This first batch comes to us via
Bryan Hoch. First, here's Soriano:
It's a great pleasure to be here, one of the most important days of my career to represent this uniform," Soriano said via a Spanish translator after donning a pinstriped jersey bearing No. 29.
"I know a lot of people will find this strange, but I'm very happy to be close to the greatest closer, and hopefully in the future I will be a closer, too."
...
"Mariano is one of the ones who actually did something for me to be signed by the Yankees," Soriano said. "I'm going to learn a lot from him. He's one of the greatest closers and the communication between he and I is wonderful. We're going to do a lot of good for the team."
Joe Girardi:
"A lot of the success of the Yankees over the years has come because of a knockdown bullpen, and Soriano is adding to that," manager Joe Girardi said. "You could argue that Mariano and Rafael had the best years as closers last year, and we have two closers now.
"When you have a lead, it's important to win those games, I'm going to be very excited to pick up the phone and call down and bring him into the game and feel good about it."
These next quotes from Cashman come from
Peter Botte on Twitter:
“I think 29 other GMs would love to have their owner shove Rafael Soriano down their throat.” (I can only imagine the image NoMaas is working on for that quotes)
"Its not my team. I don't own it. They do...In any job you better be prepared for every decision to not go your way."
Cash also said that Joba Chamberlain remains a reliever, and the Cashman actually had several conversations with the agent of Carl Pavano
(Seriously, WTF?).
