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Monday, November 19, 2012

MLB Daily Dish: Yankees rumors: New York in conversations with Scott Hairston

Free agent outfielder Scott Hairston is drawing interest from both New York clubs, with the Yankees holding ongoing discussions with the veteran, reports Dan Martin of the NY Post:

[The Mets] remain interested in Scott Hairston, but will get competition for the outfielder from the Yankees.

The Yankees continue to have conversations with Hairston, who is coming off arguably his most productive offensive season.

The 32-year-old Hairston hit .263/.299/.504 and blasted a career-high twenty home runs in one hundred thirty-four games for the Mets this past season. The righty slugger has always struggled with his on-base numbers but his .276/.325/.500 career line versus left-handed pitchers could make him a solid platoon option for any club.

I’ve touted Hairston a couple of times and I still think he makes a lot of sense on a one year deal, but I’m not sure he’ll have to settle for that.  CAIRO says Hairston would be in the neighborhood of .253/.311/.468 with an overall wOBA of .335 as a Yankee, with an estimated platoon split of a .352 wOBA vs. LHP and a .325 wOBA vs. RHP.

In other outfield rumors, NY Post: Play it again, Raul replay.

Ibanez hopes the fun will continue. The 40-year-old, a free agent, said he intends to keep playing and his first choice is to re-sign with the Yankees. “If I get an opportunity to play for the Yankees again,” he said, “it would be fantastic.”

At this point I’m not sure Ibanez is any better than Chris Dickerson when you factor in all the stuff that the BBWAA ignored when they voted for AL MVP.  You know, stuff like defense and base running.  CAIRO projects Ibanez at around .256/.320/.454 with an overall wOBA of .334 (.315 vs. LHP and .349 vs. RHP) which would be worth about 80 runs over 650 PA.  It projects Dickerson at .256/.349/.401 with an overall wOBA of .334 (.316 vs. LHP and .347 vs. RHP) which would be worth… 80 runs over 650 PA.

I suppose it’s possible that there’s room for both AND Hairston, although that makes it harder to fit two backup infielders on the bench and the Yankees probably need two backup infielders given the age of the left side of the infield. 

If the Yankees can get a .348 wOBA out of RF by platooning Dickerson and Hairston they’d only lose about 8 runs compared to Nick Swisher’s projection for 2013.  That seems like a pretty good stopgap to me while they see if any of their minor league outfielders makes a case for getting into the 2014 lineup.