The LoHud Yankees Blog

Standing in the Hilton lobby surrounded by the media one last time Wednesday morning, Brian Cashman said many of the same things he had been saying the previous two days. Has anything changed since the GM Meetings began on Monday?

“Nothing at all, actually,” Cashman said.

Up next is what Cashman called a “necessary evil.” The winter isn’t the exciting part of his job. Fans might love the hot stove, but it’s a tedious and I imagine a stressful process for the folks in the front office. Here’s what comes next for the Yankees.

“No different from what we do in the amateur draft,” Cashman said. “Do a prep list up and go from there. Obviously in many positions it’s not relevant, but there are some positions that are relevant. I have a free agent left fielder. I have a free agent DH. I have a free agent starting pitcher. I have a free agent backup catcher. Some free agent bench stuff that are important. Our internal candidates, what the trade market provides and what the free agent market provides, prep them all out and try to put a strategy together to attack those areas of need.”

I’m sure every team is a little different, but in one way or another, teams quite literally make lists of their preferences and then go about trying to make those preferences a reality. Now that Cashman is out of Chicago, that process can begin for the Yankees.

The agents for both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were in Chicago these past three days, but Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with neither of them.

“I said hello passing in the hallway,” Cashman said. “But I never had any official dialogue with any agents about our players or any players who have elected free agency so far.”

On the final day of the General Managers Meetings, Cashman again expressed doubt that he would get a deal done before the 15-day exclusive negotiation window closes. The Yankees are one week into that window with eight days to go. The Yankees will gather their scouts and various decision makers before taking any sort of significant action. Outrighting Freddy Guzman and Josh Towers doesn’t exactly qualify as a let’s-discuss-this-first kind of decision.

One opinion that seems set in stone is Matsui’s ability to play the outfield. While the Yankees believe Damon would still be able to handle left field again next season, Cashman said Matsui is only a designated hitter. “He may very well be an outfielder for somebody else,” Cashman said. For the Yankees, though, Matsui is strictly a DH.

• Signing both Damon and Matsui would finalize the Yankees significant free agent position player signings. “If I did that I wouldn’t have room for anybody else unless I made trades,” Cashman said. To me, that suggests the Yankees are not considering replacing Xavier Nady. They would likely go into spring training with Nick Swisher as the everyday right fielder, which seems to be neither a bad thing nor a surprising thing.

• How certain is it that players eligible for free agency actually file for free agency? I wanted to double check that Andy Pettitte is the only Yankee who has yet to file, and Cashman said he honestly wasn’t sure. He hasn’t kept up with who has officially filed and who hasn’t.

• Just like with major league free agents, Cashman said the Yankees have the same 15-day window in which to negotiate with their own minor league free agents. I had no idea that was the case. That said, I imagine not many minor league free agents accept a minor league contract without at least checking around for better opportunities.

• I talked to one source who said Aroldis Chapman has exactly the arm and raw stuff that he’s touted as having, but his control remains a bit erratic. Doesn’t mean he won’t be a great pitcher, just means he’s not a finished product. As for who will get him, the price will rule out all but the usual suspects. “Start with the Yankees and Red Sox and go from there,” the source said.

• Cashman’s assessment of the trade market: “Like every year, there are players on other clubs that are very attractive and there are players that are being offered that aren’t,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. What necessarily fits and what doesn’t and asking prices, we’ll have to determine and work out. That’s all for another day. I guess it puts me in a better position at this stage, when we have our first scouting meetings, so we can pref things out with potential trade market players that are available along with the free agents. That usually isn’t a part of our first scouting meeting.”

The Yankees have made their first moves of the offseason, outrighting both Freddy Guzman and Josh Towers off of the 40-man roster.

Brian Cashman said that both players have elected free agency.

Guzman was perhaps the least likely player in the middle of the World Series celebration. Added to the Triple-A roster at the end of August, Guzman ultimately served as a pinch runner through part of the playoffs and had a spot in the victory parade, barely two months after he joined the organization.

Towers was nearly the same longshot to play a role. Released by the Nationals, he signed with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in May at a time when the Triple-A rotation was torn apart by call-ups and injuries. He became the team’s top starter and was rewarded with two call-ups.

As expected, it’s been a slow few days here at the General Managers Meetings. Brian Cashman hasn’t said much about his plans for next year, but did reveal yesterday that he expects both Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain to go into spring training as starters.

Most everyone is flying out of Chicago this afternoon or this evening — including myself — so there are only a few more hours to try to track down some news and notes. I’m on my way back to the lobby and will continue to check in throughout the day.

Amid speculation about the pursuit John Lackey, the viability Chien-Ming Wang and the desire to bring back Andy Pettitte, there remains one ever-present question about the Yankees starting rotation. What will be done with the starters-turned-relievers? For the most part, general manager Brian Cashman has left all of next year’s questions unanswered until the organizaton’s internal meetings take place, but this afternoon he gave his opinion on Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.

“I look at them as starters that can relieve,” he said. “But I look at them as starters.”

Again, Cashman stressed that nothing is set in stone until he meets with his pro scouts, but it seems a good bet that the two young right handers will at least enter spring training as rotation candidates. Any innings limits, Cashman said, would not be significant.

“I would anticipate going into spring training with as much starting depth as possible,” Cashman said. “Plan on having a whole list of guys.”

That list of rotation candidates would include Alfredo Aceves and could include both Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre, each of whom is still under the Yankees control if they decide to bring them back.

Other notes from this afternoon…

• Another name to keep in mind is Ian Kennedy, who’s pitching pretty well in the Arizona Fall League while making his way back from aneurysm surgery. “(Other teams) are asking about him,” Cashman said. “He’s a good, young, under-control starter that’s cheap, that we need. Not surprisingly, a lot of people would like to have the same opportunity. I’m not volunteering him, teams are asking about him, which is a good thing. They see the same thing that we see.”

• The Yankees have fourth options on both Juan Miranda and Edwar Ramirez, meaning both can be optioned to the minor leagues next season. Mark Newman had previously said he didn’t think Miranda had a fourth, but Cashman confirmed today that both can be optioned a fourth time next year. That’s not great news for those two.

• Cashman on speculation that the Yankees are going after John Lackey: “Anybody who says we’re on any player right now would be false because we have not met. We have not met about anybody.”

• Because I can’t help myself, I asked about the long line of minor league middle infielders who need to be protected from the Rule 5. Ramiro Pena is already on the roster, plus Kevin Russo, Eduardo Nunez and Reegie Corona are Rule 5 eligible. That’s a lot of 40-man spots to commit to middle infielders. “Something will give,” Cashman said. “Last year I had too many guys to protect and we did that three-for-one for Nick Swisher. We made the right calls. We had decisions to make about who we should protect and who we felt like, alright, we’re not going to protect but we think we’ll get them back.”

Didn’t want to start a new post just yet, but wanted to top this one with some information about today’s actual GM meetings. It sounds like there wasn’t much more going on in the room than was going on in the lobby.

Major League Baseball’s vice president of baseball operations, Jimmie Lee Solomon, just briefed the media on what was discussed during the morning and afternoon meetings. Remember that most of this is only discussion and idea gathering, no changes can be made without running ideas and proposals through the front office.

 • Instant replay. Surprisingly, not a huge topic. Solomon said the GMs were given a report about instant replay, but the report generated very little conversation and very few questions. Remember that this was the first full year of instant replay in baseball. “I think we need to digest what we’ve got,” Solomon said.

• Draft order. There was a discussion about changing the draft order to reflect not only the regular season standings but also the postseason. Basically, the GMs talked about the World Series winner drafting last, the runner-up drafting next-to-last, and so on. This would only affect the last few spots in the draft. There was no discussion of a worldwide draft, of trading draft picks, a forced slotting system or changing the way compensation picks are awarded.

• Umpires. Sounds like everything about umpires was discussed. “I think Commissioner Selig is going to look at the entire umpire structure and he’s going to seek ways to enhance the entire structure,” Solomon said.

• Arizona Fall League. Right now it’s primarily for players Double-A and higher. The GMs talked about changing that to allow more young players into the league.

Again, nothing changed today, this just gives you an idea of some of the things the general managers are thinking and talking about. We’re about to have access to a bunch of GMs in about 30 minutes, so I’m hoping to have some more updates later this afternoon.

———

Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter were among the American League Gold Glove award winners announced this afternoon.

The complete list:
C Joe Mauer
1B Mark Teixeira
2B Placido Polanco
3B Evan Longoria
SS Derek Jeter
OF Torii Hunter
OF Ichiro Suzuki
OF Adam Jones
P Mark Buehrle

In his career, Andy Pettitte has signed one contract with a team other than the Yankees. He went home to play for Houston in 2003, then he returned to New York three years later.

Now that Pettitte is a free agent again, a second homecoming seems unlikely.

“We have to be realistic of what our situation is at the moment,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. “Right now we have (Roy) Oswalt, Wandy (Rodriguz), (Bud) Norris. We picked up (Brian) Moehler’s option. And we need to give opportunities to (Felipe) Paulino or (Yorman) Bazardo or (Wilton) Lopez. If we can improve our situation, we’ll try to do that, but at this point in time, we’re pretty much focused on the guys that we have right now and we’ll see what’s out there on the edges.”

Aside from Norris, the Astros other three young guys — Paulino, Bazardo and Lopez — combined to win four games this season and none had an ERA below 6.27. Houston, though, isn’t in the market for significantly improving their options via free agency.

“We can’t add appreciable payroll,” Wade said. “We’ve indicated that publicly, our payroll is going to go in the opposite direction.”

Saw some questions wondering what’s the point of these meetings.

While members of the media are waiting in the lobby, hoping someone important will walk by, the general managers and assorted staff members are in a room discussing ideas and voting on rules. Each team is allowed to have three people in the room. The only Yankee I’ve seen other than Brian Cashman is scouting director Billy Eppler, but there could be others.

That’s actually the point of the meetings. Put this many GMs in one place, though, and there are bound to be trade talks and plenty of rumor gathering. That’s why the media is here. The actually meetings are a secondary concern. For us, anyway.

UPDATE, 11:51 a.m.: Just to clarify, the media isn’t allowed in the meetings themselves. When they’re over we’ll certainly ask and write about them, but most every writer is primarily here to fish for free agent and trade news. And yes, networking is a big part of this whole thing.

It’s Day 2 of the General Managers Meetings here in the Chicago airport Hilton. At one point there’s a media session with all of the GMs available at the same time, so something interesting might come out of that room full of people.

For the Yankees, the offseason brings more reason for patience than panic. Brian Cashman arrived yesterday and made it clear that he’s in particular hurry. There are decisions to make, but the Yankees are going to gather all of their people before setting anything in stone. That’s what I wrote for today’s paper.

Like yesterday, I’ll try to shoot up to the hotel room whenever something Yankees related comes out of the lobby. Otherwise, sit back and relax. Your team just won the World Series. There are still a few days to enjoy that glow before worrying about next year.

Actually, the headline is a bit of a lie. There wasn’t much news coming out of the hotel lobby this morning and afternoon, just a handful of noteworthy items.

As you already know, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman preached patience on Monday. Shown here in another bit of iPhone photography, Cashman said he’s not even sure the Yankees will sign a deal by the end of the 15-day window in which they have exclusive access to negotiate with their own free agents. That 15-day window, by the way, started on Thursday.

“I doubt it but I don’t know,” he said. “Right now I can only focus on these meetings. I don’t know what the back end of the 15-day period is going to be like.”

Other things to keep in mind.

• Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Andy Pettitte each played well in the playoffs, but don’t expect that to sway the Yankees decision on whether to bring them back. “What they were when they went into October, that’s what they still are regardless of how well or how poorly they played in October,” Cashman said.

• Last year’s addition of Mark Teixeira came with this year’s free agent market in mind. “You look at the available free agent market going forward,” Cashman said. “We felt like we were going to need that type of impact bat, and we needed to move on it last year because this year those type of bats weren’t going to be as available.”

• Decisions about the 2010 role of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain have yet to be made. Same thing with Austin Jackson. “Austin had a terrific year,” Cashman said. “We’ll have our internal meetings (about) whether he’s ready to take it over.” Cashman stressed several times that nothing is off the table.

• One thing Cashman feels likely to accomplish during the GM Meetings is getting a firm grasp of the trade market. “I’m open minded,” he said. ”I’m not looking into anything other than I’m going to come in here and look at what the trade market is, then we’ll gather all of our pro scouts together. We’ll take a strategy from there.”

———

Some links to check out…

The free agent compensation rankings.

MLBTradeRumors Top 50 free agents.
Including guesses of where they’ll end up.

Interesting Jerry Crasnick article.
Crasnick asked eight questions to 20 front office types. A lot of Yankees stuff in there.