The LoHud Yankees Blog

Brett Gardner came through Tuesday’s surgery just fine. He had some inflamation removed, and he’ll have his stitches taken out in roughly one week.

The Yankees still expect him to be ready for spring training.

A Winter Meetings tradition like none other: Lunch with the manager.

The Yankees beat writers are heading to lunch with Joe Girardi, who I’m sure will give us the full scoop on the Yankees No. 2 starter for next season, who’s going to hit in the lead-off spot, which reliever gets the first crack at the eighth inning and whether the team is going to sign an alternative to Jesus Montero behind the plate.

I’m going to make my way around the room, check in with every team’s manager, and try to land one of these seven-year offers I keep reading so much about.

This time last year, the Yankees seemed certain to eventually become heavy bidders in the Carl Crawford sweepstakes. Their outfield was questionable at best, and Crawford seemed to be the top player heading for free agency.

Since then, two things have changed: The outfield has gotten better and the rotation has gotten worse.

Today, it’s clear Cliff Lee is the Yankees top target. They badly need another front-of-the-rotation starter, and Andy Pettitte’s questionable return means they need quantity as well as quality. Lee seems to be the perfect fit.

Crawford represents an upgrade, but not an essential one. The Yankees traded for Curtis Granderson last winter, and not long after, Nick Swisher went to work making mechanical changes that made him a better hitter (he also seemed like a better defender last season). Brett Gardner had a breakout season to emerge as a more-than-viable option in left field. The Yankees need outfield depth, but their starters are good.

But Crawford is Crawford, and the Yankees are the Yankees.

Buster Olney has reported that the Yankees had a long “Crawford-related” meeting yesterday. Crawford himself might have been there. That may very well have been what Brian Cashman was hinting at yesterday when he said, “I’ve already met with one player, and I intend to meet with another player.” Olney reports Crawford himself might have been there, and the Yankees might be able to make a play for both Lee and Crawford if Pettitte doesn’t come back.

What’s difficult to know — and this has been the case with every Yankees rumor this week — is how much of this is genuine interest, and how much of this is the “wide net” Cashman has cast into the market. If he simply checking in, keeping his finger on the pulse? Or is he legitimately putting himself in a position to strike?

Remember Sunday night, when Jayson Werth got a seven-year deal and the dead Adrian Gonzalez trade came back to life? That seemed to be a sure sign of a wild scene at the Winter Meetings.

Instead, it’s been mostly speculation and gridlock.

Cliff Lee remains the biggest name being discussed here in Orlando, but that signing remains fairly unpredictable. There have been trades — including a few significant ones — but there hasn’t been one to equal the Red Sox-Padres deal, and certainly not one to equal last winter’s three-team, Curtis Granderson swap.

Late last night, Carlos Pena reportedly signed with the Cubs and Matt Diaz apparently came off the Yankees radar with a two-year deal in Pittsburgh. The Yankees were reported to be interested in a minor league deal with Mark Prior (hey, why not?) and possibly a Major League deal with Russell Martin (nothing new there).

For the most part, though, these Winter Meetings have been more sizzle than steak. Plenty of talk. Not so much action.

My guess is that I have around 45 minutes of audio from today’s Derek Jeter press conference. Some of it is about Cliff Lee, and a lot of it has already been published, but there’s a lot of leftover Jeter notes.

The length of the contract
Jeter said a fourth year was important to him, if only to keep him away from free agency as long as possible.
“Just like the first time around. The longer, the better,” Jeter said. “You don’t have to deal with this or answer questions. The first time around, I didn’t know what it was like, but now that I know what it was like, the fourth year was important so I don’t have to answer these questions for quite some time.

Brian Cashman had publicly discussed his concerns about Jeter’s age and 2010 struggles, but he said that was taken into account. He suggested he never had a problem with committing to four years.
“I didn’t sign him to a 10-year deal or a seven-year deal,” Cashman said. “The deal we’ve done, we’re comfortable with what we’ve done. I think this contract takes into account everything we said publicly.”

How long Jeter will stay at shortstop
Cashman said the question was never discussed with Jeter during these negotiations.
“I don’t need to talk about that now because that’s not an issue now,” Cashman said. “That doesn’t mean we haven’t had constructive conversations about how to get better and things that need to be improved in his game, no different from any other player on our team. But I don’t feel the need to talk about him about a position change in the year 2011 when that’s not something that’s best for the New York Yankees, and he hasn’t played himself off that position. I don’t need to cover that in these negotiations. We’ll cross that line whenever that happens, if that happens.”

Is Jeter still a top-of-the-order hitter?
“We’d like him to,” Joe Girardi said. “We’d like him to have a big season for us next year. Score over 100 runs, hit .300 and just play great baseball. That’s what we expect from Derek every year. This year when he didn’t hit .300, we were all a little shocked. One year is not going to be as good as the previous one, or you might have a great year the next year and then the following one might not be so great. I do believe Derek has a lot of great baseball left in him. I do. And we need him to be very productive for us.”

Girardi at least made it seem as if he’s open to change, but basically said he’s made no decisions about next year’s team. If he does make a drastic change, like bumping a player of Jeter’s status to the bottom of the order, the decision will come after a conversation with the player himself.
“Those are things you have to evaluate, and sometimes they can be tougher than others, those conversations,” Girardi said. “When I look at our clubhouse, our guys want to win first and foremost. Usually when you have discussions with players, they have an idea where you’re coming from and they want to win.”

Bouncing back from last season
“You’d like to think that last year was a hiccup, so to speak, but it’s my job to go out there and prove that it was,” Jeter said. “I understand any concerns that anyone has, especially from an organizational standpoint. I’m sure they have concerns about a lot of people throughout the year, so they’re entitled to those concerns. It’s my job to go out and change that opinion.”

Girardi said the public scrutiny that came with these negotiations won’t necessarily serve as a motivating factor for Jeter.
“I think that first drive comes from within,” Girardi said. “But sometimes players hear things, (and) they want to prove to themselves that they’re still great players that can play at an extremely high level. Some players relish in proving naysayers wrong. I’m not sure that’s necessarily Derek, but I’m sure there’s a little of that in there.”

Would things have been different with George Steinbrenner still alive?
“That’s unfair,” Jeter said. “I had some disagreements with The Boss, too. I don’t know if you could say that. We got into it a couple times. Probably more than you’d think.”

The importance of last week’s face-to-face meeting
“I think it helped a lot,” Hal Steinbrenner said. “No. 1, I think we got to air our frustrations, how big the media part of it had become. We just talked and talked about feelings, and talked about what we thought and where we thought we needed to end up. And it all turned out for the best. But it was absolutely imperative, I think, at that point that we sit down face to face and kind of not leave the room until we get closer and closer and closer.”

Cashman, Jeter, Hal Steinbrenner, Casey Close and Randy Levine were all in that Tampa meeting. Cashman, Jeter and Steinbrenner met again in New York on Saturday.
“The perception is that this has been a month-long negotiation,” Jeter said “But the negotiations pretty much started last week. Once everything got started, it really didn’t take that long. People were assuming what was going on, that I was making salary demands. Some of them were pretty funny, what people said I was demanding. It just wasn’t true.”

Associated Press photos

It’s been a while since Joe Girardi last spoke to Andy Pettitte

“He’s on my list to call,” Girardi said. “I always give him some time away before I start badgering him.”

Girardi said he does not know which way Pettitte is leaning, but he went into this offseason less optimistic than usual about Pettitte coming back.

“I was not as convinced that he was going to come back and play this year as I had been in previous years,” Girardi said. “But I’ve always said it’s hard to ask a player the last day of the season, a week after the season, a couple of weeks. You have to give them a couple of months to get away from it and see how they’re feeling inside of their hearts, and then you discuss it.

“… It could have been the frustration of the injuries (that made him hesitant) and he may feel great. I would imagine he feels great now. And he might have a different thought process.”

• Brian Cashman suggested he has things going on in and out of Orlando: “I’ve been engaging a lot of people. I may jump out of these meetings and go somewhere and come back, just like Vegas a couple of years ago. I’ve already met with one player, and I intend to meet with another player, and I might actually jump out of this location to meet with another player. I’ve been very busy, and we’re ready to rock and roll, but regardless if something happens or if nothing happens, we have a good team already. We’re just trying to add to it.”

• Although Cashman has indicated he’s not necessarily looking for a utility man, Girardi said it’s too early to know who might play that role for the Yankees next season. “You’ve got to wait and see what we add, the possibilities that we have going into spring training,” Girardi said. “(Eduardo Nunez) came up and got his feet wet with us last year. Pena filled in pretty well for us. I know when you look at Ramiro Pena’s numbers you don’t necessarily look at the average and say he had a great year, but he had some big RBIs for us. He really did. You wait to see what you have, and then you start talking about what you can do.”

• As you might have guessed, Girardi referred to Nunez as “Nuny.”

• Cashman is talking to several free agents and teams. How are those talks going? “Like most of them, slow,” Cashman said.

• Is the Yankees budget flexible? “I’m always willing to entertain whatever anybody comes into my office and wants to talk about,” Hal Steinbrenner said. “So is Hank. Hopefully that answers your question. But not always, no. Not always. It depends on how I feel, if I have my coffee yet today.”

• Dustin Moseley is reportedly close to a Major League deal with the Padres.

• Via text message, Dave Eiland said he had no comment on reports that he’s about to accept a job with the Rays.

Associated Press photo

Brian Cashman said he’s in no position to dictate the pace in his negotiations with Cliff Lee, but he’s ready to take the next step if Lee’s ready for an offer.

“If they’re willing to take one and they’re ready to close something out, I’m willing to get serious,” Cashman said. “We’re just waiting for them to get to that position.”

This comes on a rather bizarre day in the ongoing Lee saga. Some reports suggest the Washington Nationals are heavily involved. Jon Heyman is hearing two teams are willing to offer seven years, but there’s no indication of who those teams might be.

“I know what we are willing to do,” Cashman said. “I know how far we’re willing to go. We’d love to add Cliff Lee to the Yankee rotation. There’s no doubt about that. He knows that. I’ve got a great working relationship with the agent. The player has, I think, good ties to some of the players on this team. At the end of the day, it’s business. It’s all business. He’s going to weigh the opportunities presented to him and the offer presented to him and the locales presented to him – whatever they are – and measure it against whatever we’re willing to do. He’ll make a call. He’ll make a decision here at some point. We just have to respect the process, respect the player and his family and their intent and interest.”

Joe Girardi today acknowledged the obvious: That there is no Lee substitute on the market. If the Yankees don’t get Lee, and still want to add a front-line pitcher, they’ll have to make a trade. Of course, Cashman is already talking about alternatives, and keeping an eye on the “large net” he’s cast throughout baseball.

“Pitching is the key to the kingdom,” Cashman said. “If we can improve upon the pitching, great. Obviously we’ve been in the situation (in the past) where we’ve decided we can’t, so you ramp up the offense even more so. I’ve been there and done that, and I’m not afraid to do that again. I like what we have. Can I improve upon it? I think there are possibilities there. First preference, we go to the pitching side, but after a while, you might change your focus a little bit. That’s why I’ve got a large net cast. I’ll be able to adjust rather quickly if we choose to do so.”

Associated Press photo

This afternoon’s press conference was Derek Jeter at his most candid. Sure, he kept some of the details to himself — this is still Jeter we’re talking about — but he was surprisingly open about his distaste for what’s happened during the past month.

“I can’t tell you I ever thought it was going to go this way,” he said. “My understanding is that it was supposed to be a private negotiation. That’s how it’s supposed to go, but it didn’t go that way.”

It was the public back-and-forth that bothered Jeter. He said the money was never really an issue. He was disappointed by the perception that he was being greedy, that his ego had gotten the best of him.

“It all started with my (reported) salary demands, which still cracks me up,” he said. “What position am I in to demand a salary? Give me this, or what? Where am I going?”

Jeter used the word angry a surprising number of times, always in one way or another directed at the organization and the people he obviously still cares about very deeply. In particular, Jeter said, he was hurt by Brian Cashman’s public comments that he should test the free agent market if he thought there was a better offer to be found.

“I was pretty angry about it, but I let that be known,” Jeter said. “I was angry about it because I was the one that said I didn’t want to do it, that I wasn’t going to (test the market). To hear the organization tell me to go shop it when I just told you I wasn’t going to, if I’m going to be honest, I was angry about it.”

Cashman seemed to see it as part of the process. Negotiations becoming public, he said, is inevitable for a player of Jeter’s stature. Cashman said he was angry to be put in a position that required a public response.

“When they’re on the field, that’s when it’s at their best,” Cashman said. “When they’re at the negotiating table, it’s a different arena. It’s a different type of game than the one they’re used to playing on the field. That’s why it’s a good thing there are agents in between.”

Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, was among those who went public during this negotiation, but Jeter said Close’s words and opinions were not Jeter’s words and opinion. Jeter tried to stay out of it. When family and friends urged him to speak up, Jeter refused, “because I said from the get-go I wasn’t going to talk about it.” Getting a fourth year on his contract was important because Jeter wanted to delay his next negotiation as long as possible.

“And I promise you, you won’t hear about that one,” he said.

Ultimately, today seemed to be a good day for Jeter. He said what he needed to say, and he said it after all the contract talk was over and done with. He’s back with the Yankees, and as many people said many times, he never really left.

“Look, I’ve been making a lot of money playing baseball,” Jeter said. “Money has never been something I’ve talked about before, and I’m not going to talk about it now. You understand that it’s a business, and there’s negotiations on both sides. You may not agree with it, but once you get to an agreement, you move beyond it. It’s over and it’s done with. I’m not sitting around focused on what I’m making this particular year compared to last year or anything like that. I’m happy because this is where I wanted to be. This is what was going to make me happy.

“I’m happy with the deal I have. If I wasn’t happy, I wouldn’t have signed the deal. I’m extremely happy.”

Associated Press photo

Just rolled into the Derek Jeter press conference. There are spots at the table for Jeter, Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman, Hal Steinbrenner, Hank Steinbrenner, Felix Lopez and Jennifer Steinbrenner-Swindal.

I’ll update this post as the main event gets going.

Hank’s name card was taken off the table just minutes before this thing started.

Cashman: “He never left. We didn’t want him going anywhere.”

Girardi: “He is a true Yankee.”

Jeter: “I had never planned on going anywhere.”

Jeter called the situation “uncomfortable” and said he was “angry” about how public the negotiations became.

“It was not an enjoyable experience,” he said.

On questions about his age: “I’m getting older, but so is everyone else in this room.”

Time to hit the road. I have a full rental car, as the Yankees beat is making its way across the state to Tampa. You might not expect it, but we’re actually the envy of the Winter Meetings.

We get to escape the lobby for a few hours. Everyone else is stuck here.

Meanwhile, the Orlando morning buzz is quickly becoming an afternoon non-story. There are now multiple reports that the Nationals are not in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes. In this age of Twitter and 10-minute news cycles, this sort of thing is inevitable. Reporters hear something, and they report it. When it’s shot down, they report that too. This is the nature of the beast.