Baseball’s Savior

Well, this made big news in a hurry.  The Yankees are apparantly shopping Randy Johnson and the most likely suitor is his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.  I’ll give you two words, Conor Jackson.  If the Yankees trade Johnson, the deal should include first baseman Conor Jackson, who’d be a great addition to the Yankees lineup.  He’ll turn 25 in the middle of the season but he’s a good, patient hitter who you’d hope would see his power increase in the next couple of years.

There’s also a chance Johnson could find his way to San Diego.  As always, I’ll talk about it more when it actually goes down.

The Yankees came to an agreement with Cuban infielder Juan Miranda.  Miranda will start the season in the Florida State League and he’ll make just over $2 million over the four year life of the contract.

He’s 23 and he’s a left handed hitter.  Based on his stats in Cuba, he seems like a patient hitter with 73 walks and 87 strikeouts and it looks like he’ll be able to play first base and outfield.  Sounds like a solid all around athlete.

The Yanks also look close to signing Kei Igawa.  He took his physical and if everything turns out okay, that should complete the $20 million, five year deal.

The Yankees are apparantly trying to put together a three team deal with the Braves and Pirates.  The Yankees would get left handed reliever Mike Gonzalez, the Braves would get Melky Cabrera and the Pirates would get Adam LaRoche.  A similar deal (Gonzalez for LaRoche) broke down at the winter meetings but it now looks like the Yankees might be able to make it work.

I like this deal.  Gonzalez gives up his share of walks, but he’s a quality left hander who has 183 strikeouts in 155 2/3 innings.  On top of that, he has closing experience so he’s in the line of fire.  And Melky Cabrera is that pivotal of a guy to get a solid left hander in the pen.

MLB.com recently unveiled their This Week in Baseball (TYIB) Awards and four different Yankees walked away with gold.  Derek Jeter was named top hitter while Chien-Ming Wang was given the top starter award.  Rounding out the prizes were Mariano Rivera (Top Closer) and Melky Cabrera (Top Play).

No word on Clemens coming to the Yankees.  This could be one of the best seasons in the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry.  It really looks like the Red Sox are pulling out the stops.  They cheat to get J.D. Drew, then they throw $100 million at a Japanese pitcher.  Should be fun.

The Yankees just shored up their rotation by signing Andy Pettitte to a one year, $16 million deal.  That’s a ton of money but Pettitte joins Randy Johnson, Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina in what’s turning out to be a better starting rotation.  That fifth spot is in the air and while Carl Pavano keeps being mentioned, it sure would be nice if Roger Clemens came back to pin stripes to take that last spot in the rotation.  You’d have well over 9,000 career strikeouts between just Clemens and Johnson.

Pettitte had a solid season last year and almost set a career mark with 178 strikeouts (he struck out 180 in 2003).  Pettitte’s fourteen wins shy of 200 and assuming he stays healthy, he should have no problem reaching that mark in 2007 with the Yankees.  He also has a $16 million option for 2008.

The Yankees have been unusually quiet this off season.  If you remember last year, they didn’t do much until they shocked everyone by signing Johnny Damon.  This year, they haven’t done much since trading Gary Sheffield.  Since Andy Pettitte is leaning towards playing next season, there’s been a ton of speculation that he’ll come back to the Yankees.

MLB.com beat writer Mark Feinsand, in an excellent column, breaks down the chances of getting Andy Pettitte back and it even looks like the Yankees have offered the left hander a one year, $15 million contract to come back to the promised land.  Pettitte sure would look nice back in pin stripes.