The Yankees are strategizing ways to retain all three of their major free agents -- Johnny Damon, Andy Pettitte and Hideki Matsui -- sources told The Post.
Damon and Pettitte are the priorities. But when asked if that meant Matsui had played his last game in pinstripes, one team executive said, "No, I hope we can figure out a way to have them all back."
Right now, the Yankees are much more focused on their own trio than they are on the three big outside free agents: Jason Bay, Matt Holliday and John Lackey.
Mark Feinsand is reporting the same thing about Matsui and Damon:
A baseball source believes the Yankees would be willing to bring back both players on one-year deals - Damon could also receive a vesting option for 2011 - as the free-agent options to replace them are less than desirable once you get past Matt Holliday and Jason Bay, both of whom will command enormous deals this winter.
If they could get all three back on one-year deals that would be great, but like Sherman says later in the article getting Damon back for one year will be tough. I don't think that will be nearly as difficult with the other two, in fact, signing Pettitte and Matsui to one-year deals will probably be fairly easy.
