This is from Kevin Kernan, so make of that what you will, but the Post is reporting that the Yankees “have interest” in outfielder Raul Ibanez, presumably to fill the other half of their DH platoon with Andruw Jones. Ibanez has spent the last three years in Philadelphia after Ruben Amaro did what Ruben Amaro does and gave the then 36 year old Ibanez a three year contract after the 2008 season. Ibanez rewarded him with a solid 2009 season, but it’s been all downhill from there, bottoming out with a .245/.289/.415 slashline (90 wRC+) and a -1.3 fWAR thanks in no small part to his atrocious left field defense.

Platoon splits make Ibanez look a little bit better, as he had a wRC+ of 101 against right-handed pitchers, but I’m still underwhelmed by the prospect of the Yankees adding him. Ideally you’d like to see a platoon hitter be better than average from his strong side, and given that Ibanez will turn 40 this June, there’s certainly a very real chance the bottom will fall out any day now. I suppose I wouldn’t say no to a minor-league deal in this case, but a major league deal doesn’t really make a lot of sense, in my opinion.

Good news everyone; Boone Logan is comin’ back! Okay, so he never really left, because he’s only arbitration eligible, but the Yankees announced today that they’ve settled on a salary figure for their primary LOOGY. Logan will make $1.875 million in 2012, just a touch under the mid-point of the figures he and the team submitted in the arbitration process.

Via Jon Heyman, the Yankees have DFA’d relief pitcher Kevin Whelan in order to make room for Hiroki Kuroda on the 40-man roster. The team made the re-signing of Andruw Jones final yesterday, claiming the final available roster spot and making the additional move necessary. The Yankees may need to clear additional roster space in the coming weeks if they make additional moves for a new designated hitter or utility infielder as well.

We got a tremendous response to our recent announcement that we were seeking new writers, and I’m pleased to announce that we have added five new writers to the staff. So, without any gilding of the lily, allow me to introduce them.

-William Tasker is a name you might recognize as the man behind The Flagrant Fan, from Twitter, or as a regular contributor to the IIATMS comment section. William is a native of Bergen County, New Jersey presently relocated in the upper reaches of enemy territory New England. He’s been writing about baseball online since 2003, and has also published nine non-baseball related books.

-Michael Kuring may be more familiar to you as 3460kuri, the handle he has been contributing to Pinstripe Alley with. Michael has been a Yankee fan for 15 years, and counts as his most memorable experience witnessing Game 5 of the 2009 World Series, giving him the opportunity to potentially witness his favorite team close out a championship season with him in attendance. Unfortunately, A.J. Burnett and Cliff Lee conspired to muck that up. The more things change, eh?

-David and Aziz Nekoukar previously contributed to NJ.com’s Pride of the Yankees blog from 2004-09. They’re lifelong Yankee fans whose grandfather once served as Babe Ruth’s personal cab driver (though he unfortunately gave away his signed memorabilia over the years), and they have fond memories of growing up watching Thurman Munson, Donnie Baseball, and Dave Winfield.

-And last, but certainly not least, Gabe Lezra comes to us by way of Managing Madrid. He has the interesting distinction of having lived everywhere from Madison, Wisconsin, to New York, to the beautiful city of Cadiz, Spain, where he currently resides while teaching middle school English. He can also say that he became a Yankee fan while living in Boston in 1995, watching a young Derek Jeter break into the majors, and creating a Yankee fanatic in the process. Gabe will be moving back stateside this year, bolstering IIAMTS’ Mid-Atlantic contingent while he studies law at Georgetown.

The IIATMS team is very excited to welcome our new contributors on board, and very thankful to everyone who inquired about the openingsbut, unfortunately, we had more intriguing applicants than the number of positions we were prepared to add at this time.

And to leave you on the happiest of notes: pitchers and catchers report in 24 days.

If you have a few quick minutes, can you help us (to get in the good graces of our new overlords) and complete this anonymous 14 question survey? It’s about the site and how you use it. It will help us to better create compelling content and deliver it in ways that you would want to read/watch/listen.

Thanks,

Team IIATMS & SNY

With the Yankees suddenly in the market for a designated hitter after trading away top prospect Jesus Montero, much speculation has centered on who, exactly, the Yankees might find to fill that role. Publicly, Brian Cashman has said he’s going to look to the trade market for a match, as he attempts to trade away some excess pitching to fill the need, and along those lines many fans and commentators have engaged in heavy speculation as to how Cashman might go about filling the need and getting rid of the much maligned A.J. Burnett in the same deal.

That there are no shortage of hitters with bad contracts out there has made this a pretty easy game to play. Without question, the names I’ve seen mentioned most frequently are Jason Bay, Alfonso Soriano, and Adam Dunn. I discussed Bay this morning, and Soriano is more or less the same story, in my opinion. He’s not really a good hitter anymore, isn’t particularly good at all against right handed pitchers (he hasn’t had a wRC+ against RHP since 2007. Yes, I said 2007), and his contract is awful even in comparison to Burnett’s. Soriano is guaranteed $54 million over the next three seasons, or an extra year and $21 million more than what the Yankees owe Burnett. Add him to the ledger in 2014, and it’s virtually impossible for the Yankees to make any big league moves beyond re-signing Robinson Cano while staying under their payroll target. In other words, Brian Cashman had better not trade for Alfonso Soriano.

(click “view full post” to continue reading)

It has apparently become fashionable in some circles to envision the Yankees and Mets swapping Jason Bay and A.J. Burnett in the prototypical bad contract-for-bad contract swap. I guess it makes for decent discussion fodder for about 5 minutes, what with the move seeming to fit some nominal needs for each side and the two clubs residing in the same city and all of that, but beyond being good for a slight chuckle, I’m not sure why more people haven’t dismissed it out of hand.

First and foremost, let’s just get the most relevant fact on the table; Jason Bay isn’t very good anymore. Or, at least, he hasn’t been very good in the past two seasons. Since Omar Minaya did what everyone knew Omar Minaya was going to do after the 2009 season, Bay has hit .208/.305/.386, which is not the sort of production you want to pay $49 million to get out of your DH. And though some of you might be thinking, “well, sure, but playing his home games away from the cavernous Citi Field will help those numbers,” you’d probably be surprised to know that Bay has actually been significantly better in Flushing Meadows than he has been away from it. In fact, in his two seasons as a Met, Bay has had a wRC+ of 125 and 129, respectively, at Citi Field, while those same numbers fall to just 93 and a putrid 78 on the road (remember that wRC+ is park adjusted). Bay also doesn’t exactly kill right-handed pitching, which is what I would assume the Yankees are primarily looking for in a new DH.

But most damning for this hypothetical deal is that Bay’s contract is actually quite a bit worse than Burnett’s, thanks to a nasty vesting option for 2014. Without that, the trade might actually make sense as a one for one swap (Burnett will make $33 million over the next two seasons, Bay will make $32 million), but that option should be a flat out deal breaker without question. If Bay gets either 600 plate appearances in 2013 or 500 plate appearances in both 2012 and 2013 (according to Cot’s) his team would owe him an additional $17 million salary for 2014, a fact that would both make him markedly more expensive than even Burnett and blow up the Yankees’ much documented payroll plans for that season. Granted, as a part-time player Bay could probably be kept below that threshold, but why take the risk for someone who isn’t very good to begin with?

Via David Waldstein, the Yankees have come to terms with starting catcher Russell Martin on a salary for 2012, avoiding arbitration. Martin will make $7.5 million plus incentives this upcoming season, which is right about halfway between the arbitration figures submitted by both sides. Martin enjoyed a resurgence with the Yankees in 2011 after being non-tendered by the Dodgers, hitting .237/.324/.408 with 18 home runs while being universally praised for his work behind the plate.

The deal leaves Boone Logan as the only remaining unsigned arbitration eligible player on the Yankees’ roster.

It was an emotional day at Yankee Stadium as Jorge Posada officially announced his retirement from the New York Yankees. The man often referred to as the heart and soul of the Yankees choked up as he said goodbye (for now) to the only organization he’s ever known, and the day was made even more emotional by the presence of Diana Munson. Though it was a somber event, saying goodbye to a great player, it was also a fitting tribute to one of the most underrated players in Yankee history.

Goodbye Jorge, and thanks for the memories. You’re a Hall of Famer in my book, but whether you get the call to Cooperstown or not, you’ll always have a special place in Yankee history, though something tells me it won’t be too long before we see you back with the team in some capacity.

Football sucks, that is all. On (mostly) happier notes, pitchers and catchers report in less than a month, so let’s get caught up on the last minute developments as another too-long winter begins to wind to a close.

First and foremost, as you’re undoubtedly already aware, Jorge Posada will make his retirement official with an 11:00 A.M. press conference at Yankee Stadium today. When the Yankees traded Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda it opened up a hole at the DH spot in the lineup, creating a glimmer of possibility that Posada may indeed be able to return to the Bombers, but that’s obviously not going to happen now. Posada, much like Andy Pettitte last year, reportedly wasn’t feeling up for another turn through the grinder of a Major League Baseball season, and has decided to hang ‘em up after 15 seasons with the Yankees. he finishes his career with a .273/.374/.474 slash line, 275 home runs, a 122 wRC+, four World Series championships as a regular, and a spot in Monument Park waiting for him.

If you have the chance, you can watch the press conference on YES. It will be the second such press conference in as many years, a streak I’d be happy to break next winter.

Speaking of Montero, he finally made it to Seattle for his physical, and The Trade is now official, but Brian Cashman may not be done yet, as he may prefer to fill the DH role via trade. This sounds good in theory, but I’m not sure how it would work in practice. A.J. Burnett isn’t likely to return any useful players unless the Yankees are willing to swallow the vast majority of the money left on the deal, which doesn’t seem likely. Freddy Garcia would have to consent before any deal could happen, and wouldn’t likely return anything better than what’s currently available on the free agent market. The minor leaguers left at Triple-A are interesting commodities, but how much are you really likely to get for low ceiling prospects with no big league experience?

All of which leaves Phil Hughes, who is going to be a hard piece to move right now. His value is likely down after his injury plagued 2011 campaign, and if the Yankees really do still see him as a starting pitcher, and if it’s going to be hard to a trade partner willing to do much more than take a flier on Hughes, you probably aren’t going to find anything better than what Hughes will be able to do for the team if he can get right. So if I had to parse this statement from Cashman, I’d guess that he’s mostly trying to scare the free agents on the market (Johnny Damon, perhaps?) into dropping their asking price and signing a deal before the Yankees fill the role with someone else.

Use this as your open thread for the night, and all of tomorrow, for those celebrating with me.

Brien, condolences.

This is yesterday’s news, but the Yankees have settled on 2012 salary terms with Brett Gardner, avoiding arbitration in Gardner’s first year of eligibility. Brett the Jet will make $2.8 million this season, an obvious steal for the Yankees given Gardner’s value since becoming a regular in 2010. Even as far as first year arbitration players go, Gardner is probably being underpaid, but that’s life when a large chunk of your value comes from your defensive work.

The Yankees have two arbitration eligible players remaining un-signed in left-handed specialist Boone Logan and catcher Russell Martin.