Andrew Miller’s name has been floated in trade rumors in the early stages of the offseason, and two Major League execs tell Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that Yankees GM Brian Cashman does indeed seem at least open to the idea of moving him. The Yankees would be comfortable with Dellin Betances serving as their closer, Feinsand writes, but the execs to whom he spoke stressed that Cashman would need to be overwhelmed to deal Miller. Still, Feinsand notes that with the team reluctant to part with any of Luis Severino, Greg Bird or Aaron Judge and a lack of money coming off the books, Miller is one of the team’s most appealing assets that could be used to add talent to the Major League roster. Feinsand writes that the Yankees probably won’t pursue any top-of-the-market free agents this winter and are also unlikely to add any free agents that come tied to draft pick compensation, meaning previous connections to Wei-Yin Chen and Jeff Samardzija may no longer be apt.
A few more notes from the AL East…
- Starting pitching is the Blue Jays’ top priority even after re-signing Marco Estrada, interim GM Tony LaCava told reporters, including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. While LaCava recognized a need for bullpen help, he said the rotation is the primary focus, adding: “We may let the bullpen come to us a little bit.” Nicholson-Smith aptly notes that the relief market typically features many bargains later in the offseason, with names like Ryan Madson, Franklin Morales and Carlos Villanueva all among players who parlayed January minor league deals into strong 2015 seasons. Regarding internal rotation options, LaCava noted that Aaron Sanchez is more likely to transition to a starting role than Roberto Osuna, if the club decides to shift either’s role at all. LaCava explains that Sanchez has more experience starting, whereas health issues have prevented Osuna from going through a full five-month stretch as a starter.
- Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star relays some quotes from Estrada at the press conference to announce his new contract. Estrada told the Toronto media that his preference was always to come back, and once talks began moving toward a two-year deal following the qualifying offer, he barely considered testing the market at all. Estrada added that the number of key contributors returning to the club in 2016 also made re-upping in Toronto an appealing scenario: “I think even if they left [the roster] alone we’re going to do pretty well this next year. But I’m sure they’re working on stuff.”
- Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post spoke to former Red Sox scout Dave Jauss (now with the Pirates) about his strong push to convince the Red Sox front office to take a chance on David Ortiz back in 2003. Ortiz had been let go by the Twins, who didn’t want to risk paying him a raise in arbitration after having nearly been contracted by the league. Jauss tells Kilgore that he was aware of all the red flags with Ortiz at the time — problems with left-handed pitching and an inability to stay healthy — but he firmly believed from his time spent managing in the Dominican Republic that Ortiz could flourish in an environment that didn’t force him to be so pull-conscious (i.e. Fenway Park). Kilgore’s piece chronicles Jauss’ workouts for Ortiz in the Dominican Republic while he was a free agent as well as what Jauss saw from Ortiz in winter ball early in his career.
- In light of the Giants’ recent extension of Brandon Crawford, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski explores whether or not now is the time for the Orioles to try to secure one of their own homegrown stars: Manny Machado. Crawford inked a six-year extension while he was two years from free agency, but the fact that Machado is still three seasons away and the Orioles have so many other pressing needs this winter mean that an extension isn’t near the top of their priority list at this time, Melewski writes. Melewski’s colleague, Roch Kubatko, tweets that GM Dan Duquette said again today that he is trying to re-sign Chris Davis but can’t handicap the chances of it happening at this time.
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The Yankees announced their complete coaching staff this week. Mike Harkey will take the bullpen coach job, while Tony Pena will instruct the catchers while also handling first base. Per prior announcements, Alan Cockrell will serve as the hitting coach with Marcus Thames as his assistant.
Machado is set to be a FA during his age 26 offseason. He could be a 300M+ player if he continues to have seasons similar to his 2015 year.
The ole dip and duck with DD on Davis. The Os are trying to sign him my arse. What did they offer him confederate money. The Os will offer 6/144 and lose him to another team by 30 million and then say how hard they tried.
If they offer 6/144 and he gets a better offer somewhere else, then they are better off without a contract like that tied to him.
If the O’s miss Davis, they need to rebuild. They are currently the 5th best team in the division that also happens to have the 5th best farm system. That is not a good combination. I would sell anything that’s not tied down and try and rebuild from the ground up.
That’s taking a page from the Mets’ ownership. It sucks.
Why don’t they just Suck it up and give Davis what he wants? Tired of hearing their crap about resigning him. Just give him that 190mil and there ya go
If the Yankees are wary of the net spending of dollars this year, and would look to deal Miller to create payroll room, that tells you that internally, they don’t have a high degree of confidence in the current roster. Which makes complete sense, because the current roster is, in many place, old, overpaid, ad underperforming. They may have to wait until 2017/8.
You can’t say the team is underperforming considering how they played, but you could say they over performed. They are old and will probably not match what they did last year, but with more youth ready to replace injured players next year, they should miss a beat.
The Yankees are old in the right spots. The oldest players they have are at DH, an expiring right fielder, a still productive first basemen whose contract is expiring soon, and a #5 starter.
The front of the rotation is young, they’re young up the middle, and have position players in the minors that are ready to contribute at the aging positions.
Believe it or not, the Yankees were 6th in age this season, behind the Royals and Red Sox amongst other teams.
The Yankees have gotten younger, but they aren’t young yet, and have a ton of money tied up in older players who are highly paid but not performing at the level they are compensated for. Put aside ARod, Tex and CC ($67M for 7 bWAR) and you move to Beltran ($15M for 1bWAR), Headley (13M for 1.1) Elsbury ($21M for 1.9). Add in high salary reasonably productive-but-not-star players like Gardner and McCann, and they still have a cost basis that’s very difficult to move forward with while spending huge this off season. Tex, Beltran and CC will be off contract after this year-presumably, the Yankees will look to replace at least 2 of those 3 with younger and cheaper. I’m not critiquing them as much as I am stating the obvious. Unless they want to go Dodgers, and just eat tons of money and luxury tax, they need to wait a year or two because this roster isn’t championship level.
CC is not a free agent this year. His option will vest.
There is nothing short of shoulder injury stopping the option from vesting. So they only have Beltran and Tex expiring this year. That is only 40 mill worth of what you say dead weight.
that’s true on CC–I was looking at cots and thinking it might not vest. I didn’t use the phrase “dead weight”. What I was trying to get at were players who were being substantially overpaid for what their on-field value is likely to be. The Yankees have a number of players like that eating a lot of money. They are just going to have to wait a year or two. If there’s something worth investing in next off-season, even though 2017 might not be great, they have the money. If not, a serious rebuild might not take effect until 2018.
CC would have been cut a yr or two if he didn’t make ridiculous money. he is the definition of dead money.
I never really understood the Yanks need to resign ARod and CC to those contracts. But they did. CC’s is dead weight right now but Alex came back this year to have an extremely good year and deserved comeback of the year award as much as Fielder. But, a lot of that is political.
Agreed–and it’s always tough when you sign a pitcher to a long-term contract. Things happen to even the best of them, and even on not the ultra-long deals–look at Lee and Halladay. One of the few that worked out was Mussina.
And guys like Grienke and Price will be getting several offers of things like 5-6-7 year deals. More power to them but some teams have more money than sense. Oh well. Not my money. 🙂
if the Orioles dont sign Chris Davis then Peter Angelos should just sell the team to someone who is willing to spend. The Orioles won’t win anything by not spending money to keep their players. The players they do pay aren’t worth half of what they give them (JJ Hardy 13 mil, Ubaldo Jimenez, 12 mil) Not to mention Duquette can’t draft us a decent farm system after trading away our best prospects for half year rentals. ( Eduardo Rodriguez for Andrew Miller)
I don’t criticize the O’s for the Miller deal. When you’re that close and have been out of the playoffs as long as Baltimore had been in 14, you gotta go for the gold and Andrew performed great for them in the regular season and the playoffs. Hard to say if they would have made it to the ALCS without him—but they did and so the deal was worth it IMO. Maybe Rodriguez will in the Cy…who knows?