or go with someone like jones who is a perfect 4th of
At least Andru Jones can play the OF without a viewer hearing the theme to the Benny Hill show in his mind.
Berroa already played for them lol.
Over under: 20 home runs?
…..Under….
under. what are you smoking? he’ll be lucky to play 80 games.
he hit 19 for the whitesox last year and lost a ton of playing time to ozzies man crush in mark kotsay..i say he easily hits 20
Under. He’s a bench player. If he was a lefty and/or one of their starting outfields missed at least half the season, I might take the over, but assuming good health, he won’t even sniff that number.
He’ll hit .230-14-55.
Considering his defensive capabilities, I’d pay $2 million for that off the bench.
Best comment so far, totally agree. Although signing Manny for the same price is better value, this is a good signing.
the fact that he isnt a lefty is what makes it more possible for him to hit around if not more than 20…with gardner and granderson being lefties he will be the first guy off the bench to pinch hit for them or start for them…
Everyone’s taking the under.. I’ll be bold and go over
.
He mashes lefties and the AL east has a ton of them… Jays alone could have 3 starting lefties in the rotation.
Thank you for not being boring.
He could possibly challenge Swisher for a starting job in spring training. Also, if Posada, Martin, Swisher, Granderson, or Gardner gets hurt, Jones will see more playing time. Third, Yankee Stadium is the perfect place for Jones to crush the ball.
20 may seem a bit high, but it’s possible given the chance to play.
He hit 19 last year in 328 AB’s… Its not outrageous at all to think if he was used properly (vs lefties) and given adequate playing time that he could eclipse 20 dingers..
Given his defensive abilities its fine to think that he will receive that playing time needed
He had 278 AB’s
Swisher’s job is not open PERIOD
I needed to take some aspirin after I read “possibly challenge Swisher for a starting job in spring training”!
You are crazy. Easily challenge a goy with 30 hrs and something like a .285/.360 avg to boot? Jones is being brought in to be a 4th OF. There will be no OF battle for a position in spring training.
Under, but only because of questionable playing time. Jones is going to be really good in the role he’ll have with that team. He would have been a perfect signing for the Phils. I’m already cringing at the Dom Brown/Ben Fran duo in right….
Hard to say. I mean if Posada is too busy crying about not catching and fails to work on his role as a DH then maybe 20, but look at his last few years. Jones is being way over rated on this thread.
Until someone besides Heyman or Olney reports this, it’s not true.
Good signing for the Yankees. Cheap. Can play all three outfield positions. Has very good pop. That is a Cashman signing.
Cash to Boras: You owe us on the Soriano deal, so how about a discount?
Joking aside, good signing. I thought he’d sign for $3 mm.
Cashman to Randy Levine: You got Soriano. Now let me get Andruw Jones over a reunion with Johnny Damon.
-wtk
Cashman to Randy Levine: Thanks for letting me do my job, now could you please return my gonads to me! lol
Well one fact came out of this: Cashman is a much better negotiator than Levine and Hal
If Boras had tried to squeeze Cashman for 3 MM, Jones might have been this year’s Jermaine Dye.
Or he could’ve gone around Cashman and called Levine’s cell: “Hey buddy, Randy. Your GM is being difficult again. But you and I know very well that Andruw is a championship caliber player. So how about you and I strike a deal eh?
I honestly think that Levine loves to have Boras stoke his ego whenever Cashman doesn’t conceed to his requests. I’m just shocked they held the line of Damon last year.
This is good news for the Sox, I think he is 0-whatever at Fenway, He even got thrown the golden sombrero last time he was there
You worry about A. Jones? Worry about Cano
29 other teams would rather have Cano to worry about than Fandruw.
Ok we will worry about Cano, while you worry about Agonzo-Crawford-Youk-Pedrioa- and the rest of the killer line up
Yeah I forgot that Jeter, Swisher, Tex, A-Rod, Granderson and the rest of the lineup hit like little leaguers. We’ll be lucky to score 500 runs next year.
Well if your throwing in mediocore guys, then I will to, Ellsbury-Drew-Varitek-Lowrie-Scutero-Ortiz
He’s bad, but not as bad as you claim… .198/.258/.360 at Fenway with 3 HR in 86 AB (sorry, I didn’t bother looking at a site that broke it into PA instead of AB).
Still pretty horrible, tho.
-C
Definitely less than I expected. With all the news coming out about Soriano, I half expected the week to end with Hal stepping in and giving him $7 million AAV over two years with a third year option at $5MM for hitting 100 plate appearances over the first two years.
That said, this is a quality signing. Good money, short term and the guy has the defensive capabilities and pop to make a quality fourth outfielder.
As a Yankees fan I personally like the quiet Yankees offseason. Martin and Jones are both good (and cheap) acquisitions. Soriano was a slightly questionable signing for me, simply based on the money and his injury history (albeit not as of late). The only things that worries me is going into 2011 with Sergio Mitre lined up to be the 5th starter…
Hopefully, they’ll trade for Galarraga.
yeah hopefully not….
He’s basically a carbon copy of Mitre
How exactly is he a carbon copy of mitre??
Their stats look similar because of the decent numbers that Mitre put up in the pen
But if you compare both of their starting stats, its no contest that Armando is the better pitcher.
Yeah I didn’t mean he was exactly as bad, but he’s fairly close. I can easily picture Galarraga being a complete trainwreck in the bronx.
K/9 BB/9 HR/9 ERA FIP
Galarraga 5.70 3.52 1.42 4.58 5.17
Mitre 5.38 2.96 1.10 5.27 4.72
Even if you factor in the fact that Mitre has some relief work in there, you also have to take into consideration that Galarraga had one campaign that he pitched completely over his head. He’s not enough of an upgrade to justify the pickup.
And on top of that, Galarraga has homer issues at Comerica… Imagine that at Yankee Stadium! :-o
I still would rather go with Galarraga. It’s an absolute “lightning in a bottle” attempt but I’ve seen all I want to see of Mitre. As long as they give up nothing (meaning garbage minor leaguer w/ zero upside) then he’s worth bringing in to compete for a spot. At worst, a roogy/spot starter.
3-4-5 in the rotation could all be cause for concern.
haha in all honesty 2-5 could all be cause for concern but I know they’re gonna stick with Hughes and Burnett so I’m not gonna worry about them too much. They did fine last year when Burnett was awful and Hughes was just all right.
My view is this:
CC = good
Hughes = perhaps inconsistent, but I think he’ll have a strong season
AJ = Bounce back year…not saying he’ll be a sub 3 ERA, but he’ll be 3.50 – 4.10, put up a respectable win count
Nova = Not sure how I feel
Sergio = won’t be in our starting rotation come opening day…I just can’t imagine that will occur.
I will drive to new york on a scooter in a snow storm and buy you a coke if AJ Burnette puts up a 3.50 ERA.
I realize you’re from the northland, but you need to figure out where to tie down a shovel and where you’re going to stash the rock salt. The NY Thruway can be brutal during a snow storm.
Well…. when we have a snowstorm in baseball season, I will walk down to kentucky or wherever your from and git r dumb with you.
did I say it had to be during baseball season?? if the season was done it would be November anyways . keep your dumb comments to yourself
It sure was a dumb comment. If the season was done it would be the end of October and from a real historical perspective we don’t have many snow storms (two words) in either October or November. The season would be also done in December, January, February etc though. I don’t even know who this Burnette guy is and if we sign him to take over Burnett’s spot and he posts a 3.50, I will hop in my NASCAR and drive to the Coca Cola plant itself and get you a fresh one off of the line. Coke and a smile :)
Basically that is formula (CC = good) they used to win the World Series two years ago.
The most starts made from any of their #5 starters in 2009 was 9. Wong and Mitre had 9, Hughes made 7, Gaudin made 7 and Aceves made one.
Maybe we are worrying too much about who the 5th starter is in January
Considering Pettitte won two games in that WS and Sabathia won zilch, I’m going to have to disagree with your premise.
-C
I was referring to the regular season production. We also have to remember that Andy is going to be 39 this year.
You probably won’t have to remember that, because he’ll probably be retired.
-C
IMO (based on the 2009 final pitching stats) if Hughes can replace Pettitte’s 14 wins and Soriano can replace Hughes and Feliciano replace Phil Coke in the bull pen you basically have the same production from their pitching staff.
Pitcher……Wins….Starts
Sabathia……19……34
Burnett……..13……33
Pettitte…….14……32
Joba………….9……31
As bad as Burnett was last year, he won 3 less games than the year before. If improves marginally they will be Ok.
Also they won’t get 10 wins from a swing man like Aceves but the team should win over 90 wins
Wins are the single worst way to judge any pitcher. Please refrain from using wins in any analysis, or Felix Hernandez and his ridiculously low 2010 win total will haunt your dreams.
-C
He’s not using wins in a “this pitcher vs that pitcher” comparison or qualitative manner. What he is saying, is that a Yankee pitcher with a not so great ERA of 4.50 can still win 10+ gams for the Yankees considering their offense.
So what he’s saying is that crappy pitchers can still win games. He’s correct, at least as far as the 2009 World Series is concerned, because Burnett and Joba both won games.
-C
I’d be willing to bet that if the Yankees put him as the primary DH, that he’d outproduce Posada(assuming he’s in that role).
Nice signing. Good insurance against outfield injuries, has plenty of pop, and can even fill in at 1B if needed.
The Patriots winning the Super Bowl is a better bet.
Good signing by the Yankees, I thought he’d get more guaranteed . either way a nice solid depth move
Good move and good value for the 4th OF spot IMO. I’ll take it.
Low risk High reward.
with the jet stream in right field and jones being able to spray them all over the field i would not be surprised to see 20 hrs from him…he should get pretty even playing time giving time off to swish, granderson, and gardner
If by “spray them all over the field” you mean be a dead pull hitter to left, I’ll agree with you. ‘Druw hasn’t sprayed right field since David Justice made him blow Coke out of his nose in the playoffs.
Assuming Jones was to sub out Swisher defensively in a late inning, a defensive OF of Gardner, Granderson and Jones is insane.
I think you’ll see more of Granderson and Gardner being pinch-hit for.
Could be a mix of both.
Uh…why? I think that people still see Andrew Jones as the player he once was. He is not going to pinch hit for Granderson or Gardner, especially in any big spots. Also, who is to say that Jones can adapt to being a permanent bench player.
Because Granderson and Gardner can’t hit lefties and Jones can. It’s incredibly likely that Jones will pinch hit for either, given the right situations.
Jones showed pretty conclusively last year that he can adopt the bench role. His BA still ain’t great, but the guy can still slug a little and get on base.
-C
Granderson might shock us this year. As much as being said of Jones he doesn’t post a very good avg/obp vs lefties. Granderson made huge strides last year vs lefties after his August lessons with Long. Would love to see if he can carry it over.
I don’t think that is an insane defense, it good but not the best, espesially if you are subbing out a guy
According to Sabermetric stats, they were the 4th best defensive OF overall behind the Giants, Rays and Dbacks.
According to real stats they sucked.
Define real stats for OF? Fielding percentage? Assists? Errors
Fine if that’s what you mean by real stats
OF Yankee ranks
Fielding percentage- Tied for 3rd
Total errors- Tied for 3rd fewest
Assists- 9th
Far from sucking.
According to UZR the OF of Yanks ranked 5th in UZR, 4th in UZR/150 and 4th in RangeRuns. If you want to go old school they are tied for 3rd in Field%, 5th in fewest errors, 9th in most assists and top 5 in “I seen it wit my own peepers, and theys good”.
Not sure how else we can evaluate them. Individually Swisher was the only one that didn’t rank at least top 10.
2 years for $14MM is better than 1 year @$8MM and then $0. How foolish does Johnny Damon feel today?
Who says the Yanks won’t sign Damon too? I heard Damon can fix Burnett.
Damon can probably fix Burnett in the same manner as my Vet fixed my dog.
Great deal by cash, only 2 million for a year of good defense and good pop. Now all they might need (besides starters) is a utility guy. I hope they move Joba back to the rotation i don’t care what anyone says, he will pitch better then either Nova and Mitre can. Considering how low Joba’s value is right now, and he’s going to be the 7th inning guy right now, if he pitches to a 4 era and goes close to 200 innings, that will greatly increase his value. And maybe he can go out and pitch as well as he showed he could as a starter in the minors.
A platoon of Granderson against righties and Jones against lefties (and switching Gardner to center against lefties) would actually be pretty darn good offensively. Defensively, the Yankees should be thanking Mo that Gardner is fast because with Swisher in RF and Jones in LF, he’ll need to be fast.
Wow. On paper this looks like a steal of a deal for the Yankees. I still cant understand how Philadelphia wasn’t looking at Jones. Especially based on what he signed for.
Yankees are never gonna beat the red sox they probably can’t even the mets because the mets signed Chris young the mets rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ยก
too much caffeine huh? your mom is calling you kid!
I think he was being sarcastic
The Mets are like the little brother who saw the bigger brother come out of the shower naked and had a permanent sense of inadequacy because he knew how difficult it would be to live up to the standard set.
Would have rather signed Vlad to be a 4th outfielder/DH. Jones’ defense has dropped considerably over the past few years, nevermind what he used to be, and Vlad’s still got an EXCELLENT bat. You’ll see more of Jones as a DH than a 4th outfielder if you ask me, and I’d rather have Vlad in that situation who still has an awesome arm as well.
A) I doubt Vlad would’ve agreed to sign on as a 4th OF. b) AJ played over 100 innings at each OF position last year vs Vlad who barely posted over 100 at RF and less than 12 innings at any other position. Being able to play multiple positions is sort of a prerequisite for being a 4th OF. c) Why would you expect to see more of Jones as a DH when clearly Posada has already told he will be the primary DH this year and is capable of flourishing at the position?
Did you just happen to see Vlad play the outfield during the WS?
If not, let me give you a visual. Picture a drunken giraffe on roller skates.
Definately fits what the Yankees were looking for which is a versitile OF who bats RH. Manny, Vlad, Thames, Damon can’t play the outfield. Reegie Corona will probably be DFA’d to add Jones.
its funny that we have 2 holes in the rotation and we are here arguing whether our 4TH outfielder is going to save the team or not. Is he what he was when he was in Atlanta? no. but thats not why the yanks signed him. he may be one of the better bench players in the game though,
and for all the people who are talking about how well he is going to do? if we have to rely on andruw jones to save the team then we have more issues that him as our 4th outfielder
Gives the Yanks a ton of flexiblity…I like the move for the big picture. Kind of reminds me of seeing the Yanks grab Cecil Fielder or Strawberry in the mid 90’s. Between Martin, Posada, Cerville, Montero at C/DH and now all 4 OFers, Giradi has a lot of different options to use. I would really like to see a utility IF that can sub at 3b/SS/2B with some speed. A Chrone Figgins type player, not with that contract :) Yanks use to have guys like Andy Fox/Homer Bush that were great role players that could fill in wherever. Hopefully Nunez can be that guy next year. Also remember this move can open up Tex to take a day off or two, move Swish to 1B and then put Jones out in RF.
Biggest concern is in watching the Best Thing I Ever Ate. I watch that show all the time and it seems like each episode has at least 1 or 2 places from NY. Hopefully Andruw “I became a beached whale” Jones has not caught any of that show yet :)
Jones is a solid player, he is a 4th outfield. most likely going to play left field when he plays. Jones became to lazy and that’s how he became big, if he played like he did when he was young he would be untouchable.
Jones will hit a .275 average with 18-ish home runs, and 50 RBI. The Yankees have the best outfield in baseball except Texas, maybe Boston and maybe Philly. They got Jones to pinch hit and to play against lefties. Honestly, he’s a nice addition, but I would definitely rather have a good starting pitcher.
Seriously, Andruw Jones as your 4th outfielder would be fine, if Gardner and Swisher weren’t the guys in front of him…Yanks have NO bat…No pop in the lineup. We didn’t have it last year and we still don’t have it this year…This is the same team that couldn’t get the job done last year and DIED down the stretch…Still need SP. Brian Cashman is an IDIOT. Unless ARod decides he wants to go back to his MVP ways, this team is going to contend with the O’s in the AL East…..Its going to be a hard year to be a Yankees fan.
Silliness. They scored the most runs in baseball last year and that’s with Posada banged up and subpar years from Tex, Arod, Jeter and Granderson. Posada should hit better without having to catch. Granderson should do better. After his mid season counseling from Long, he was much improved with the bat. Hopefully he can carry it over. Jeter is getting extra offseason work with Long and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him bounce back. And Tex and Arod should do better since they will be healthier. The Yanks just got cold at the wrong time (in the postseason). It happens…