The LoHud Yankees Blog

As he keeps talking about the need to add depth to the big league rotation, Brian Cashman also continues to tout the potential of his upper-level pitching talent. As a worst-case scenario, the ability to plug proven minor leaguers into the back of the rotation isn’t a bad thing, but Cashman prefers to keep his prospects developing for the time being.

“We need the depth,” Cashman said this week in Milwaukee. “Noesi’s pitching well in the Dominican right now, and he’s finishing off his innings. He’s definitely going to come into camp, and we have high hopes for him. So that’s one. Phelps just came off the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Week, so he’s doing well getting the innings that he lost because of the injury in the summer. You’ve got Mitchell. You’ve got Warren. You’ve got the youngsters that want to exceed their developmental program which is Betances and Banuelos. So, where they all fit (remains to be seen).”

For obvious reasons, Betances and Banuelos get the most ink. They’re considered the most talented arms in the system, and they each reached Triple-A this year. Betances got a few big league innings.

“Those guys need more innings,” Cashman said. “They should get more innings, but sometimes players that have exceptional talent can jump their programs. Those guys have got exceptional talent. I think they’ll need more innings, and I think they won’t start the season with the New York Yankees. They’ll be with the Empire State Yankees, our Triple-A team that will be nomadic. We’ll see. We’ll find out where they go from here.

“… Again, I expect it to be CC, A.J., Hughes, Nova, and the rest of it is going to come from that pack below, or it will come from an outside source that we have negotiated with or trade for.”

Associated Press photos

Finally out of that Pfister Hotel lobby, it’s easy to look back at the GM Meetings as a time when we learned absolutely nothing about the Yankees, but a few of Brian Cashman’s comments still stand out in my mind.

“I would sacrifice offense if I could improve my pitching.”
This was fairly late in a marathon media session on Tuesday, and the message was obvious: Cashman has a lot of big league hitters, but he’s a big believer that pitching is the “key to the kingdom” and he can never get enough of it. He’d already made the point that anyone who doesn’t have a no-trade clause is a viable trade candidate. How much offense would be willing to give up? Obviously Cashman didn’t go into detail, but he’s obviously considered the idea of sacrificing the lineup to help the pitching staff.

“No one has asked me about Granderson just because he’s a potential MVP candidate, I don’t think they want to bother.”
I have absolutely no indication that the Yankees actively want to trade Curtis Granderson, I just thought it was interesting that Cashman brought this up (especially considering, a few minutes later, he said the thing about sacrificing offense for pitching). Given last year’s production, Granderson’s contract is an absolute bargain, but he does get more expensive next season, and his club option for 2013 is $13 million. That’s not nothing. Given the fact he’s coming off a career year, is there any chance Cashman was trying to send a message of: Ask me about Grandy! Again, no indication whatsoever that Cashman wants to deal his center fielder, but he’s one of the very few GMs in the game who has a second legitimate center fielder already on the roster, and Granderson’s value is clearly sky high.

“I guess, generally, if I had a pot of money and a pot of prospects, I’d rather spend the money than the prospects, if they’re the high-end prospects.”
This was Cashman on the first day of the meetings, and a day later, Hal Steinbrenner seemed to be on board with a similar thought process (“I think every team would prefer to keep its prospects,” Steinbrenner said). It’s not necessarily a new way of thinking for Cashman, but it did seem to underscore his commitment to his truly elite young players, Jesus Montero and Manny Banuelos especially. He later said specifically that Cliff Lee was a “unique circumstance” that would have led him to deal Montero, but nothing like that has presented itself since.

“I have no planned meetings with anybody right now, I can tell you that, but I wouldn’t comment on what the future may bring.”
This was on Wednesday after news broke that the Yankees were discussing/planning/expecting a meeting with C.J. Wilson in New York. Cashman made it clear that no such meeting was scheduled, and he refused to clarify whether it was the Yankees or Wilson’s agent who wanted to speak again. The thing to notice is that Cashman was clearly playing down any notion that he was aggressively going after Wilson. Maybe there will be a meeting, maybe not, but Cashman clearly didn’t want the perception that he’s go hard after the top starter on the market.

I’m not going to do something at these current costs.
This was Cashman talking specifically about the trade market. At one point he asked the gathered beat writers to name his most recent player-for-player trade. He seemed to honestly not know it off the top of his head (it was Sergio Mitre for Chris Dickerson last spring). If the offseason is about perception and expectation — and a lot of it is — Cashman was clearly creating a perception (for other GMs) of being unwilling to budge recent request, and he was creating an expectation (for the fan base) that no player swap is in the works.

Associated Press photo of Hal Steinbrenner leaving the meetings. A Cashman photo would have been better, but that’s the only Yankees AP picture I found from this week’s meetings

Time to get out of Milwaukee. I’m actually between flights right now, heading West to see my sister this weekend.

The GM Meetings went more or less as planned. Brian Cashman met with agents who asked for meetings, spent plenty of time around the game’s other general managers, and left talking about high prices and unreasonable trade requests.

“Part of the process,” Cashman called it.

This morning, the Yankees decision-makers made their way quickly through the lobby and out of the Pfister Hotel. Cashman didn’t speak. Hal Steinbrenner never broke stride. Randy Levine waved hello.

Throughout the week, Cashman did not paint a promising picture of the current trade and free agent markets, but that’s to be expected. He didn’t seem frustrated or surprised.

Cashman got out of town fairly early today because he was scheduled to attend the 15th Annual Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Dinner on Staten Island tonight before going into Manhattan for the Solidarity Sleep Out, a tremendous cause if there ever was one.

Tomorrow is the deadline to protect eligible players from the Rule 5 draft. That means adding some prospects to the 40-man roster. As a general rule, the eligible players are college draftees from 2008 and anyone from the 2007 draft or earlier. High school picks from 2007 are eligible for the first time. International players are more complicated (and confusing).

The Yankees took care of two spots late in the regular season when they added Austin Romine and George Kontos for September call-ups. Those two would have been eligible, and would have been easy choices for protection.

My own prediction: These four stand out as players the Yankees will choose to protect this winter:

David Phelps
Right-handed pitcher
2011: Went 6-6 with a 3.19 ERA in Triple-A

Part of that long list of upper-level rotation prospects, Phelps was a 14th-round pick out of Notre Dame in 2008. He’s been productive throughout the minors and just won the Arizona Fall League’s Pitcher of the Week award. Real chance he could stick on another team’s big league roster out of spring training, and a real chance he would play a role for the Yankees next season. Should be an easy decision to protect him. The Yankees might have tipped their hand when they invited Phelps to observe the big league club late in the season. Probably wouldn’t do that if they were going to risk losing him in the Rule 5.

D.J. Mitchell
Right-handed pitcher
2011: Went 13-9 with a 3.18 ERA in Triple-A.

A ground ball pitcher, Mitchell was a 10th-round pick out of Clemson in 2008. He was arguably the most consistent starter in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, and he could play a role as either a starter or long reliever next season. Just like Phelps, there’s a very real chance that he could stick on another team’s big league roster out of spring training, and he’s certainly in that mix of young pitchers who could help the Yankees immediately. Looks like another easy decision to me. He’s one of the pitchers consistently named as a young candidate for a back-of-the-rotation spot should the Yankees have an opening.

Corban Joseph
Second baseman
2011: Hit .277 with 38 doubles in Double-A.

Joseph is an exception to the rule. A good rule of thumb says high school kids from the 2008 draft are not yet eligible, but the rule is really based on age, and Joseph was old for a high school draft pick when the Yankees took him in the fourth round. Because of his age, Joseph is eligible, and that means he’s likely to be protected. He’s kind of a Kevin Russo-type in that he’s been a steady hitter through the minors with most of his experience coming at second and third (my guess is he could learn the outfield quickly and could play shortstop in an absolute pinch). Could be a helpful utility man.

Zoilo Almonte
Outfielder
2011: Hit .276 with 15 home runs between High-A and Double-A.

After a bit of a breakout season, Almonte looks like this winter’s Melky Mesa: He’s finally had the kind of success the Yankees wanted to see, and now it’s time to protect him despite limited upper-level success. With limited outfield depth — largely because a lot of the 40-man outfielders are out of options — Almonte could fills a need at a thin position. He also has some upside as a corner outfielder who’s starting to show some power (he has some center field experience as well). The Yankees would have to hope he doesn’t follow Mesa’s footsteps with a lackluster first season on the 40-man.

Four notable players exposed

David Adams – Injury cost him most of the past two seasons. Second baseman was a third-round pick in 2008 and could easily put himself back on the map with a strong season, but for now he’s got to earn a spot.

Abe Almonte – Hard to be certain about international guys, but Almonte seems to be eligible at this point. He had a strong second half last season, but that was in High-A, and his track record doesn’t suggest a big-league-ready outfielder.

Brad Suttle – Third baseman out of Texas came into the system with a promising bat, but injuries have slowed his progress and the numbers have not impressed.

Pat Venditte – The Yankees switch-pitcher has posted consistent results but still hasn’t pitched above Double-A.

Jorge Vazquez, Manny Banuelos and Adam Warren are among the Yankees top prospects who are not yet eligible for the Rule 5 despite being upper-level players. 

The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw was a runaway winner in the National League Cy Young race this afternoon, but he didn’t get all of the first-place votes. Four writers voted for Roy Halladay, and one voted for former Yankees starter Ian Kennedy.

Kennedy finished fourth overall, and that’s where most of the voters picked him.

It’s been two years since the Yankees shipped Kennedy to Arizona in the Curtis Granderson deal. At the time, he was coming back from an aneurysm and had never found steady success at the big league level, despite dominant numbers in Triple-A. This season he went 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP.

Having Kennedy on the roster would certainly lessen the need for another No. 2 or 3-type starter, but not making that deal would also leave a significant hole in the Yankees outfield. Kennedy became a Cy Young candidate this year, but Granderson emerged as an MVP contender. Hard to consider that a bad swap for the Yankees.

The GM and Owners Meetings are wrapping up, and Bud Selig is now addressing the media. As expected, he just announced that the Astros move to the American League has been approved, and the league has agreed to add a wild card team to each league.

The Astros move to the AL West won’t happen until 2013, but Selig said it’s possible the two extra playoff teams could begin in 2012. Sounds like it’s going to be a one-game playoff. Selig said he was surprised at how many people preferred that one-game play-in idea.

When the Astros move — creating two 15-team leagues — there will be interleague play every day.

No concerns about a collective bargaining agreement, which seems all but finished at this point.

Unless he’s able to catch an earlier flight, Brian Cashman is planning to fly out of Milwaukee at 1:10 this afternoon. The airport isn’t far away, so he won’t have to leave too early. That gives him an entire morning to start and finish a few conversations.

“I will try to take advantage of while I’m here,” Cashman said yesterday. “It just seems like there’s such a limited time frame to do something, not even to complete something, but just to do something.”

Cashman’s had a few conversations during these GM Meetings, and he might be able to squeeze in a few more. For now, he says, he’s just getting a feel for the market and waiting for prices to come down.

Compared to the Winter Meetings, the GM Meetings are always slow, and there’s been very little news coming out of the Pfister Hotel this week. Only a few more hours to change that before everyone scatters to their various corners of the country and waits to reconvene in Dallas next month.

Brian Cashman met with two more agents today — Dan Lozano and Adam Katz — and played phone tag with another (that’s how he heard about Eric Chavez wanting to play again). Basically, in Milwaukee, agents have been texting Cashman, and he’s been meeting with anyone he has time to see.

“That process is so early,” Cashman said. “It’s not necessarily, hey, we want this, can we do this today? I think it’s more everybody feeling out everybody else. I’ve had a hard time getting dollar figures from agents, to be honest.”

He’s also met with some other GMs to talk trades, but those talks haven’t gone anywhere.

“I guess it’s a seller’s market,” Cashman said. “But unfortunately I haven’t been buying much lately. At some point, I’ll get back in the game, but it’s been easy to stand down since last winter. I hate to say it. It’s not like I’m opposed to making trades, but it’s been easier not to make trades based on the asking prices so far. It’s not like I don’t want to — I’d like to do something — but I’m not going to do something at these current costs.”

This is pretty much to be expected in mid-November.

“I’ve made trade proposals that have been turned down, rather quickly,” Cashman said. “I’ve turned down trade proposals, rather quickly. It’s all part of the process.”

A few other notes from today…

• Cashman said he has no meetings scheduled beyond tomorrow in Milwaukee. There are plenty of reports that the Yankees have talked about meeting with C.J. Wilson in New York at some point, but Cashman wouldn’t comment other than to say there are no further meetings planned. He also wouldn’t say whether it was the Yankees or Wilson’s agent that requested a follow-up meeting. “I don’t feel the need to clarify anything, on my end,” Cashman said.

• With Eric Chavez on the market, Cashman stuck to his usual line about finding bench players for next season. “I know that Andruw Jones and Chavez played a role and an important role for us,” he said. “It was nice to have those choices. It all depends on how the rest of the payroll shakes out, the financial commitment I have, the remaining ability I have. Factor in their cost with what else I’m trying to address. So we’ll see.”

• Drayton McClane confirmed today that the Astros are moving to the American League West. Nothing is official, but it seems pretty clear that baseball is going to have two even leagues and four wild card teams.

• Cashman is leaving Milwaukee early tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. He might try to catch an earlier flight because he has two commitments in New York tomorrow night.

Brian Cashman got a voicemail from Eric Chavez’s agent this afternoon, and the message was simple: Chavez wants to play.

After considering retirement, it seems Chavez would like to give baseball another shot, and his agent is obviously checking in with the Yankees to gauge interest.

“Depends on our payroll situation (and) what he’s looking for,” Cashman said.

In the next breath Cashman added: “I loved everything about him.”

Injuries are an obvious concern with Chavez, and he’s no longer a dynamic, middle-of-the-order bat, but he’s an experienced veteran at a position where the Yankees could use some depth behind Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees have Eduardo Nunez who could backup at third base, but Cashman said he prefers to let Brandon Laird play everyday in third base rather than come off the bench in the big leagues.

Chavez could fit, if the price is right.

The agent for online Cuban sensation Yoennis Cespedes said this afternoon that his client is “a ways down the road” from becoming a part of the free agent market, but it’s clear that Cespedes hopes and expects to be available in time for spring training, and he clearly expects a Major League job when he gets there.

“He’s an unusual guy,” Adam Katz said. “He’s 26. He’s Major League ready. People are going to evaluate, and there will be a value established. People will bid competitively. (The contract) will be what it will be… From what I’m being told, people think he’s Major League ready. I think he feels like he is, and if he’s not, I’m sure everyone will make an adjustment. Right now, we’re planning for him to be with a big league club.”

Katz said Cespedes prefers to play center field but would be open to a job in one of the corners. Establishing value through a comparable player, he said, is difficult because of the circumstance (age, international player, thin free agent market). Katz joked that he’d never seen anything quite like the now infamous YouTube scouting video “since Spinal Tap.”

Quirky videos aside, Cespedes’ greatest calling card might be the fact he’s a potentially dynamic outfielder in a market that doesn’t have a ton of high-end outfield talent.

“I think it’s good timing for the clubs to have a player like this available,” Katz said. “And good timing for the kid.”