Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Rosenthal: Yanks Won't Pay High Price For A Replacement For A-Rod

From Ken Rosenthal (hat-tip to MLB Trade Rumors):

Alex Rodriguez will miss no more than 23 games if he returns from arthroscopic hip surgery by May 1, further reducing the chances that the Yankees will acquire a stopgap at third base.

The team will not pay a high price in players or dollars for a 4- to 6- week solution. General manager Brian Cashman says Rodriguez will return at 85 to 90 percent minimum, and such a player is "still an All-Star."

Still, the Yankees are forever looking to improve and surely will explore possible upgrades over utility man Cody Ranson, an above-average defender and below-average hitter, albeit one with power.

The player market in March consists not just of free agents and trade possibilities, but players on minor-league contracts who opt out for major-league jobs and players who are out of minor-league options.

So they won't pay a high price but they're "forever looking to improve." Well, considering the Yankees can't get anything from anyone without overpaying I guess Ransom or Berroa is our guy. That's fine with me. It's gonna be 30 games or less. And once again, if they pitch, they'll win. A-Rod is important, but good starting pitching is the most important thing.

UPDATE 7:20 p.m.: Peter Abraham just posted this on his blog:
Brian Cashman said the answer for third base, “is here in camp.”

“No GMs have called me and I’ve called no GMs,” he said.

Marc Carig has a similar report and this quote over on NJ.com:
"With the team not wanting add payroll, not wanting to hurt the farm system and stuff like that, and we're going to get Alex back, we're going to go with what we have in camp," Cashman said.
I guess that backs up Rosenthal's report.

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Ransom is fine, but Berroa? I just came back from spring training and Angel looked sad on defense.

Greg Cohen said...

Yea, someone else told me the same thing. It looks like Ransom's job anyway.