The Yankees seem to have found a replacement for Jorge Posada. The Yankees have acquaired catcher Ivan Rodriguez from the Tigers. Detroit will get right-handed pitcher Kyle Farnsworth, who played with the Tigers previously in 2005.
Posada announced he would have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder on Monday.
Brandon Inge likely will take over as the full-time Catcher for the Tigers.
The New York Yankees have made an offer to the Seattle Mariners for left-hander Jarrod Washburn. According to a major-league source, the package includes an average prospect, plus the absorption of nearly all of the money remaining on Washburn’s contract. The Mariners spoke to Washburn Friday on about waiving his no-trade clause to the Yankees. The escalation in trade talks since then indicates that the pitcher is willing to pitch in New York. But at the moment, the Mariners want more than the Yankees are willing to give.
Washburn, who turns 34 on Aug. 13, is owed the remainder of his $9.85 million salary for this season, plus $10.35 million next season. Teams that take on that much salary rarely are willing to part with top prospects in the same trade.
The addition would give the Yankees a superior alternative to right-hander Darrell Rasner in their rotation. Washburn has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all but one of his last eight starts.
The Yankees agreed to a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates that would give New York left-handed pitcher Damaso Marte and right fielder Xavier Nady in a deal first reported on Friday evening by ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.
The Pirates will receive four minor leaguers including right-handed pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, right-handed pitcher George Kontos, left-handed pitcher Phil Coke and right fielder Jose Tabata in return. The trade is tentative pending physicals.
The Yankees, with Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada on the disabled list and possibly lost for the year, needed another right-handed bat for their lefty loaded lineup.
Their all-righty bullpen has a 1.67 ERA over its last 23 games, and adding Marte gives them one of the top lefty specialists in baseball.
The Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and New York Mets all were thought to be interested in Nady, who was batting .330 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs. Marte is 4-0 with a 3.47 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings, and also was attracting interest from several teams.
Ohlendorf was 1-1 with a 6.53 ERA in 25 games with the Yankees this season. He was demoted on June 27, and had a 1-1 record with a 4.03 ERA in five starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Tabata, Kontos and Coke all were with Double-A Trenton. Tabata was batting .248 with three homers and 36 RBIs entering play Friday, and Coke was 9-4 with a 2.60 ERA in 20 games, 19 starts. Kontos was 3-9 with a 3.77 ERA in 20 starts.
High-ranking Yankees officials gathered for meetings at their spring training complex Thursday. After a three-hour meeting, co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner confirmed one of the topics was indicted home run king Barry Bonds. Steinbrenner wouldn’t say if the Yankees are interested in Bonds, but it appears highly unlikely the team will pursue him after acquiring Nady.
The New York Yankees aren’t interested in signing Barry Bonds. But they are on the verge of adding another hitter — Richie Sexson.
Sexson, released by the Mariners on July 10, is closing in on a deal with the Yankees, major-league sources say. He will play first base against left-handed pitching, likely reducing the playing time of Wilson Betemit, a switch-hitter.
When Sexson is at first, the Yankees could use either Jason Giambi, a left-handed hitter, or Jorge Posada, a switch-hitter, as their DH.
Sexson, 33, batted .218-.315-.381 (BA-OBP-SLG) in 292 plate appearances with the Mariners, hitting 11 homers and driving in 30 runs. He was considered a major disappointment after signing a four-year, $50 million contract prior to the 2005 season.
The Mariners released him after he spent time during a game in the bullpen with the team’s relievers instead of sitting on the bench.
If C.C. Sabathia is on the trade market, the Yankees will have strong interest. The Yankees rank last in the American League in innings pitched by their starters, and Sabathia led the league in innings last season while winning the American League Cy Young award. … Sabathia is 4-8 with a 4.34 earned run average, but he shut out the Minnesota Twins in his last start Tuesday. He can be a free agent after the season, and the Indians have not given up hope of signing him. But the going rate for a pitcher like Sabathia, who turns 28 in August, would probably be six or seven years at $19 million or $20 million a season, a price tag well out of Cleveland’s range. The Yankees, who are shedding more than $75 million in salaries this winter, could afford to re-sign him. They also have the prospects Cleveland would want and the motivation to deal. The Yankees have been unable to creep much past .500, and a pitcher like Sabathia could elevate them to contention.– NY Times
The Yankees have shopped LaTroy Hawkins in trade talks, according to an official from a National League team who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing another club’s player. Hawkins has a 6.08 ERA and .362 average allowed in 22 appearances. He is on a one-year, $3.75 contract. It is believed the Mets were approached but passed for now. — Newark Star-Ledger
Free-agent infielder Morgan Ensberg has reached agreement on a one-year contract with the New York Yankees, and will join the competition for the team’s first base job in spring training. Ensberg, who signed a minor-league deal, would get a $1.75 million, one-year contract if added to the 40-man roster and would have a chance to earn $2.25 million more in performance bonuses. He would get the full amount if he has 525 plate appearances. The Yankees’ 40-man roster is currently full, but three spots are expected to open when Carl Pavano, Humberto Sanchez and Andrew Brackman are transferred to the 60-day disabled list in March.
Ensberg hit 36 home runs for the Houston Astros in 2005 and made the National League All-Star team. The Astros sent him to the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline last July, and he hit .230 with 12 homers in 115 games overall with the two clubs.
Ensberg has played almost exclusively at third base in the majors, but the Yankees plan to take a look at him at first base. New York currently has Jason Giambi, Shelley Duncan and Wilson Betemit in the mix.
The Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants also expressed interest in Ensberg, who became a free agent when San Diego declined to tender him a contract in December.
The Yankees, locking up one of their young stars, are on the verge of signing second baseman Robinson Cano to a four-year, $30 million contract, according to major-league sources. The deal, which would take Cano through his arbitration years, also is expected to include club options that would enable the Yankees to buy out one or two years of free agency.
Cano, 25, was eligible for arbitration for the first time this off-season. He asked for $4.55 million and the Yankees offered $3.2 million.
Cano appeared in 160 games for the Yankees last season, batting .306 and setting career-highs with 19 homers and 97 RBIs.
His career batting average in three major-league seasons is .314.
New York Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner has not closed the door on a trade for Minnesota Twins left-hander Johan Santana. “It’s still in the deciding process,” Steinbrenner said Monday night outside Legends Field at the Yankees’ spring training complex. “We’re still discussing it. There’s still a little talk back and forth.”
Right-hander Phil Hughes and center fielder Melky Cabrera would likely be part of a multiplayer package needed to obtain Santana, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who can become a free agent after this season.
Steinbrenner said reports that the Yankees recently withdrew a formal offer to the Twins are “There wasn’t an official offer anyway. You can’t withdraw something that wasn’t there,” Steinbrenner said. “There was no official offer on the table at this time.”
“There wasn’t an official offer anyway. You can’t withdraw something that wasn’t there,” Steinbrenner said. “There was no official offer on the table at this time.”
The New York Mets and Boston Red Sox are also interested in Santana.
The Yankees plan to have an innings-pitched limit for another promising young pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, this season.
Steinbrenner said one option is to have Chamberlain start the season in the bullpen, when teams normally needed just four starters, and then join the rotation. The decision will be made by manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland.
“He will be a starter. That’s everybody’s intention,” Steinbrenner said. “How to start him out the year and build up his innings, and how to get him to that point is up to Girardi and Eiland. They may want to start him out in the bullpen and go to a starter. Or he could go a couple other different options.”
The Yankees, rebuilding their setup corps, are close to signing free-agent right-hander LaTroy Hawkins to a one-year contract believed to be worth approximately $3.75 million, according to major-league sources.
Hawkins, 35, will help fill the void created by the loss of righty Luis Vizcaino, who declined salary arbitration from the Yankees, and righty Joba Chamberlain, who is expected to move into the starting rotation.
The Colorado Rockies and Texas Rangers were among the teams that bid for Hawkins, who went 2-5 with a 3.42 ERA in 62 games for Colorado last season. He also made four appearances in the postseason, allowing one run in five innings.
A 13-year veteran, Hawkins spent his first nine seasons with the Minnesota Twins. The Yankees will be his sixth team and fifth in the past four seasons.
The Rockies are now expected to turn their attention to Vizcaino.