Yanks waiting for Lackey to sign before adding more arms, Lackey could be headed to Boston
December 14, 2009, 1:00 pm by iYankees · 5 Comments
Via Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, we learn that the Yankees are still interested in both Ben Sheets — Newsday’s Ken Davidoff thinks that the Yankees might be wary of Sheets’ clubhouse persona due to his tendency to miss games, however, that report doesn’t make much sense to me since he would only be signed for a year or two — and Justin Duchscherer.
Towards the end of his article, Feinsand offers a fairly interesting comment regarding the Yankees’ method for adding arms. “According to a source,” he notes, “the Yankees will likely wait to see what John Lackey signs for before making any moves.” This is probably for the best as Lackey, the top free agent starter available this winter, will likely receive a below market deal, at least in terms of annual salary, which could then bring down the prices for Sheets and others. Feinsand’s tidbit also seems to indicate that the Yankees won’t pursue Lackey unless his market bottoms out (very unlikely).
According to Ed Price, the Red Sox appear to be close to signing Lackey (he was a fallback option in the event that Jason Bay signs with another team), so maybe the Yankees won’t have to wait much longer for the fiery Texan to set the market.
UPDATE (1:13 pm) – Ah, just as I post this, via Ken Rosenthal, it appears as though John Lackey is Boston bound.
Free-agent right-hander John Lackey underwent a physical Monday with the Red Sox, an indication that he is close to an agreement with the team, according to a major-league source.
The deal is expected to be similar to the five-year, $82.5 million contract that the Yankees awarded free-agent right-hander A.J. Burnett last winter.
If the Red Sox do, indeed, sign Lackey then they would have the best rotation in baseball. The signing would, however, remove Boston from the Holliday sweepstakes, which is a good thing for the Yankees, and could, in turn, put the team directly within the Mike Cameron market (a bad thing for the Yankees).
Photo by Reuters
Well this probably means that this will be the last year we have to face Beckett on the Red Sox since they probably won’t be able to re-sign him next year to a similar or bigger deal than they just signed Lackey too.
Are you really still considering signing Holliday after this? They upgrade pitching to the point they can dominate every start against us except when Sabathia starts and since they are starting Lester in the “ace” spot against CC now we can lose that game as well. We don’t need more offense that will just get dominated by good pitching (as all hitting does) we need more pitching so we can compete with the level of talent in the rotation we are in competition with.
We already have an offense superior to theirs and since they signed Lackey they really can’t upgrade it that much more but they now dominate us in rotational talent and because of that they are more secure for the seasons long haul and the playoffs they are set to mow us down!
Sabathia Vs Lester
Burnett Vs Beckett
Pettitte Vs Lackey
Joba Vs Buchholz
Hughes Vs Dice K
No longer are having both Joba and Hughes acceptable we need to add at least a number 4 starter and it would help to add a number 2 or 3 starter and if we lose Hideki to The Angels then it hastens our need for another starter. Hopefully now that Lackey’s deal is done we can get another arm in the rotation soon.
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Sure, the Phillies and Red Sox upgraded their starting pitching by signing Roy Halladay and John Lackey respectively (pending physical). But the Yankees are not finished dealing this off-season. There will be more coming on the following days.
The Yankees still have some holes in their starting rotation and DH. They could go internally like putting Juan Miranda on their DH spot. But I suggest they should get 1 or 2 players in the free agency pool.
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They don’t need a DH at this point we need someone for LF… If we could get someone for LF or RF then we can stick Melky in the remaining outfield corner and use Swisher as a DH and if you look at his numbers from last year and he would make a better DH than both Damon and Matsui.
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