A couple things stuck out to me thoughout the interview. When asked if the Winn signing officially closed the book on Damon, he said
“The book closed on Johnny a long time ago on actually.... We had a strong desire to have Johnny back, but not at all costs. We put a value on Johnny, shared that opinion on what that value was and Scott Boras and Johnny had a different value and adifferent opinion. Unfortunately, we never even came close to assessing each other or finding a way to bridge the gap between what they were looking for and what we were willing to offer. ... I just hope in the end that when he does decide to sign that it’s not for a number that was within the range that we were offering before. Because that means that he could have been a Yankee if he wanted to and it took him awhile to assess what his market value was. “He was also asked if Granderson could play some left field and said
Yeah that’s possible. We feel we have 2 centerfielders on our outfield situation, 2 starting centerfielders. In terms of Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson. Grandersen’s an all star centerfielder. Brett Gardner’s obviously biggest tool is his field and run ability, and we feel he’s one of the best defensive centerfielders in the game. So it's terrific to be in a position we think as we enter the season to have 2 centerfielders out of the 3 guys with Nick Swisher... Right now we’re going into it thinking it's Granderson in center and Gardner obviously in left. But if by watching the games unravel in spring training, and we've talked to Curtis about it as well, if we feel a better team exists with Curtis Granderson in left and Gardner in center. If that actually shows itself, our job is to put the best team in the best alignment on the field and that’s what we’ll do.The entire interview can be seen here.
