AL East Notes: Ellsbury, Red Sox, Yankees, Breslow

As we celebrate Memorial Day, we have a full slate of interleague baseball to take in.  It's Subway Series time in New York as the Yankees are in Queens to take on the Mets.  The Bombers are tied atop the AL East with the Red Sox thanks to Boston's three consecutive wins against the Indians, but the Yankees could gain some separation with a strong showing against their crosstown rivals.  Here's more out of the AL East…

• Jacoby Ellsbury's free agency will be extra complicated thanks to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, something that Michael Bourn knows all about, Tim Britton of The Providence Journal writes.  “It was tough,” Bourn said of his value being affected by draft pick compensation. “You really can’t change anything about it. It affected people in different ways if you had that attached to you. It's part of the process and you just have to deal with it now. You aren't going to change anything by pouting about it.”
• Before claiming left-handed reliever David Huff off waivers from the Indians, the Yankees asked the Pirates about Mike Zagurski, writes George A. King III of the New York Post.  The Bucs said no, however, and selected Zagurski's contract this morning after transferring Jeff Karstens to the 60-day disabled list.
• After he was released from the Brewers' High-A affiliate in 2004, Craig Breslow almost gave up on baseball to pursue a career in orthopedic surgery or sports medicine, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal.  Nine years later, Breslow is a bona fide major league reliever for the Red Sox.  The left-hander is in the first multi-year deal of his career, a two-year, $6.25MM pact with a $4MM team option for 2015.