The LoHud Yankees Blog

So says George King.

Writing for the New York Post, King reports that the Yankees are close enough to a deal with free agent Nick Johnson that the signing could be announced tomorrow.

It would be an interesting move, if only because Johnson would be more or less limited to designated hitter, which is apparently the reason the Yankees were not interested in Hideki Matsui. FoxSports reports that the Giants have offered Johnson between $5.5 million and $6 million, which suggests his contract would be roughly the same as the $6.5 million contract Matsui signed in Los Angeles.

Johnson seems to be a natural fit into the No. 2 hole in the lineup because of his absurd on-base percentage. His power could play well in Yankee Stadium as well, and using him strictly at designated hitter might limit some of his lingering injury concerns. He would be a nice addition, just seems to go against the idea of a designated hitter who adds some lineup flexibility.

Earlier today, Joe Girardi indicated a preference for an “almost full-time” designated hitter, which I suppose could have been setting the stage for Johnson. Also, a one-year deal would make some sense as Brian Cashman said today that next year’s free agent market is “incredibly more impressive than this one.”

Go big in 2008, fill holes in 2009 and go big again in 2010? Maybe.

To quote Hal Steinbrenner specifically, he said he is “excited” about Curtis Granderson, and raved how the Yankees “all love Johnny Damon.” But when it comes down to it, the club simply has placed a different value on the left fielder than the one Damon and his agent Scott Boras have suggested.

“He was a big part of the reason we won that championship,” Steinbrenner said. “But I think right now there’s just a difference of opinion of what the pay is, quite frankly.”

Steinbrenner said the club still hopes to add a pitcher and a bat. He, Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi all expressed a willingness to find a pitcher first. That partly because Phil Hughes will have an innings limitation next season, according to Cashman, while Joba Chamberlain will not. Girardi said that does not mean Hughes is the more likely young pitcher to find himself in the bullpen.

In truth, there were many tidbits that came out of today’s press conference. I’ll throw out a bunch, then post all the audio:

• Girardi expects to wear No. 28. He will talk to Granderson again to make sure he is comfortable with it.
• The manager is interested in an “almost full-time DH,” but values the flexibility to rest starters in that spot. We knew that already. But Cashman indicated a desire to get more from that position than simply use it as a weigh station.
• Francisco Cervelli is the backup catcher. “It’s a job we think he can handle,” Girardi said. The desire to DH Jorge Posada more could lead the Yankees to consider carrying a third catcher.
• Girardi is not worried about the status of his contract. “I worry about this year. I wouldn’t expect them to talk to me until it’s over. I’m under contract. I don’t worry about it. I worry about 2010.”
• Steinbrenner said he would not “slam the door” if Cashman showed a need to stretch the budget they set last month. Cashman wouldn’t declare the club out of talks for marquee free agents (read: Matt Holliday, Jason Bay), but it sure sounded like it. “I’m not saying yay or nay, but I’m saying we’re operating at this number and that’s that.”
• Why? Because this market dictates caution, unlike last winter’s. “We were very aggressive in last year’s free agent market and it turned out for good reason. There were terrific players available. This market’s a lot different. We played in the better market last year; we’ll be less aggressive in this market.” The Yankees have key free agents to deal with ahead, like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Plus, Cashman called next year’s market is “incredibly more impressive than this one.”
• Cashman agreed with Boras about Damon’s value in one regard, saying “he’s the perfect 2-hole hitter for this place. It doesn’t mean he’s the only guy though that can do that.”
• Alex Rodriguez knows for sure now: He will not need offseason hip surgery. A-Rod was examined by Dr. Marc Philippon on Monday. He said if the exam went poorly, he would’ve had surgery today. Instead? “Great news, so I got the green light to move forward in my offseason conditioning program.” Rodriguez began conditioning two weeks ago. He threw yesterday for the first time and can begin hitting at any time. He does not need to visit Philippon again this offseason and appeared genuinely delighted. This may not seem like news, but he clearly still had uncertainty.
• Unlike in the past, CC Sabathia kept glued to the hot stove chatter. To put it mildly, he has not liked where analysts have ranked the top of the Yankee rotation since the Sox added John Lackey and the Mariners added Cliff Lee. “They don’t give us enough credit. Everybody keeps talking about Boston now, and about Seattle with Cliff and Felix (Hernandez), but I think we have some guys in our clubhouse that can match up with anybody.”

OK, here’s the audio. Sorry the first clip is so long. I was unable to start and stop from where I was seated:

Granderson/Steinbrenner (10:00)/Girardi (17:00):

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Cashman (crank the volume a little):

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The Yankees unveiled their new prize (Curtis Granderson) on a new stage (the Legends Club) this morning, but today was not your typical introductory press conference. First, let’s discuss Granderson, then, in my next post, I’ll move on to the news of the day.

• As you know, Granderson will wear No. 14 — not No. 28, the number he wore with the Tigers. Granderson wore 14 in high school and had a fun reason why. Just like now, his coach had already claimed the number he wanted — 22 — so Granderson donned the number worn by his father, Curtis Sr., who wore 14 in his adult softball league. Granderson originally was excited the number was available, but once he learned the back story he had no intention of pressing for No. 28 if Joe Girardi wanted it in the Yankees pursuit of their 28th World Series crown. “I thought, ‘Let me back away from that,’” he said. “I know how tradition is and superstition is (here) from an outside standpoint. I didn’t want to mess with that.” He joked about a possibly scenario many of you hope for, that the Yankees win and Granderson can get his number back in 2011.

• Granderson valued the opportunity to symbolically patrol the same grounds as DiMaggio, Mantle and Williams. But he realizes the necessity to improve against left-handed pitching. He joked that he’s bound to improve by not having to face CC Sabathia — the big man was on the dais, along with Girardi, A-Rod, Brian Cashman, Hal Steinbrenner, Lonn Trost and Jean Aftermann — but it was Sabathia himself who suggested the difference between the young Granderson and the hitter he has become.

After the press conference, Sabathia explained his pattern against Granderson. He used two-seamers inside for show, but retired Granderson on breaking stuff away. As an opponent, CC knew Granderson had grown “more pull-happy” as his power numbers increased.

Eager to get started, the new center fielder, who batted .183 vs. LHP last season, has already spoken to Kevin Long. The two plan on meeting this winter, either in Chicago, where Granderson lives, or in Arizona, where Long is located. Alex Rodriguez said hitters can expect a 10-15 percent jump in production thanks to Long, and believes he will help Granderson improve on his weaknesses.

• Granderson is widely known as one of baseball’s good guys. He has his own foundation, graduated from college despite leaving early and is considered one of the good guys in a clubhouse. He credited his upbringing for that — both parents are retired educators, and his sister is a professor at Jackson State — and said he gets along with others thanks to a diverse background. He mentioned best friends of different racial backgrounds. As for what he saw in the Yankees, the well-spoken 28-year-old said he admired the newfound chemistry in the Bronx, too, noting that something changed here last season.

“In the past, you hear about the Yankee payroll. You have a lot of guys who make a lot of money and don’t get along. That obviously wasn’t true. You saw guys having fun. At the end of the day, no matter how much money guys are making or how long you’ve played this game, it’s the same game you played since you were a little kid. Typically, the teams and the guys who have the most fun are usually successful.”

That’s all for now. I’ll have more from Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman on Damon, as well as an update on A-Rod’s health in a bit. The next post will include audio of Granderson, Steinbrenner, Girardi and Cashman.

Sam and I will be chatting at noon. Click here to join the conversation.

See you in a few minutes.

There will be plenty to talk about at noon, when Sam and I host a live chat here at the LoHud Yankees Blog.

We’ll be chatting one hour after the Yankees officially introduce Curtis Granderson during a Yankee Stadium press conference, but the attention of the Yankees fan base seems to have shifted since the eventful Winter Meetings that brought Granderson, Andy Pettitte and Jamie Hoffmann to the Bronx. On Wednesday, the Red Sox, Angels and Phillies had their own press conferences to introduce John Lackey, Mike Cameron, Hideki Matsui and Roy Halladay.

All four came off the market on the same day, and it was a bit of a shock to the system. But I’m not sure it should have been. I’m not sure any of those four were ever likely to end up with the Yankees.

• Lackey agreed to a five-year deal worth $82.5 million, same as the A.J. Burnett contract of last year. Would the Yankees have really been interested another long-term contract with a pitcher who has some injury concerns and would be signed through his mid 30s? Lackey’s a very good pitcher, and he should make the Red Sox better, but the Yankees seem to be in a better position to take on a higher-risk, shorter-term contract (Sheets, Duchscherer, Escobar, etc.) than to tie themselves to Lackey. Having Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain gives them that luxury.

• Cameron took a two-year deal worth $15.5 million. Like Lackey, he’s good player who should make the Red Sox better, but a .250 hitting outfielder with 20-home-run power isn’t impossible to find. The Yankees certainly don’t have to be overly concerned about the first one to come off the board. Especially one who’s 37 years old and has some of his value tied to his ability to play center field, which the Yankees don’t need.

• Matsui went to Los Angeles on a one-year deal worth $6.5 million. For the past several weeks, Brian Cashman has been telling anyone who would listen that the Yankees are not focused on finding a designated hitter. The market is full of guys who can fill that role — that’s another reason losing out on Cameron isn’t such a big deal — and it was crystal clear that the Yankees weren’t going to actively pursue Matsui, especially not in December. Tough to see him leave, but it’s hardly surprising to see him go.

• Halladay went to the Phillies for three prospects, including the top young pitcher in the Philadelphia system. Without including Hughes or Chamberlain, the Yankees might not have been a match for what the Blue Jays were looking for in a Halladay trade. And after not giving up young pitching for Johan Santana, there was little reason to believe Cashman would have been willing to part with his top young pitchers for an even older Halladay.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention tomorrow’s chat, and that’s a good way to get my bosses mad at me. Hope I remember it tomorrow! Sam and I will be here chatting at noon on Thursday. Stop by. Ask a question. Or be like my loving mother and watch quietly, then call me to ask how in the world I’ve heard of all these baseball players. Now back to the post… 

Since half of the comments are about Nick Johnson anyway, we might as well cap the night with a quick post about the former Yankees first baseman and currently available designated hitter.

George King is reporting that the Yankees have talked to Johnson’s agent about bringing Johnson back to the Bronx.

“We have had dialogue, things are moving forward,” agent Rex Gary told King. “Something could happen to speed things up but it’s hard to predict.”

Indeed, very hard to predict.

The lure of Johnson is obvious. The guy has a .402 career on-base percentage, plus some left-handed power that could play well in the new Yankee Stadium. The negative is also obvious. Johnson has been injury prone throughout his career.

One problem I see is that I’m not sure signing Johnson would be especially different from signing Hideki Matsui, in that Johnson would also be limited to DH duty with the Yankees. Yes, he can play first base, but that doesn’t give the Yankees much flexibility. Mark Teixeira is going to be playing first almost every day anyway, and the Yankees can always play Nick Swisher at first on days Teixeira needs a day off.

Brian Cashman has said time and again that it’s easy to find a DH in this market, and the Yankees seem to prefer a DH who gives them some flexibility. Johnson would a nice fit in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, but I’m not sure he fits with what the Yankees seem to be doing this offseason. I don’t doubt the Yankees have talked to his agent, but it’s hard to know whether those talks are legitimate or if the agent is playing his part by playing up the negotiations.

This post is about the Yankees, but it needs to be about the Phillies first.

Heading into 2007, the Phillies minor league system was a mess. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels had graduated to the big leagues, and the rest of Philadelphia’s high-end talent was buried in the lower levels. First-round pick Greg Golson’s stock was slipping. Tim Moss was playing his way out of baseball. Scott Mathieson needed Tommy John (twice). Gavin Floyd desperately needed a change of scenery, which he got. Within a year, Michael Bourn and Mike Costanzo would also be traded, and within the next two years, seven more prospects would be traded for Joe Blanton and Cliff Lee.

Heading into 2010, just three years after their system was such a wreck, the Phillies were able to trade for Roy Halladay without losing their top prospect, Dominic Brown.

Philadelphia’s system improved quickly because the Phillies took a chance on Brown’s signability in the 20th round of the 2006 draft, because J.A. Happ basically reached his best-case scenario, because Kyle Drabek came back strong after Tommy John surgery, because some international signings added depth, and because several high school draft picks played well after turning pro.

You can see some of the same things happening in the Yankees’ system.

Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Brett Gardner have graduated to the big leagues. Recent first-round picks Eric Duncan and C.J. Henry have played themselves out of the organization. Andrew Brackman, Chris Garcia, Alan Horne, Dellin Betances, George Kontos and J.B. Cox have needed surgery. Trades for Xavier Nady, Damaso Marte, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson have cost considerable major-league-ready talent.

But the Yankees still have one of baseball’s premier prospects in Jesus Montero. Their system as a whole is a middle-of-the-pack group with a lot of high-end talent lurking in the lower levels. It’s not an elite minor league system, but it’s deep, and it’s awfully good for a team that has traded away prospects and consistently drafted late in the first round.

The Yankees’ upper-level pitching depth has been somewhat replenished by the development of Zach McAllister and Ivan Nova. Front-line pitching talent seems to be emerging from the international signings of Manny Banuelos and Arodys Vizcaino, and possibly from the 10th round draft selection of D.J. Mitchell. The Yankees’ recent draft focus on college pitchers – a significant difference from the Phillies’ recent draft strategy — has brought some arms that could move quickly if things continue to go well.   

Brackman was part of that focus on college pitchers, and the former first-round pick has a Drabek-like ceiling — possibly higher – if he can have a Drabek-like comeback from Tommy John. Mark Melancon has already come back from the surgery, and there is hope pitchers Betances, Horne, Garcia, Kontos and Jairo Heredia can have their own comebacks from injuries.

There aren’t many highly touted position prospects in the system, but the Yankees have focused on the positions where they might need help in the next few years. They have a ton of catchers who could eventually replace Jorge Posada, and they have two high-end, lower-level outfielders in international signee Kelvin DeLeon and first-round pick Slade Heathcott.

Baseball America has released its list of top 10 Yankees prospects. There’s another, considerably different list at The Hardball Times. Pinstripes Plus has its yearly can’t-miss list of the top 50 Yankees prospects. Before the Granderson trade, John Manuel at Baseball America ranked the Yankees in the top half of all minor league systems, and my guess is they’re still in that group, hovering somewhere around the middle of all 30 teams.

The Yankees have been forced to re-build the system time and again, but they’ve been aggressive on the international market, generally pretty smart in the draft, and they’ve built enough organizational depth to see an impact at the major league level while talent continues to rise from the lower levels.

Go, go Godzilla.

At a time like this, someone has to quote Blue Oyster Cult, am I right?

The Angels made it official this afternoon. Hideki Matsui has gone to Los Angeles. Matsui will be introduced at a Thursday press conference.

By the way, the song Godzilla ends with these lyrics: History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man. Godzilla!

Was this a Yankees folly, letting Matsui go to West Coast?

Thursday at noon, Sam and I will be doing another video chat here at the LoHud Yankees Blog. Feel free to swing by to ask some questions or throw out some theories. There should be plenty to talk about.

• Curtis Granderson is in center field. Andy Pettitte is in the rotation. Hideki Matsui is in Los Angeles.

• Are the Yankees really going to carry a Rule 5 pick on their roster?

• Does the designated hitter depth chart really have Juan Miranda at the top?

• With John Lackey off the market, is there still an impact starter available for the Yankees?

• Where is Johnny Damon going to open the season?

• How much better are the Red Sox with Lackey and Mike Cameron?

• Did the Yankees miss out on Roy Halladay?

• How many West Wing references can Sam and I make in the course of a single live chat?

UPDATE, 12:28 p.m.: Looks like we’ll be chatting not long after Curtis Granderson is officially introduced at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have announced that Granderson will be introduced during a stadium press conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

Also, and I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about this later this afternoon, Baseball America has announced its top 10 Yankees prospects. No surprise, Jesus Montero ranks No. 1. Also no surprise, two exciting young arms — Manny Banuelos and Arodys Vizcaino — have moved into the top 10. Half of the top eight are catchers. You can go to the Baseball America site for a Yankees chat at 3.

At this point, it’s a matter of time before the Roy Halladay trade becomes official. It’s being labeled as a three-way or even a four-way trade, but it’s essentially a series of individual trades between multiple teams. Halladay was, for all intents and purposes, traded to the Phillies for three prospects: Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d’Arnaud. Buster Olney says the Yankees believe the Blue Jays accepted less than what they were asking from the Yankees, and Jon Heyman reports the Yankees were willing to trade Jesus Montero but not Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain.

The ultimate reality might be that the Yankees and Blue Jays were simply not a match.

Had the Yankees traded Montero, plus Hughes or Chamberlain and another of their top 10 prospects, that package would almost certainly have trumped the Phillies offer. Short of that, though, the Yankees might not have had what the Blue Jays were looking for. Doesn’t mean the Yankees have a bad system, just means the pieces didn’t match-up.

Matching d’Arnaud is easy. He’s more or less Austin Romine. Both are catchers with considerable power, though d’Arnaud is a year younger and was drafted a few picks earlier. They had the exact same number of home runs this season, with Romine finishing with fewer doubles and one more RBI while playing at a higher level. Prefer whichever you like, the two are pretty close.

Taylor is a nice hitting corner outfielder who batted .320 with 20 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A this season. His value is high enough that the Oakland A’s are going to take him in a swap for Brett Wallace, the 13th overall pick in 2008 who has done nothing but hit since turning pro. Austin Jackson — if he were still with the Yankees – would be pretty close to Taylor in terms of prospect status. Montero would certainly rank ahead of Taylor. The Yankees could have matched or exceeded this part of the trade. 

Drabek seems to be the key to deal. The Blue Jays clearly wanted a front-line starter who’s nearly big league ready and that’s Drabek. He’s a first-round pick who just turned 22, he has a fastball that gets into the mid-90s, and he’s “come as far the last two years as any prospect,” according to Baseball America. Other than Hughes and Chamberlain, the Yankees don’t have anyone quite like that. Ivan Nova and Zach McAllister aren’t seen as having the same upside as Drabek, while Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos aren’t nearly as close to the big leagues. 

The Blue Jays might have asked for more from the Yankees than they got from the Phillies, but the Yankees decided Hughes/Chamberlain was too much to give up. Without Hughes or Chamberlain, it’s not unreasonable that the Blue Jays would have prefered a package of Drabek, Taylor and d’Arnaud over a theoretical package of Montero, McAllister and Romine. The Phillies simply had pieces that matched what Toronto wanted.