Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman spoke with reporters prior to today's game against the Angels and Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger has the goods..
- Cashman implied that the Yankees might break policy and explore contract extensions early this winter with both Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson. The Yankees hold club options in 2013 for both Cano ($15MM) and Granderson ($13MM) but may be motivated to extend both before they hit the open market. The Yanks want to get their payroll below $189MM in 2014 to avoid stiff penalties and could make the numbers work if they lock in both players early.
- Cashman doesn't want to overpay to make improvements at the deadline that will only be "marginal." He wouldn't rule out some activity before the July 31 but he's "very skeptical" about the chances of finding something worthwhile on the market.
- The GM said that he wanted to avoid wearing Raul Ibanez and Andruw Jones thin by playing them in the outfield but he seems content to wait on Brett Gardner's return rather than overspend for an outfielder via trade.
They really need to better use Wise/Nix in the OF to avoid Jones/Ibanez out there. Jones not so much but Ibanez is an adventure out there. They seem to put Wise out there every 9th inning but they might as well give him some ABs since he hasn’t been embarrassing himself
Wise’s obp is over .800, but I still don’t think that he would be anything more than a Defensive replacement. Jones I wouldn’t mind seeing more often. He isn’t what he used to be but he can still field the ball, and can get it done with the bat. His ops is higher than Teix, Arod, Swish, and of course Ibanez. And he has been good vs righties and lefties this year.
True. After re-reading my post, I realized that I left out some piece and it sounds like I’m against Jones and Ibanez.
What I meant to put is that they need to avoid Jones/Ibanez out there and stick with them as DHs as much as possible. Jones still plays a good field but he and Ibanez aren’t spring chickens anymore and they need them for their bats.
The Yankees can’t afford for them to “flame out” due to fatigue from fielding while Gardner is out.