MLB Free Agency: New York Yankees Search to Fill DH Role Already Over?
February 9, 2012 · Michael Moraitis · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
In the last two days, the New York Yankees have signed veterans Bill Hall and Russell Branyan to minor league deals. Of all the rumors we’ve heard about the possible candidates to fill the Yanks’ DH spot, none have been signed as of yet, which makes me wonder if their solution could be in the minors already.
All offseason long, we’ve heard how the Bombers are trying to cut payroll in the future to avoid paying the luxury tax. That threshold is $189 million, so naturally that’s the goal that Hal Steinbrenner wants to hit by 2014.
General manager Brian Cashman has been handcuffed this Winter financially and had to ask Steinbrenner for the extra cash to sign Hiroki Kuroda. Hal finally decided to budge, and then Cashman got his guy by trading for Michael Pineda, who didn’t cost anything.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post confirms Hal’s stinginess with the payroll:
“Owner Hal Steinbrenner already has expanded his budget once this offseason to allow the signing of Hiroki Kuroda. He has yet to say the Yankees can do so again in order to sign even one additional player, much less two. This is why the Yankees are quietly — but diligently — still working to trade A.J. Burnett.”
Kuroda was signed to a one-year, $10 million deal for 2012, while Branyan and Hall were signed to minor league deals as I mentioned before. If both make the Yanks’ big-league club, that could equal out to around $12 million in payroll for those three players.
Long before any of this, the Bombers made it clear they would try and deal A.J. Burnett, claiming they’d be willing to pick up $4 million each year over the next two seasons, leaving the team taking Burnett in the deal left paying $12 million.
Does anyone see the parallel here?
Trading away $12 million of Burnett’s salary brings New York back to where they began this offseason, monetarily speaking. It covers the roughly $12 million they’ve spent on Kuroda, Hall and Branyan.
So one has to wonder: is this it for New York? Will they be hoping to find a diamond in the rough in either Hall or Branyan in order to fill the void left by the trade for Pineda?
The closer we get to spring training without hearing any further news on the DH front, the more it makes me believe that Hal will put a stop to any more spending that Cashman hopes to do on this roster.
Joe Girardi made himself clear that he needed another piece for the Yankees, and I suspect Girardi might have been trying to put pressure on ownership to budge slightly more in order to bring in a bat to fill-in the DH spot in the lineup.
“I think it will be helpful; I do,” Girardi said at Modell’s Sporting Goods in Times Square. “I think we’ve had a good offseason; I think Brian has done a really good job this offseason in what he’s done. But I think it’s important to our club that you add that other bat. The American League is going to be tough.”
Girardi might find that a platoon will be the only option he has and that the left-handed Branyan and the Yanks’ aging stars will be rotated at DH throughout the year.
If Hal’s proven anything since he’s been in charge, it’s that he’ll do what he wants to whether the people working around him (Cashman) like it or not.
If Hal wants to stick with the two question marks (Branyan and/or Hall) the Yanks have signed in the past few days and try to get through 2012 with them instead of either Raul Ibanez, Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon, then he’ll do just that.
I’m not making any guarantees that the Bombers won’t sign a DH, but there are alarming signs that they may have already signed their options for 2012 and, in pure Yankee fashion, do exactly the opposite of what we’re all expecting.
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