ESPN's Buster Olney hears that the Yankees won't be making a run at Stephen Drew and are expected to maintain the status quo (Twitter link). Likewise, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Yanks are likely at their spending limit, adding in a second tweet that a more likely move would be to swap a bad contract such as Ichiro Suzuki's for a comparably priced reliever. More free-agent related notes from around the league…
- Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN talked with Twins manager Ron Gardenhire yesterday and was told the team is circling back with one more notable free agent. "[Assistant GM] Rob [Antony] just called me the other day and told me they were gonna make another run at a guy, and I'm like, 'Wow that's pretty good,'" said Gardenhire. "So they did it, and whether it works out or not we'll see, and they're not done. … They're after it. I know that." Wolfson's hunch is that Gardenhire is not referring to Ubaldo Jimenez or Ervin Santana, but rather a bat or Bronson Arroyo (All links to Twitter).
- Among the teams with interest in reliever Luis Ayala are the Indians, Tigers, and Mariners, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The 36-year-old Mexican has unquestionably delivered results of late. Over the span of 2011-13, Ayala has a 2.58 ERA in 164 innings, landing him right outside the top 30 MLB relievers in ERA (min. 100 IP) over that time frame. Though Ayala's 3.85 FIP and 3.99 xFIP across the last three seasons may be cause to temper expectations, he has succeeded by consistently inducing grounders (51.4% GB%) and limiting homers (0.77 HR/9) at better than league average rates.
- Three teams watched righty Jared Wells throw on Wednesday, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com. The 32-year-old has not seen MLB action since a brief stint in 2008, and played in Independent ball last year after spending a few seasons in the upper minors.
Jeff Todd contributed to this post.
No. I don’t think Papelbon fits in Yankee Stadium at all.
RAB suggested that and it didn’t sound like the worst deal. He had a bad shoulder injury. The money evens out.
Tanaka already has that guy in Kuroda and he can relate even more to Tanaka because he’s went through the whole assimilation process and he’s a pitcher as well. I think Ichiro starts the season as the 4th outfielder, backing up all 3 positions but if he struggles in his part time role and Zolio Almonte is hitting well at AAA, I could see Ichiro getting DFA’ed (and picked up by another team for the league minimum–Phillies? Astros?) and Almonte replacing him on the roster. The chances of that happening increases if one of the Yankees starting 3 (Gardner, Ellsbury, Beltran/Soriano RF/DH tandem) gets injured for any length of time and Ichiro is over-exposed playing every day.