Yankees have about $4.2 million in draft pool

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

So it’s slightly more complicated than the headline would suggest, but the Yankees have $4,192,200 to spend on the first 10 rounds of this year’s amateur draft, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America.

This is brand new in baseball as before the latest collective bargaining agreement teams had unlimited funds for the draft. Now there is a cap for the first 10 rounds with a 75 percent tax on teams that go up to five percent over the cap. Teams that go more than five percent over will lose a draft pick in the next year’s draft.

After the 10th round the cap is at $100K for each round and any money spend over that $100K comes out of the draft pool for the first 10 rounds.

The Yankees spend $4.2025 million on the first 10 rounds last season so this isn’t as big a deal as it first seemed. It could hurt them in later rounds as that’s where they tended to overspend on picks by selecting signability cases. Not only will there not be as much money to spend on these guys, but more importantly they will not be ..read more

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A-Rod 100 percent headed to spring training

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

Since re-signing on a 10-year deal four years ago, Alex Rodriguez has been nagged by various injuries, limiting him to just 124 games a year on average during that span. This spring training he is expected to show up “ready to go full speed,” David Waldstein of the NY Times reports.

This is quite significant as A-Rod is coming off of an experimental knee surgery that he had this offseason. The Yankees still haven’t signed Eric Chavez to back him up and there are conflicting reports of whether or not they even have the money budgeted for him.

Regardless of whether they sign Chavez or not, the Yankees will still need to rely on A-Rod this season as he is expected to hit cleanup and be a big part of this offsense. It’s a good sign if he’s healthy now even if it might be unrealistic to think he’ll make it through the entire season unscathed.

OTHER INJURY NOTES: Andruw Jones had minor knee surgery in the offseason, but Brian Cashman seemed unconcerned with it. ..read more

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Yankees don’t give out Posada’s No. 20

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

A couple of quick jersey number notes. The Yankees have not given anybody Jorge Posada’s No. 20 jersey this year, but have given out Mike Mussina’s No. 35 to Michael Pineda. Hiroki Kuroda takes No. 18, Bill Hall has No. 40, Russell Branyan has No. 45, and Manny Delcarmen will get No. 43, via Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger.

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Quote: Yankees won’t rush Joba back

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

Joba Chamberlain is on the rehab trail from Tommy John Surgery and has been tweeting a lot of positive updates as he goes through all of the steps. Listening to him and it sounds like he expects to be be back in April or May.

However, Brian Cashman told Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com that they will not rush him back too quickly.

“For all of our sakes, we just have to be careful for him and for us,” Cashman said. “It was a huge loss when we lost him last year and it will be a huge gain when we get him this year. We just have to make sure that when we get him back, he is here to stay.”

“If you want to have a scale from 1-to-10 with 10 being the best with someone fully committed to doing the rehab and not cutting any corners and doing everything done that he needs to do, he checked off at the highest level of that scale,” Cashman said. “That still doesn’t erase the typical time-frame of this surgery.”

Besides just being careful with ..read more

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AJ Burnett: I have no regrets

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

Kevin Kernan of the NY Post caught up to A.J. Burnett as he left Pittsburgh’s complex following his physical yesterday and this is what he had to say:

“It’s a fresh start,” Burnett said of being traded to Pittsburgh. “They’ve got a young, good team here and coming on back to the National League, it’s going to be fun again. I’m also looking forward to getting back to where the game is fun.

“I’ve got no regrets. I got to play with teammates that people don’t get to play with, I got my ring that a lot of guys will never get and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. That page is closed now. It’s time to turn to the next chapter.

“In ’08, I pretty much dominated those guys so every time I went into Yankee Stadium they pretty much saw what I should have done. I didn’t produce during the season. I’m not going to lie. I had good games, I had bad games. I had good games when it counted. But it’s a different animal up there. I wouldn’t trade it. I learned a lot from ..read more

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Yankees Rumors: Ibanez and Chavez both talking $1M deals

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

Now that the A.J. Burnett deal is official the Yankees have turned their attention toward Raul Ibanez. According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, they have the framework done for a $1 million deal plus incentives in place for a while now, but have held off until they could be sure they weren’t getting a DH back for Burnett.

Sherman also reported that Eric Chavez has made it clear he wants to return and the team wants him back. Talk is that they are discussing a deal worth around $1 million plus incentives. Any Chavez deal will probably take place after Ibanez, or another DH is in the mix.

Yesterday Sherman tweeted that the Yankees were only budgeting enough for one of the two, Ibanez and Chavez, and that they wouldn’t necessarily sign both. He also tweeted that the Yankees execs plan on meeting again to discuss signing both.

As far as Johnny Damon, it appears that ..read more

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Yankees sign Clay Rapada to a minor league deal

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

With Hideki Okajima failing his physical, the Yankees have turned to another option for a left handed reliever and have signed Clay Rapada to a minor league contract and will invite him to spring training, according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post.

Rapada will be 31 by the time the season starts. He has pitched in parts of five seasons in the majors, most of that came with Detroit. In his career he has thrown just 52.2 innings with a 5.13 ERA, a 7.5 K/9 and a 5.5 BB/9. He shuts down lefties though holding them to a .252 OBP and .472 OPS over the course of his career.

Rapada has an unorthodox submarine delivery which I think is fun to watch. So even if he doesn’t make the team he could perhaps be entertaining to watch during spring training.

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A.J. Burnett passed physical MLB approved deal

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

A.J. Burnett has passed his physical and MLB has approved the deal officially making him a Pittsburgh Pirate and ending his three year career in Pinstripes, according to Buster Olney of ESPN.

The deal gets the Yankees off the hook on $13 million of the $33 million he is owed over the next two seasons. In total the Yankees will have paid him $69.5 million for three seasons where he put up a 4.79 ERA, a 7.9 K/9 and a 4.0 BB/9. The Yankees are also getting prospects, RHP Diego Moreno and OF Exicardo Cayones as part of the deal.

The Yankees wanted to deal Burnett at the beginning of this offseason, but they increased their efforts after they traded for Michael Pineda and signed Hiroki Kuroda. That left would have left Burnett to fight with Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia for the final spot in the rotation.

Not that he would have been a terrible No. 5 starter, but he was ..read more

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Yankees and Pirates settle on prospects in Burnett trade

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

The Yankees and Pirates have crossed all the T’s and dotted the…lowercase J’s and have sent the A.J. Burnett deal off to the commissioners office to be approved and finalized.

The Pirates will pay just $13 million of the $33 million Burnett is owed over the next two seasons, paying $5 million this year and $8 million next season, according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post. In return they get prospects Diego Moreno, a right handed reliever, and Exicardo Cayones, an outfielder, Sherman wrote.

The two prospects are nothing to get excited over as neither was ranked prominently in the Pirates organizational rankings.

Moreno is a 25-year-old who has only thrown 194 innings in five seasons in the minor leagues. His numbers aren’t bad, a 2.41 ERA, 9.8 K/9 and a 2.3 BB/9, but because the sample size is so small and he’s been consistently older than the competition he seems like an organizational arm at best.

Cayones is a 20-year-old corner outfielder who gets on base at a decent clip, a career .372 OBP, ..read more

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Rumor: Yankees prefer Ibanez and Chavez

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Rob Abruzzese

Now that the Yankees and Pirates have agreed to a deal that will send A.J. Burnett to Pittsburgh the Yankees are ready to move on to adding a left handed hitting DH and a backup third baseman.

There are a few options on the table at this point, but the Yankees prefer Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui are also in the mix as is the right handed hitting Vladimir Guerrero, who has let it be known that he wants the Yankees DH job, might also be in the mix as well.

The Yankees said they prefer a DH who can occasionally play in the field, but this very well could come down to money. They saved $13 million by sending Burnett to Pittsburgh, but that doesn’t mean they’ll spend all of it. GM Brian Cashman needed permission to add payroll to sign Hiroki Kuroda and now that they’ve saved ..read more

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