The LoHud Yankees Blog

After the Hall of Fame announcement, I checked in with Brian Cashman. The Yankees general manager confirmed a report that Sergio Mitre has avoided arbitration and agreed to a one-year deal for next season. Jerry Crasnick says it’s worth $850,000. It’s a non-guaranteed deal.

Understandably, a lot of Yankees fans are down on Mitre — his 6.79 ERA last year probably has something to do with that — but he was only a year removed from Tommy John surgery in 2009, and actually began the season less than a year removed. As he gets further from the procedure, his arm strength should improve. That’s why he’s going to get another look this spring.

A few other notes from Cashman:

• The Yankees remain in the market for an outfielder, but not a starting outfielder. “I consider this position I’m playing in as a bench role,” Cashman said. “Right-handed hitting outfielder that Joe can look on the bench and say, I’m not going to start one of my left-handers, I’m going to start a right-hander.”

• “I don’t need a left-handed bat for the outfield,” Cashman said. Feel free to interpret that quote however you’d like.

• The Yankees have a right-handed outfielder on the bench, but it’s unproven Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffmann, and the Yankees aren’t going to count on him to fill a role. He’s more of an option than a sure thing. “It’s not like he’s our guy that we’ve had a history with and we know what his strengths and weaknesses are,” Cashman said.

• Cashman on utility infielders: “I wouldn’t say you’re ever happy, but we have a number of infielders.”

• Cashman on using Francisco Cervelli as the backup catcher: “As of right now that’s the direction we’re going.”

• My own interpretation of the previous two statements: The Yankees know they have players who can fill those roles, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely out of the market for infielders and catchers.

• Cashman said he is not looking for bullpen help: “I’m always interested in pitching, but what I have left, that’s not the focus. Non-roster invites and position player bench (are the focus).”

• Phil Hughes, Boone Logan, Francisco Cervelli and Romulo Sanchez each have one option left. Joba Chamberlain has three. I didn’t specifially ask about Dave Robertson, Mark Melancon or Edwar Ramirez, but I know those three also have at least one option left. So do all of the recent 40-man additions, as well as Juan Miranda and Brett Gardner.

• Cashman said the team has agreed to several minor league contracts, but the Yankees are not yet ready to announce them.

Fairly shocking result as only Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame today. He’ll join manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey, who were selected last month by the veterans committee.

Here’s the story from the Baseball Writers’ Association.

Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar were incredibly close. Each came within a 1.5 percent of the 75 percent necessary for election.

Name  –  Votes  –  Pct.
Andre Dawson — 420 — 77.9%
Bert Blyleven – 400 – 74.2%
Roberto Alomar – 397 — 73.7%
Jack Morris –  282 – 52.3%
Barry Larkin – 278 – 51.6%
Lee Smith – 255 – 47.3%
Edgar Martinez – 195 — 36.2%
Tim Raines – 164 – 30.4%
Mark McGwire – 128 — 23.7%
Alan Trammell — 121 – 22.4%
Fred McGriff — 116 – 21.5%
Don Mattingly — 87 – 16.1%
Dave Parker – 82 – 15.2%
Dale Murphy — 63 – 11.7%
Harold Baines — 33 – 6.1%
Andres Galarraga – 22 – 4.1%
Robin Ventura — 7 – 1.3%
Ellis Burks — 2 – 0.4%
Eric Karros — 2 — 0.4%
Kevin Appier — 1 – 0.2%
Pat Hentgen — 1 – 0.2%
David Segui — 1 – 0.2%
Mike Jackson — 0 – 0.0%
Ray Lankford — 0 – 0.0%
Shane Reynolds — 0 – 0.0%
Todd Zeile — 0 — 0.0%

Joe Girardi’s entire coaching staff will be returning for next season. This is hardly a surprise after the Yankees won the World Series, and especially after Brian Cashman announced that the entire coaching staff would be offered jobs. Here’s the press release from the Yankees.

The New York Yankees announced today Joe Girardi’s entire coaching staff will return for the 2010 season, with Dave Eiland (pitching coach), Mike Harkey (bullpen coach), Mick Kelleher (first base coach), Kevin Long (hitting coach), Tony Pena (bench coach) and Rob Thomson (third base coach) all returning to their same roles as last year.

Eiland, 43, will enter his third season as Yankees pitching coach and eighth year coaching in the Yankees organization.

Harkey, 43, will begin his third season as Yankees bullpen coach.

Kelleher, 62, will return for his second year as the Yankees’ first base and fifth year as a coach or instructor in the Yankees organization.

Long, 43, will return for his fourth season as Yankees hitting coach and seventh year in the Yankees organization.

Pena, 52, will return for his fifth season on the Yankees Major League coaching staff and second as bench coach.

Thomson, 46, will enter his 21st season in the Yankees organization and his second as third base coach.

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On a minor note, the Yankees are also bringing back the entire Triple-A staff: manager Dave Miley – who got my vote as International League Manager of the Year — along with hitting coach Butch Wynegar, pitching coach Scott Aldred, infield coach Aaron Ledesma, athletic trainer Darren London and strength and conditioning coach Lee Tressell.

This will be the Yankees fourth season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and it will be the first time they’ve had the same pitching coach in back-to-back years.

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The Yankees also announced the Low-A Charleston staff. Torre Tyson will return for his fourth season as manager, and pitching coach Jeff Ware will be back for his second season with the RiverDogs. Carlos Mendoza, who spent a long time as a player in the Yankees minor league system, retired last season and will serve as Charleston’s first-base coach.

Tyson, by the way, played college ball at the University of Missouri. That’s not especially important, but I think it’s a good thing to know.

The perception of Randy Johnson is that he is ornery. Surly. Unfriendly. And certainly there is some truth to all that. Johnson could be all of those things (and more) at any given time. I think even he would admit it.

But the Johnson I got to know when he was with the Yankees was not nearly the ogre he is often imagined to be. In many ways – despite his dominance – I think there was a lot to the notion that Johnson was still, even in his 40s, a little bit uncomfortable in his own skin.

I remember writing a very long profile on Johnson for the Daily News ahead of his Opening Night start in 2005, and hearing about how the way to beat Johnson when he was in high school was to get inside his head. One opposing school would even go to the umpires and complain that Johnson’s uniform shirt wasn’t tucked in when he was on the mound – technically a violation of the rules – and that would inevitably get Johnson all riled up.

Why?

Because it was impossible. “There wasn’t a shirt in Alameda County big enough for him to tuck into his baseball pants,” one of the coaches told me. “But we’d complain to the umpire that he was breaking the rules anyway by not having his shirt in, and he’d go nuts over that, too, since there wasn’t anything he could do about it. His shirt came out all the time, so he got ruffled all the time.”

It was just another reminder of the difficulties that come with being nearly 7-feet tall. It gets easier as one gets older, of course, but it never fully fades away: Johnson ended up living near me in Manhattan, and I recall him telling me once about how he struggled to get into standard city taxi cabs – the partitions made it nearly impossible for him to fold his legs into the backseat.

Could he be a jerk sometimes? No doubt. I know that a lot of players on the Yankees never quite felt comfortable with Johnson because of his over-the-top intensity, especially when it came to his routines. But I also think much of that shell was a defense mechanism from Johnson, who felt that shutting out everyone was the only way to be sure he couldn’t be thrown off by insecurity when it came time to pitch.

Oftentimes he could be quite friendly.  Tyler Kepner wrote about a time when he talked so long with Johnson that the lefty was late for stretching, and I had several similar experiences. I remember once talking with Johnson for nearly an hour about faith and religion (not exactly the standard clubhouse discussion) and then having him come back to me the next day with another point that he’d thought about that night.

Sure, his time in New York was hardly perfect. He knew that, too. But he sure did try. During a time when Carl Pavano was missing starts with bruised buttocks, I’ll always remember Johnson having to hold the heat pack on his back to make sure it didn’t slip while he ducked his head under the clubhouse doorway. No one could say he wasn’t tough.

Today is about Hall of Famers, which is coincidental since Tim Raines (who might go into the HOF) gave Johnson the “Big Unit” nickname. But as we wait for that announcement, I still wanted to take a moment to remember Johnson. Everyone knows how great a pitcher he was and – despite the popular stereotype – he’ll also go down as one of the players I most enjoyed covering.

One more member of the championship Yankees has signed elsewhere. Corner outfielder and infielder Eric Hinske has signed with the Atlanta Braves.

The Yankees landed Hinske in June for a pair of minor leaguers, most notably Casey Erickson, who’s not exactly a highly touted prospect but has put up good numbers. With the Yankees, Hinske didn’t hit for average (.212) or get on base at a very good clip (.316 OBP) but he did hit some homers. In just 84 Yankees at-bats, Hinske had seven homers.

Before coming to the Yankees he had one home run in 106 at-bats with the Pirates.

If he made any sense for the Yankees in 2010, it was as a fourth or fifth outfielder who could occasionally give Alex Rodriguez a day off at third and come off the bench to face lefties.

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Obviously the big news of the day will be the 2010 Hall of Fame class. The announcement is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. My guess is that Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven and Barry Larkin will get in. Maybe Andre Dawson and Tim Raines as well. I think Edgar Martinez will get in at some point, but I don’t think it will happen this year. That is, of course, a very uneducated guess.

According to the Sun Sentinal, Aroldis Chapman told one “associate” that he plans to sign within three or four days. The linked article says the Marlins are making a big push for the hard-throwing left-hander, but also says an industry source believes the Blue Jays and Angels are the most likely destinations.

My guess — and this is just a guess — is that no one has a good feel for where Chapman is going to end up. Every team is interested, a lot of teams seem willing to pay big and no team wants to leak just how much they’re willing to pay.

The Chapman tidbit comes at the end of a day that became a bit more eventful than expected.

• Jason Bay officially joined the Mets, and in the process refuted pretty much every story written about him in the past month. He said stories of his reluctance to sign “couldn’t be further from the truth” and said he hasn’t had a shoulder injury since surgery in 2003. “It’s been great ever since,” he said. “It’s another of those things that took on a life of its own.”

• Randy Johnson retired during a very gracious conference call, having made a last second decision to make his announcement tonight rather than tomorrow when he would have interfered with the Hall of Fame class of 2010. “I did not by any means want to announce my official retirement on the same day as that.”

• The Matt Holliday deal is done. It’s a huge seven-year deal that, Keith Law writes, comes with considerable long-term risk but makes the Cardinals heavy division favorites and might help persuade Albert Pujols to re-sign.

• The Indians made the Shelley Duncan signing official. It’s a minor league deal, and Duncan will compete for a job as a corner outfielder and first baseman. “We see (Duncan) as a guy that has a good track record of hitting left-handed pitching and being productive,” general manager Mark Shapiro said. “He has defensive versatility that fits well within our needs. He’s certainly a guy that could come in and compete for that job.”

• Having signed Adrian Beltre, the Red Sox had absolutely no role for Casey Kotchman so they traded him to the Mariners for Bill Hall and a minor leaguer. Sounds like the Red Sox are also getting cash to cover some of Hall’s ugly contract.

• Speaking of the Red Sox, they officially named Mike Cameron their center fielder and moved Jacoby Ellsbury to left.

From tonight’s Randy Johnson conference call:

• “I would like to officially announce my retirement. I’ve taken this long because I definitely wanted to kind of relax from the season being over and make sure I had a clear head when I made this decision, and that I would be making it wholeheartedly, and that I would stick with it. Without a doubt, 100 percent, I will be retiring at this time.”

• Johnson said he wanted to go out on his terms. He had a herniated disk in his last season with the Yankees, then had two back surgeries within a year, and ultimately decided he didn’t want to go out that way. So he came back to pitch again, and had an 11-win season with the Diamondbacks.

• “I feel that it’s all just part of something that comes with a long career. Eventually you have to say that it’s time. Could I play another year? I believe I could. But I also realize over the past three or four years, my skills obviously were diminishing.”

• Johnson just listed some of the great pitchers he came to know in his time. Koufax. Spahn. Gibson. Etc. “My peers that I looked up to, in certain categories, I was amongst them. That really says a lot about, I guess, my longevity.”

• Asked what cap he’ll wear in Cooperstown, Johnson said that’s not up to him. “I will wait down the road and consult with whoever I have to consult with, if I’m elected to the Hall of Fame.”

• “One thing I’ve always tried to tell some of the younger pitchers I’ve played with is how hard your preparation has to be.”

• Johnson doesn’t remember who his first strikeout was against. He does, however, remember his first game as a September call-up with the Expos in 1988. It was against the Pirates and he remembers that Glenn Wilson hit two home runs off him. One of the writers on the conference call looked it up during the call: Johnson’s first K was against Orestes Destrade.

• Johnson on his reputation for being fiery and ornery: “I don’t regret being that way. I only regret that that’s kind of the way I was portrayed, but I got the most out of myself being that way.”

• Johnson said he would like to coach some day, but not right away. He said he really enjoyed talking to and working with Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez in San Francisco. Johnson said Sanchez reminds him of himself as a young pitcher. “The one thing I’ve really enjoyed doing the past few years, for anybody who wants to listen, is just helping people.”

• What would Johnson like his legacy to be? “That I gave everything that I had. I was maximum effort from day one.”

• “I would have to say the pinnacle of my career was doing my part to get my team to the World Series and then doing my part in the World Series.”

• “I will miss having an outlet to be that competitive. Every fifth day, it was a process and I enjoyed and I relished that process. I enjoyed preparing and knowing who I was going to be pitching against… There’s not a golf game that I can play that will ever match how competative I was in baseball.”

• About Edgar Martinez as a Hall of Fame candidate: “I’m hoping he gets a lot of consideration. I know it’s been debated whether a DH is worthy of that, but in my time I’ve never seen a better pure hitter than him.”

• At 7:43, Johnson’s conference call ended with a very kind thank you to the writers who covered Johnson during his career. “I will see you down the road,” Johnson said.

First Randy Johnson was scheduled to have a conference call tomorrow morning, now it’s been moved up to tonight. Either way, it’s all but certain that the future Hall of Famer will be announcing his retirement.

Everytime I’ve scrolled through a list of free agents, I’ve been surprised to see Johnson’s name, only because I don’t remember him being discussed at all. Obviously he’s 46 years old, had a 4.88 ERA last season and everyone’s been expecting him to retire, but still. The guy is one year removed from an 11-win season with a sub-4.00 ERA. Teams have signed crazier contracts.

Despite the negatives of his two-year stint with the Yankees, Johnson did win 17 games in each of his seasons in pinstripes. When Arizona signed him to a four-year deal in 1999, he went on to win the Cy Young each of those four years. Six years later, he finished second in the Cy Young voting and led the National League in strikeouts when he was 40. He might have been a grump — I don’t know, I never met the guy — but he was absolutely one of the dominant pitchers of all time.

UPDATE, 6:31 p.m.: By the way, if you haven’t heard, Matt Holliday is going back to the Cardinals for seven years.

As you might expect, there wasn’t much Yankees talk at Citi Field today. There was quite a bit of Red Sox talk, some surprisingly nice things were said about the Pirates organization and Jason Bay argued against the ideas that 1. He never wanted to play for the Mets, and 2. He’s been nursing a shoulder injury.

Bay said he went into the offseason with a list of teams in mind, teams that might need a left fielder and would be in a position to sign him. The Yankees were not on that list.

“I didn’t really see them having a hole,” Bay said. “They moved some guys, and I just kind of assumed Damon was going to be back. I just never really gave it a lot of thought to be honest.”

Since we’re all about the left field position here at the LoHud Yankees Blog, it seemed important to bring you this news update: Darryl Strawberry, who once played left field for the Yankees, will be competing on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” show this season. Straw will be up against the likes of Sharon Osbourne, Sinbad – who apparently would rather NOT be playing for charity – and disgraced politician Rod Blagojevich.

Trump, who once talked very loudly on a cell phone while standing next to me in an elevator at Yankee Stadium, is already on record saying that he believes Blagojevich will be a “breakout star” on the show. Straw, it would appear, is considered a darkhorse pick.

(By the way: the most interesting part of writing this blog entry was the few minutes I spent on George Steinbrenner’s IMDB page. Check it out – in addition to appearing on previous versions of “Apprentice,” Steinbrenner has also been on Arli$$ and, way back in the day, the epic Farrah Fawcett comedy “Good Sports.”

My favorite listing, though, is the one for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game where he played – of course – “himself.”)