Wells Wants To Be A Yankee

From Mike Puma on the New York Post:

The free-agent left-hander told The Post yesterday he has been working out near his home in San Diego and believes he could bolster a Yankees 'rotation suddenly besieged by question marks.

"I'm in shape, I'd just have to fine-tune a couple of things," Wells said. "I'd need a little bit of time, but not much. Physically I feel fine, real good.

"New York has always been the favorite of all my stops," Wells said. "When I got traded, I was bitter. When they didn't re-sign me, I was bitter, but I know that wasn't the Yankees, everything was Joe Torre. I wasn't one of his boys. I don't think he liked the way I lived my life or that I spoke my mind."

Wells added that he considers Girardi a close friend and would enjoy playing for his former catcher. Steinbrenner put to rest any notion there's friction between Wells and the organization.

Wells says the Yankees would have nothing to lose: He wouldn't cost the team anything, in terms of talent, and could simply be unloaded if he proved ineffective.

"If you're not going that good, what the hell, it doesn't hurt to make a change and take a chance," Wells said. "I'm the type of guy, just give me the ball and let me do my thing. I'm not afraid to fail."

Also in the article Hank Steinbrenner expressed some interesting in the hefty lefty:

"I've thought about it," Steinbrenner told The Post. "I saw him on TV, and I did think about it when I was watching."

"You never know," Steinbrenner said. "[Wells] hasn't come up in conversation, but I've had so much other [bleep] to deal with lately."

"Obviously, he'll always be a Yankee to me," Steinbrenner said.

The Baby Boss then dropped a subtle hint he's growing disillusioned with the Yankees' youth movement and could open the door to Wells.

"What sticks out in my mind, that team in the late '90s, the starting pitching," he said. "You had [David] Cone, El Duque [Orlando Hernandez], Wells . . . they were all big-game pitchers. They all came from elsewhere - not in the system.

"Everybody talks about the great players from the farm system that we had in the '90s, but it was the starting rotation. That was a huge part of the success. Huge."

One veteran Yankee, well aware of the Steinbrenner family's affection for Wells and the lefty's appetite for a big stage, said he wouldn't be surprised to see Wells return.

"It may happen," the Yankee said.

Wells has apparently dropped 25 LBS so he's only tipping the scales at 245 now. Also Steinbrenner has not discussed this with Brian Cashman as of yet, but said that could change depending on how Rasner and Igawa do. That may have also changed after this article was published.

I loved David Wells when he was a Yankee, but the guy is 45, even with the 25 LBS he's overweight, and he wasn't even good in the NL West last year going 9-9 with a 5.43 ERA for the Padres and Dodgers. To me this is an idea that may sound better than it actually is. David Wells is nowhere close to the big-game pitcher he used to be.

But with that said, he would cost nothing so I guess I wouldn't mind the Yankees maybe sending him to Tampa to see how he's throwing, and if he impresses maybe give him a shot. Again, I don't think he's going to help much, if at all, but who knows, maybe the Yanks can catch lightning in a bottle.