The news of Jorge Posada's apparent rift with the Yankees continues to be a hot topic today following Saturday's incident, which may have rendered the veteran catcher/DH in breach of contract. It remains to be seen whether Posada will be back in the lineup today or whether the Yanks will take action against him, but in the meanwhile, here's the latest info and reactions.
- The Yankees announced that they have accepted Posada's apology and consider the matter closed. He will not be disciplined.
- Posada has apologized to Girardi and said he "had a bad day," tweets MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. In a separate tweet, Hoch reports that Posada will also speak to Cashman, and quotes the catcher as saying he "learned from this."
- Joel Sherman spoke to union officials who dispute any statute or precedent that the Yankees can dock Posada two days of pay, and are "vehement" that there's no basis for placing him on the restricted list or voiding his contract even if Posada asks for another day off (Twitter links).
- As of now, the only thing that's clear about what caused the stir is Posada asked out of Saturday's lineup when he discovered he was batting ninth, write Joel Sherman, George A. King III and Brian Costello of the New York Post.
- The Yanks have no intention of retaining Posada beyond this season, and that has been their plan since Spring Training, according to Sherman (via Twitter).
- The Yankees considered suspending Posada, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com.
- Posada's and the Yankees' pride have made the situation unnecessarily messy, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Also in that piece, you can watch the clip from FOX's broadcast on Saturday night in which Yankees GM Brian Cashman told Rosenthal that Posada asked out of the lineup.
- The only thing saving Posada's job is his longstanding relationship with the Yankees, writes Olney (Insider subscription needed). Were he any other player, he'd probably be gone.
- It's long been known that Posada and Yankees manager Joe Girardi have a strained relationship, but it's now apparent that Cashman and Posada don't get along, either, writes Sherman.
- The Posada situation speaks to a larger dilemma for the Yankees, who are having to deal with stars during their decline phases, according to Sherman.
- Posada acted uncharacteristically unprofessional, and the only way he can rectify the situation is if he admits he made a mistake, writes Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
- Girardi failed at one of his goals: minimizing distractions and negativity, tweets Jon Heyman of SI.com.
- Posada's explanation that he received treatment for an ailing back doesn't add up for Heyman (via Twitter).
- Peter Gammons relays a bit of wisdom from a former GM about the risky nature of rostering declining stars (via Twitter).
- Posada should ask for forgiveness for one mistake in what has been an otherwise exemplary career, tweets Sherman.
- The only resolution for the situation is if Posada begins hitting immediately, tweets Olney.
He’s 39!! The end of the road. Retire.
The Yankees should let bygones be bygones and reward him with a three year extension for his outstanding past service.
Exactly… he’s Done!
Jorge Vasquez has 14 homers in AAA..league leader in HRS, & hitting .306…Jesus Montero is currently batting.337 and playing every day as catcher…any questions?….I do love Jorge, he was been a great Yankee…Time to infuse some more young talent into this team, after all isn’t that how Jorge got his chance?….Didn’t Vasquez hit like 8 or 9 homers in ST also….what does he have to do to get a shot in the Big Show???
Vasquez has also struck out almost 30% of the time in AAA with a BB% below 6. He isn’t a guy the Yankees would want playing. Plus he’s already 28. Montero would be my guess but he would be playing DH and his power, for whatever reason, hasn’t showed up this year and he’s walking less. You need more than a .771 OPS at DH.
should we go over posada’s stats one more time???….Yes I guess a Vasquez 3 run homer wouldn’t work..2 more homers last night…one hit the scoreboard…guy is a beast..strong…tore up the mexican league before the yanks signed him…hes a hitter….Again, what does a guy need to do to get a shot…he was the best hitter in spring training and is tearing up AAA…Yes he may come up and strike out some or montero may come up and only hit .250…but you can’t tell me they don’t at least deserve a shot or spot on the bench, or dh a little, catch a little, play vs left handers…come on….lets get a little bench help here…have you watched swisher and posada all year like I have…pitchers know right where to go to get these guys out in a big spot…they strike out like crazy…posada can’t hit a curve and swisher is completely lost and neither can get a runner home from third with less than 2 outs …they’ve done it all year, not just a slump…all year!!! I disagree, these guys deserve a shot and may get it sooner than we think…
“should we go over posada’s stats one more time???”
enough said. i know i didn’t read the rest
Well, looks like I was wrong… you got it right
Yeah Posada suddenly forgot how to hit a curve. He was always a very “ehh” hitter vs the curve. It’s his inability to hit a plus (93 mph +)fastball this year that is killing him.
2009/2010 avg vs curve: -0.8
2011 vs curve: -1
2009/2010 avg vs fastball: +10.5
2011 vs fastball: -1
Sadly, he hold a (-) runs above avg vs the fb/curve/slider/change and cutter.
Hopefully, he can get with Long and fix things.
As for Swisher
“they’ve done it all year, not just a slump…all year!!!”
…you say that as if this is August. We still have 4 1/2 months to go. Any player can go on a 2 week tear and turn a .200 avg into a .285 avg.
Cannot see Swisher all of a sudden falling off of a cliff either. from the few games have seen him in, he just looks to be moving around a bit too much at the plate this year. A lot of difference in him and Posada. Bat speed is one thing to lose. Moving around, or another problem can be overcame.
Montero would be the logical guess but I don’t understand your reasoning regarding Vazquez’s age. It really doesn’t matter because no one is looking at him as a long term solution. He isn’t exactly a guy who struggled early in his career and is just dominating because of age. He’s always had power and never really got ashot anywhere. If Posada’s struggles continue and they don’t want to bring up Montero for any reason then Vazquez is worth checking out.
Agree. Vasquez is just another way to spell Shelly Duncan. Montero has been focusing on his defensive ‘liabilities’ and is getting by on his natural hitting talent while he awaits the call to the bigs.
I prefer that he stay. He’s playing awful, takes up a roster spot that could be used to actually develop some of their younger catchers, and his salary is a dead weight. This was a possibility when they signed him to this contract. Good luck trying to get out of it.
Really enjoying all this overreaction to a minor slump and some losing by the Yankees. They really can’t handle a little adversity, can they? Are we close to firing a GM, a manager and blowing up the roster over there already?
I’m a Yankee fan and trust me, Is not a slump… he’s 39 former catcher, all washed up and hey you know the production doesn’t last forever, he just doesn’t have the bad speed to adjust anymore. he can run into one because he still has the strenght but that’s about it… A DH is supposed to produce in a big way, and a 240. avg won’t make it.
r u serious? Posada has still got tremendous power and he’s still got the bat speed (he’s hitting fastballs u know). He’s got problems with off-speed stuff but so have Jeter, Tex, A-Rod and Swish. Posada’s just slumping.
He got like 100 ABs? Wow, what a great sample size, that guy’s a total bust!!
Seriously, just because he’s old doesn’t mean he can’t do anything. And if you really know something about baseball you see that Posada isn’t done yet. He still has some gas left and trust me: there aren’t too many guys in the MLB that have Posada’s power. He could easily hit 25 homers this year.
i don’t think anyone expects that he would finish the year under .200 or whatever. the concern is that he won’t be a productive DH, 20 HRs or not. and the new concern appears to be that he’ll be a distraction
posada’s numbers haven’t been DH-worthy for a couple of years now
Actually he isn’t hitting fastballs like he did in 2009 or 2010 and that’s the problem. Pitchers feel they can overpower him. He actually isn’t hitting any pitch above avg right now.
He CAN still knock it out the park, especially batting lefty in NYS and he still has a good ability to draw a walk is still decent @12% but he needs to get it together. He looks clueless right now.
@facebook-100002355413023:disqus
I love JoPa but we all have to open our eyes and see it is what it is and hope he can turn it around. Half the battle is mental and his inability to drive the ball and his current state ofmind is a MAJOR issue.
It’s called the NY media. Completely unforgiving. Much, much easier to play in cities like St. Louis, LA and Boston where the people writing about the teams actually hope for their success.
Have you ever read Dan Shaughnesy for the Boston Globe? He’s a horrible hack who makes up stuff to dump on the team. For the most part the rest are pretty good.
Yes.
Now imagine every NY sports writer is Dan Shaughnessy, except they don’t even bother to pretend they like the team. And they’re 10 times as stupid.
C’mon now, nobody is 10 times as stupid as CHB
i’m trying to imagine a person 10 times as stupid as dan shaughnessy
it hurts
You’ve never listened to Mike Francesca. He brings stupid to a whole new level! And on top of that he’s a pompous jerk.
Mike Wilner or Richard Griffin are easily 10 times (or more) as stupid I’m sure.
They have a name for someone that stupid. His name is TJ Simmers of the LA Times.
Step 1: Go to Radio Shack.
Step 2: Buy a $10 FM radio.
Step 3: Tune into 98.5 FM.
Step 4: Wait for Tony Mazzarotti to start speaking.
Step 5: Experience the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark firsthand.
I’ll chime in that the Boston sports media really isn’t any better than NY. The vast majority out here are malcontents who make their money with Chick Little sky is falling crap, and it’s not isolated to the Sox. The media out here is having a field day with the Celtics for having the audacity to lose to one of the best teams in the NBA and the city almost burned down when the Bruins lost game one of the conference finals. Then there’s the Patriots guys, constantly second guessing a coach almost any franchise would kill to have. Shank actually built his career off of the Red Sox’ eighty+ years of futility.
Posada has had a GREAT career with the Yanks and Id hate for it to end like this. He might be done at 39
Meanwhile Martin has done great behind the plate. But the problem now with the Yanks is starting pitching…its catching up to them already..They need to get a good front line starter and bring up some of the younger players
Its not the starters at all..totally disagree, they’d be 5 games under .500 if not for garcia and colon, who have been good to great so far…sox had trouble with colon the other night…6 inn 2 runs…cc yesterday 6 inn 2 runs…hows that bad??….I do agree with bringing up vasquez and/or montero..time has come for a change, they need a hitter behind cano real bad…definite soft spot…yanks are about a .500 team since last august 1st when girardi went into this “rest period” thing for players…he even did it during a pennant race last year…pitching minor leaguers in critical games down the stretch?…if i was the gm, I might start looking for a different field general to run this 200 million dollar team..personally, this team is loaded…power, speed, veterans, good solid bullpen, best closer in baseball and the starting pitching keeps you in every game…do you know that they’ve been in every game except 1 this year…starters are going long and the games are tight…except for nova the other night when the defense played poorly…girardi generally gets beat by the other manager on a regular basis…if he threw out his binder and started managing the game more on “feel”, he may see better results…hes really not helping…never seen a managers moves backfire more than girardi’s…amazing..
I guess all that money doesn’t buy you an unsinkable ship.
I do hate to see a player on the decline. Maybe its a decline cuz he is in nyc. If he was on the mariners this wouldnt be that big of a issue ,because of the crazy media scrutany. He was mad because he was batting 9th, what a egomaniac. It does seem that ny yanks cant handle any kind of dilema, ohh thats why they spend so much so its harder to see any problems within the clubhouse. The sad thing is I do really like the yanks.
It wouldn’t be as big a deal in Seattle? Yeah, there’s less media scrutiny, but the Ken Griffey decline last year was a big deal locally — it ended up with the manager getting fired because the players thought he was throwing Griff under the bus.
Sherman says: And if it’s Posada today, which aging Yankee icon will it be tomorrow?
It looks like it will be ARod, doesn’t it? – then Jeter — although going into the season and early in the season it looked like it would be Jeter and then ARod.
But boy does Sherman have it right when he says that the Yankees have more aging icons than any other team. It’s hard to see how any of their careers end well — for them or for the Yankees.
Of course, even if the players do stay too long at the party and somewhat diminish their reputations and their standing with Yankee fans in the process, it’s the Yankees organization (the Steinbrenners and Levine more specifically since Cashman fought against the long ARod and Jeter extensions) who are to blame most. Any player can ask for any amount of money for any number of years. The blame for the lack of wisdom in giving it to them lies squarely on the shoulders of the Steinbrenners and Levine.ong at the party and somewhat diminish their reputations and their standing with Yankee fans in the process, it’s the Yankees organization (the Steinbrenners and Levine more specifically since Cashman fought against the long ARod and Jeter extensions) who are to blame most. Any player can ask for any amount of money for any number of years. The blame for the lack of wisdom in giving it to them lies squarely on the shoulders of the Steinbrenners and Levine.
for all the drama, this really isn’t a huge deal for the yankees’ season. they’re more than fine. thin ice depending on colon and garcia? sure, and when the hitting slumps all at once they’ll look very ugly…like most teams
but they’re still a playoff club. that lineup is still ridiculous. they still have sabathia at the top and arms behind him that can keep the offense in the game. and a shut-down bullpen
whether posada stays or goes, the worst thing that could happen is that it continues to be a distraction. shutup and play. or don’t play and go write a book with milton bradley
Exactly its frustrating to watch them these last 10 games but that lineup is not gonna struggle forever too much offensive talent.
What an incredible non-story this all is. All the fan and media speculation fuels and non-existent fire storm and leads to absolutely crazy conclusions. I mean from what I saw it went from “Posada pulls himself out of lineup” to “retirement?!” to “Posada breach of contract. Yankees might let him go” in like two or three innings. The fact that this overshadowed the game last night in any capacity for more than 5 minutes is embarrassing.
Cashman may be upset that he sees Varitek and all of his supposed “intangibles” signed for 2M hitting the same or higher than his 13m ex-catcher that was never known as a game caller to begin with and now thrust into a DH position.
As for the breach of contract stories floating around.. Does not matter. This is not a David ortiz, nor a 33-34 YO Power hitter either. This is a 39YO ex-catcher. Maybe the Yankees will get over that Yankee mentality thing and do whats best for the team, release him and find someone better. Just eat the contract. Boston sure needs to do the same with Varitek and he at least still has the respect of a couple members of the pitching staff.
How tough is it?? The Mets ate $19 mil in contracts…
But Varitek’s last contract was signed when he was basically dead. Posada was from 08-11. Obviously an overpay, but he wasn’t completely worthless in 08-10. We’ll see how this season pans out, his BABIP is .164 so I doubt he’s quite this terrible.
Is it me or is this thing completely blown out of proportion?
I think that’s the consensus. Right now this has more to do with the NY media than anything else.
It’s an utterly trivial story that would have gotten virtually no coverage at all had it not involved the Yankees.
I agree that the story was magnitized more because of the NY media but PLEASE let’s not call it trivial.
a) Manager has stuck with Posada by keeping him in the lineup despite hitting under .200.
b) Manager lowers Posada to the #9 spot.
c) Player is insulted that he was moved to #9 and asks the mngr to be taken out of the lineup AND the PLAYER says he will talk to the media after the game.
d) He took himself out of game vs the Yanks biggest rivals. As one of the team leaders you are suppose to get out there and do your best to help your team win a game, ESPECIALLY against a tough RH pitcher inside Yankee stadium. Instead we had to go righty vs righty w/ Jones aking his place.
e) After hearing the backlash his wife tweets that he has a bad back and Posada says the same thing despite NEVER mentioning the back issue with his mngr, the trainer or the GM.
He apologized for a reason. He was being selfish yesterday.We can call it water under the bridge but that was the definition of selfish and if this was Manny Ramirez doing this with the Red Sox we would be all over it too.
This whole incident was really shocking to me, as I’ve always held Posada in high regard. The guy has always been an honest and straight shooting guy, but what he did yesterday was classless and just plain childish.I can understand that he feels somewhat ‘disrespected’ by the way he was basically told this past winter that he would not be the catcher. But that should not have come as a shock to him.
After the way the Bernie Williams was treated at the end of his career, the way Hideki Matsui was coldly cut after being the Series MVP in ’09 and Damon let go as well, what exactly was he expecting, given his performance? If Jeter’s contract drama didn’t resonate, what will it take? Cashman and Girardi are in the business of winning games, to hell with sentiment.
I’m still pulling for Posada, he’s been good for the Yankees, on the field and off, l really hope he can put it together and finish with decent numbers and put this immature episode behind him.
It is totally, utterly trivial to everyone except Yankee fans — who seem to truly believe that they are at the center of the baseball universe.
Right because it’s Yankee fans who are writing all the stories and covering it all over ESPN, etc. Rightttttttt. It’s the fans….
To go even further, it’s ironic that YOU a Dodger fan, has decided to enter this thread and post not 1 but 3 comments in the post soley regarding Posada. So somehow the Yanks have become part of your world as well. Yet you criticize…….hmmmmmmm. Are you a closet fan?
Maybe you should check the definition of the word irony. In any case, I do sometimes comment in threads on trivial matters involving the Yankees, only to point out how ridiculously overblown every little thing involving this team becomes, and how Yankee fans truly believe that the entire baseball world revolves around them. You have only helped make my point. So thank you. Now, maybe that’s real irony..
That’s all I could think while reading all of this
lol
Oh come on.. 39 is not that bad.