The Yankees designated Randy Winn for assignment to make room for Curtis Granderson, according to Ben Shpigel of the New York Times (via Twitter). Manager Joe Girardi told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that the Yankees went with versatility and kept Kevin Russo and Ramiro Pena on the roster instead (Twitter link).
As Ben Kabak of River Ave. Blues explained today, Russo has turned himself into a household name and the Yankees like that Pena can back up at short. That means Winn is available to the 29 other teams (along with his .213/.300/.295 line). The Yankees expected Winn to be a strong defensive presence when they signed him last winter, but he has been average, according to UZR. Winn, who turns 36 next month, makes $1.1MM this year.
Make sense. Not only is Russo probably as good, but he can also be shuttled to Scranton whenever they need to call up a reliever in a pinch.
Best news ever!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Randy Winn-Nice guy and horrible ball player.
Winn is very streaky…unfortunately his bad streaks far outweighed his good streaks.
Winn still hit .260/.356/.360/.716 as a LHB vs RHP with decent veteran glove and some speed. He should be useful to somone as a utility outfielder as long as they still don’t think he is a switch hitter (he had a similar inablity to hit lefties last year too).
I would hope that Randy Winn can read the writing on the wall and will retire. There is probably some dumpster team out there that could use him but he doesnt belong on the roster of a contender or even a .500 team for that matter.
I feel bad that this happened. I understand he wasn’t great, but all he was suppose to be was a backup outfielder. I don’t understand why they didn’t just send down Russo (even though he was playing well).
Awesome, I’m very glad that Russo is staying up, I think with the DH spot open he’ll be able to get enough AB’s to show what kind of hitter he really is.
I wish Winn the best of luck and hopefully he can turn it around on another team.
So far Cashman’s moves this off-season haven’t worked out so far:
– AJax > Grandy…so far
– Javy pitching is pitching in NY like he last pitched in NY
– Signing Winn on a budget instead of paying a few $$$ for Damon
– Nick Johnson being Nick Johnson.
Not going to argue the rest of the points but Winn wasnt a replacement for Damon really. That would be either Granderson or Gardner. Austin Jackson was never on the MLB roster so he was never replaced. Also, Scott Boras and his ridiculous demands are why Damon is no longer a Yankee. He demanded 3 years at something like $15m a year and said not to contact them with an offer of less, so Cashman didnt.
With Nick Johnson likely gone for a good part of the season (and even if he were to return, I would hope they’d get some insurance), I wonder if the Angels would ever consider cutting their loss with Matsui. Considering they’ve dropped him down the order and he isn’t hitting very well, similarly to Winn, maybe it just isn’t a good fit.
Hell, I’d take current Matsui as DH over Johnson any day of the week.
Wishful thinking…Matsui doesn’t look right in anything other than pinstripes.
With Hughes pitching like an ace out of the #5 spot and #4 Andy pitching like a #2-3, the Yankees can somewhat hold on Javy and hope he corrects himself. The more pressing issue is offense and bullpen. Bullpen misses P. Coke.
They miss Phil Coke? He had a 4.68 FIP last year.
Where to begin:1) Jackson had an absurd BABIP of .530 in March/April and hit .364/.422/.495, and in May he still has a relatively high BABIP of .377 and is only managing a .289/.333/.378. Now I now you said so far but c’mon, Jackson is proving that he had nothing more than a very hot start to the season and Granderson hasn’t had half the AB’s that Jackson has, I’m just saying that it’s way too early to even be mentioning that situation yet.2) No one and I mean no one predicted Javier to be THIS bad, most people (reasonable people anyway) were predicting 200 IP with an ERA near 3.8, which would be considered a success considering how far away Vizcaino is.3) Like it was already pointed out: Winn was signed as a 4th/5th OF, not as Damon’s replacement, the only reason that Winn has seen so much playing time is because Granderson was hurt and Winn can play defense, whereas Thames cannot.4) Everyone knew Nick Johnson would get hurt, even Cashman knew this, what we were hoping is that he could provide 130 games in the DH and put up his usual .400 OBP. DH isn’t exactly the hardest position to fill at the trade deadline.5) It was relatively well documented that the Yankees offered Damon a 2 year 14MM dollar offer, which is one million less annually, but with an extra guaranteed year, which sounds better to you 1/8 or 2/14 at age 36?Look, I know Vazquez has sucked so far, and Granderson has had less than 100 AB’s, but I think we should give it more than 48 games before we start commenting on Brian Cashman’s offseason moves.
1) Jackson obviously won’t keep the pace come august, and probably he and Granderson will end up with similar stats, but we got to consider something:
Granderson has been hurt a lot of time, while AJAX has been healthy so AJAX has given Detroit some needed stability, while the acquisition of Granderson and the inclusion of Winn+Thames created a monster on the OF, a big hideous monster that can’t field, can’t throw and most of the time can’t hit pretty well.
Cashman had a desition and he opted to trade a young, fast fielder for a fast fielder 6 years older than AJAX that has been proven that can’t hit LHP.
Not only that but JoeG even opted to go with Winn+Thames when at spring training he cut the guy with the highest batting average for the NYY (a guy as older as Granderson)… how did that end? oh yeah, Winn got DFA’d because he couldn’t hit.
2) “No one and I mean no one predicted Javier to be THIS bad, most people (reasonable people anyway) were predicting 200 IP with an ERA near 3.8”.
Then those people are not being reasonable at all, considering how Vázquez ERA in the NL it’s above 4.00, plus EVERYBODY knew Javier had lost 2 mph since 2006, and from them to 2010 it’s nearly 4 mph, for a pitcher that relies heavily in his FB-Curve combination it’s pretty tough to have a fastball just a few miles above his curve.
3) “Winn can play defense, whereas Thames cannot”
I guess JoeG has not read that because he has used Thames 17 times in the OF, resulting in “only” 2 errors.
4) “DH isn’t exactly the hardest position to fill at the trade deadline.”
I don’t think anybody in his 5 senses would hire a player thinking “oh I will need to replace him come July 30-31”, that’s just silly, if the NYY had REALLY tought about that they would have signed a replacement from the get go, which they obviously didn’t and left them with a mediocre hitter like Thames (0.222 in may once he started playing regularly).
P.S.
I know it’s early but NYY fans as I had a few doubts regarding those signings/moves and those were:
Will Nick stay healthy? ——> So far, nope;
Will Winn be better than last year? ——> Nope, DFA’d
Will Thames actually hit? ——> So far, nope (once he started playing regularly);
Will Javier Vázquez be better this year for the NYY? ——> So far, nope;
AJAX, a player the NYY brass called ‘not ready’, can handle Major League pitching? ——> So far, yes;
M.
-AJax got off to a hot start, and is his OPS is .711 for May, and his BABIP is still above .450-Javy was on the All Star team the last time he was in NY, so no he’s NOT pitching ike he did last time-Winn wasnt a replacement for Damon- and if you do some research Damon said in an SI interview he was NOT going to accept a 40% pay cut- and I’m sure if Cashman offered a 30% pay cut Damon would have the same response
-Yeah NJ got hurt- funny how no one is saying they should have resigned Matsui now right?
Winn was a class act in SF….played great D in that tricky right field corner. Couldn’t hit lefties anymore though. NY was an odd choice for him. He could still help someone.