Cashman to talk to Yanks’ FAs first
November 23, 2009, 9:30 pm by iYankees · 5 Comments
From Marc Carig (Star-Ledger):
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Monday that the team intends to address their own free agents before wading into the rest of the free agent pool.”I don’t want to make the mistake of having a conversation with somebody else’s agent and it plays out as if I’m pursuing that guy, and somebody misinterprets it (and) that means I’m not pursuing our guy,” Cashman said. “We’re not even at that stage yet. So I’m trying to be very careful and respectful to our players first, makes sure they’re aware of where they are in the process.”
The Yankees, as expected, have remained quiet in the early stages of baseball’s free agency period. Cashman is still in discussions with the Steinbrenner family about the team’s budget moving forward. He has yet to have much dialogue with the team’s three prominent free agents, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Andy Pettitte, or their agents.
Cashman also said he is not near any potential trades.
“Once I get some firm (budget) numbers, then I can go ahead and start putting together some ideas,” Cashman said. “I have not reached out to any agents really yet. I’ll talk to our guys first. And after I have my conversation with our guys, I’ll be full blown into the marketplace.”
Nothing new here, really. This is mainly about being respectful and courteous to the team’s free agents.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
I think Cashman plans on being one of the boys for a while and not get sucked into setting the market price higher than what it is on over hyped commodities liked Chapman, Lackey and Holliday. If the Yankees offer contracts first they are bidding against there imagination and reports, let Angles and Sox set the market value and decide then if you still want to the player and know how high you are willing to go… In this economic climate it’s the smart move from Cash.
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For all we know, “talking to our FAs first” could just mean reaching out and having a conversation with a player’s agent, making sure the player is actually interested in returning, etc. At that point, then the team could also talk to a few of the other commodities available on the market. This seems like more of a logistical item, really.
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My comment really doesn’t have all that much to do with him talking to his own free agents… Even with Damon, Matsui and possibly Pettitte you won’t see them sign contracts for a while… Cashman isn’t going to let the Yankees dictate this market by giving out the first contract offers to anyone currently a Yankee or not and instead let the Angels and Red Sox of the world make the first moves and then slip in the back door to try and sign guys.
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I agree.
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I think they just wanted to get the CC deal done and AJ was willing to sign right away with the Yankees and they got what they needed to have, this year we have no real “needs” more just hammering out the armor and it makes sense to sit back.
You could end up seeing someone like Mike Cameron be in a Bobby Abreu situation last year and the Yankees can come in and offer him a 1 year 5-7 million dollar deal and get someone to play CF as well as anyone involved in trade talk and for a fraction of the price and no prospects involved.
With Lackey though I think someone will offer 85-95 million and get the job done and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the Mets or the Rangers, either one could benefit from a “back up ace”… Santana has a lot of red flags and is coming off surgery so having Lackey behind him makes sense and In Texas you really would rather have Millwood be the number 2 pitcher in that rotation, truthfully it makes the most sense for him to go home to Texas and for Texas it makes more sense than it does for Lackey.
Lackey
Millwood
Feldman
Holland
Feliz/Hunter/
With that park and adding a guy like Milton Bradley (If the Cubs pay) they could jump past the Angles in their division…
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