I think we should reserve judgement on the Ibanez deal until we see how many player options he is given.

But what does the Saskatchewan Gazette have to say aboot this?

I thought the reason they were going to sign Ibanez instead of the other options was that he was the one who would play cheap and not complain about being a part time DH.

If they get money back from a Burnett deal, wouldn’t it allow them to spend a little more and possibly pick up a different player?

Signing Ibanez would make me a sad Porcupine.

At least Damon is a good baserunner and maybe can play LF.

I’d rather have them keep Burnett than use the “savings” on Ibanez. 

Yeah, I said it.

[6]  Looks like the NYY will save at least $10M by trading AJ.  Is Ibanez really going to command a $10M salary (or even $5M, if you want to break it down by years)?  If so, then I agree it would make more sense to hang on to Burnett.

OTOH, if they can get Ibanez for only a couple million, then I suppose the advantage would be in having both him and Branyan in camp for at least the spring in the hope that one of them demonstrates the potential to serve as the LH DH.

Or, maybe the whole thing—inviting RB to ST and feigning interest in Ibanex— is just a ruse to get Damon to drop his asking price.

Perhaps with a diminished baseball operations role, it is Randy Levine behind these Matsui, Damon, and Ibanez machinations!

We need to see if Lin can play baseball too.

Imagine if the Yankees didn’t have a 36 MM waste of space in the BP?

Well, it worked out so well in the rotation… #AJBurnett

“I don’t see what Ibanez brings that Russell Branyan doesn’t.”

Ibanez can fake playing the outfield better.

Seriously, would Brandon Laird be any worse an option than Chavez in terms of performance?  Plus he’s cheap and under team control.

[7] “Or, maybe the whole thing—inviting RB to ST and feigning interest in Ibanex— is just a ruse to get Damon to drop his asking price.”

This possibility has occurred to me as well.

7:57pm: The Yankees and Phillies are in hardest on Soler now, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan tweets.

[13] One wonders whether it’s a Soler’s market.

Smile. Groan.

Repeat eleventy billion times.

[14] All I know is Tears for Fears were Solering the Seeds of Love.

Chavez still has defensive value I guess, but Ramiro Pena makes the league minimum…

[16]  That one hurt bad.

[16] Sic… you are so much better than that. Horrible tune.

Was it already discussed how we could continue “Hip Hip, Jorge!” chants if this happened?  Because that seems important, at least in a non-WAR way…

[20]And Sterling could continue to use the home run call he used for Posada.

It would be nice if they got a full time DH and kept Jones in the same role he had last year.

[21] I thought they had some rookie catcher to DH.

Romine?

[18] And Tears for Fears is so much better than that, or can be, e.g. this and much of the rest of the Elemental album.

[23]  Some Latin guy.  John Turturro?

The Yankees tried spinning Burnett to the Angels for Abreu, but Burnett vetoed the trade. How about trying a three-way where Burnett goes to Pittsburgh, the Angels get someone like Kevin Correia and a low level prospect, and the Yankees get who they want, Abreu?

Thought this might amuse at least one of you, so it’s worth the bytes to throw up here:

I got a promotion this week (not the bottom of the totem pole anymore!) and as a small token, my boss got me an autographed photo of David Robertson from his Trenton Thunder days.  I thought that was amazingly awesome that he even remembered that Robertson is my favorite player right now.

The signed photo is the same one seen here:

Why do I feel like AJ did us a favor in vetoing a trade for Abreu?

BTW, the Angels loves them some back-loaded contracts.  Pujols is only the fifth-highest paid LAAAA in 2012.  CJ Wilson is like 6th or 7th.  (Abreu makes $9M, btw.)

[27] I’m amused, so yay!  Congratulations Dr. Dapuj!  I’ve (or, my son) has a signed Montero ball on his desk, from SWB…

That’s so awesome, Pepe Dapuj!

[27] I heard he’s taken…

only on the distaff side and he might be open to persuasion.

The Yankees and Pirates should complete a deal within 24 hours, according to Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio and ESPN.com

Assuming this deal goes through, and based on reports, the Yankees are going to save $10-13m of AJ’s contract.  What are they planning to do with this money?  While I don’t understand the fixation on Hugo Chavez, he is not going to cost that much.  Damon’s price is reportedly $5m.  That leaves cash left over, if they sign those two folks.  For what?

[27] swooooooooon. /heartsintheeyessmileyface

[34] Do they have enough roster spots to carry a 10 man bench ?

I understand the fixation with getting back Johnny Damon, but if the Yankees get some money back and sign Eric Chavez, I’d much prefer Vlad among the DH candidates out there.  The Yanks have had good luck signing over the hill stars—not such good luck bringing in over the hill pretty good players.  With Chavez and the Muscle in camp, I don’t see a pressing need to get more left handed.

[34] Well, but it’s $10M for two years, not one year.  So for one, I doubt they spend it all this year.  They may instead spend $5M this year, and save the other $5M to fill a hole next year.  E.g. another DH, raise for Swisher/new-RF, raises for other arb-elibible players, etc.

Alternatively, they supposedly went over budget to get Kuroda.  So (for example), if they went $5M over budget to get Kuroda, they could use $5M on Damon, and pocket the other $5M to get back under budget.

Thanks, Mike K.