Raul Ibanez leaves for Seattle Mariners, Brian Cashman and Yankees still eye righthanded bat
With an all-lefty outfield of Curtis Granderson, Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki, that righty bat remains Cashman’s top priority.
By Mark Feinsand / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, December 24, 2012, 1:33 AM
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Ron Antonelli/Daily News
Brian Cashman is still in search of a righthanded bat.
Last winter, Raul Ibanez didn’t sign with the Yankees until the beginning of spring training. This offseason, the veteran had no plans to wait that long.
Ibanez’s desire to have his contract situation settled before Christmas ultimately punched his ticket out of New York, the 40-year-old agreeing to a deal with Seattle, as the Yankees were not prepared to re-sign him on his timetable.
“I can’t have that complicate my ability to get what I want,” general manager Brian Cashman said Sunday. “We’ll need something for the DH spot as well, but the most important aspect right now is finding a right-handed bat in the outfield.”
With an all-lefty outfield of Curtis Granderson, Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki, that righty bat remains Cashman’s top priority. Scott Hairston remains the team’s preference, though he’s looking for a two-year deal that the Yankees appear hesitant to hand out. Matt Diaz could also make sense given his career .324/.364/.498 slash line against lefties.
Although the free-agent market is limited, Cashman said there are trade options as well, though “the prices aren’t anything I like.”
Last winter, Cashman was forced to wait until he unloaded A.J. Burnett and part of his salary before he could sign Ibanez and Eric Chavez for a combined $2 million. The situation appears to be similar this year, as the GM let Ibanez sign for $2.75 million with the Mariners over the weekend despite the Yankees’ interest in retaining him.
The Yankees have dished out one-year contracts to Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Kevin Youkilis for a combined $49 million, and also signed Ichiro to a two-year pact worth $13 million.
According to the website Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Yankees already have commitments to 13 players exceeding $180 million for the upcoming season and there is another $8.5 million they’ll pay Burnett as part of last year’s trade with the Pirates. They also have four players eligible for arbitration, including Phil Hughes and Dave Robertson, who will command raises in the coming weeks.
“We never made an offer,” Cashman said of Ibanez. “I have to see how much money I have left. I don’t have an unlimited budget.”
Does this sound familiar. Cashman said this last year and we got the great Andruw Jones back and what did he do? You could not wait to see the Yankees get rid of him after his second half with the Yankees. Too bad the Yankees don’t have a young players to bring up and fit in, since they are trying to save money. They don’t, so the only way to fix holes for Right handed hitting outfielder and DH are to trade (not a lot to trade with,) or sign. Same old story under Hal. Look-out Yankees fans, I see disaster coming. EDB
SD Yankee Report 