GM for a day – Yankees

I’m going to take a page out of Baseball Prospectus’ book and play GM for a day with the New York Yankees. Note that this is a very good scenario for the Yankees and a lot of these moves may not happen. I made sure to stay within budget and sign guys that I thought the Yankees had a legitimate shot at. I think the core of this team is in place and guys like Damon, Naddy, and Swisher will play a major role in this team come 2009.

Before we get into anything else lets look at what Yankees are (possibly) leaving this offseason.

-          Jason Giambi ($23,428,571)

-          Bobby Abreu ($16,000,000)

-          Ivan Rodriguez ($12,379,883)

-          Andy Petite ($16,000,000)

-          Mike Mussina ($11,071,029)

-          Carl Pavano ($11,000,000)

-          Chad Moeller ($700,000)

-          Sidney Ponson ($1,000,000)

That adds up to $91,579,483 off of the Yankees payroll. That’s almost $100 million worth of old, expensive players. With all of these guys gone here is a look at the depth chart. That leaves us with quite a few positions of need. First we need to replace Jason Giambi. Having already traded for Nick Swisher (adding $5.3 million to the payroll), so if we can’t sign anyone else he should be serviceable. We need a center fielder as Melky Cabrera has proven to be pretty horrible, and we need a few starters to replace about half of our again rotation.

If we want to keep our payroll at the same level as in 2008, we need to keep our spending under or around $85,000,000. That shouldn’t be too hard. Here we go……

1.       Sign CC Sabathia if possible. The rumored contract would add $23,300,000 to the payroll in 2009. Sabathia is the best pitcher in baseball; that is pretty clear. He is top 5 in tRA and can put up innings like few other pitchers out there. It really doesn’t matter how much it costs, this team needs Sabathia to anchor its staff. If Sabathia cannot be signed, the Yankees need to find a solid number 2 guy. I think Derek Lowe is the prefect choice. Lowe has put up such great numbers the last few years that I really don’t see him declining much when switching leagues.  

2.       Trade one or more of Robinson Cano, Hideki Matsui, and Melky Cabrera for a center fielder or starting pitcher. Melky can’t get the job done and Austin Jackson is still an unproven commodity. If needed, Nick Swisher could play center field but I don’t think that is necessary. Possible centerfield options include Matt Kemp and Randy Winn. We should add $5,000,000 to the payroll to compensate for possibly taking on a big salary, however if we went in the Kemp direction we might be able to cut salary.

3.       Sign Orlando Hudson to replace Cano. Hudson has good defensive skills, has an OBP around .370, and walks far more than he strikes out. Expect a contract in the $8,000,000 range, something similar to what Dustin Pedroia got from the Red Sox.

4.       Sign Ben Sheets. Sheets may have some injury concerns, but our deep farm system will keep us protected. Sheets has been flat out dominate and his injury concerns will keep his salary down below that of guys like Lowe or even the bigger injury concern Burnett. Why this guy isn’t being talked about as a top free agent is beyond  me, I would love to see him on the Yankees if possible. If Sheets resigns with Milwaukee, or ends up somewhere else somehow I would go with Randy Wolf. Wolf is also an injury risk but his strikeout rate and flat out dominate performances the past few seasons are worth it. Whoever we sign here probably adds another $10 million to the payroll.

After this the team still has about $35,000,000 left and there is one major deal they could look at doing.

5.       The Yankees should at least try to sign Mark Teixeira. According to multiple sources Tex is not  looking to sign with the Nationals, and is likely to sign with one of the Red Sox, Angels, or Yankees. The Red Sox are rumored to be making a big push for him so it would be hard, but with all the payroll room left and a new stadium to fill up the Yankees should at least give this a shot.  If this doesn’t go down we could see Swisher at first base, and it is even possible that we would re-sign first Jason Giambi. Teixeira would be great, but there are plenty of other options out there.

That would leave the Yankees with an opening day lineup of:

1.       LF – Johnny Damon

2.       SS – Derek Jeter

3.       1B – Mark Teixeira (Or Swisher, Giambi, etc.)

4.       3B – Alex Rodriguez

5.       RF – Xavier Naddy

6.       2B – Orlando Hudson

7.       C – Jorge Posada

8.       CF – Matt Kemp/Randy Winn/Gabe Kapler (Whoever they end up getting…)

9.       DH – Nick Swisher

Of course that lineup could be moved around. Having guys like Naddy, Swisher, and Damon gives us a lot of flexibility. Unless we end up trading Matsui, which is possible, he could rotate in as well.

And a rotation of:

1.       CC Sabathia/Derek Lowe

2.       Chein-Ming Wang

3.       Joba Chamberlain

4.       Ben Sheets/Randy Wolf

5.       Philip Hughes

I don’t think moving Joba to the bullpen is a good idea at all. He proved he could dominate as a starter, and his injury looks like more of a coincidence than anything. The bullpen managed fine without Joba, and for a stretch of the season was on of the best in baseball.

So there you have it. If the Yankees go ahead and sign Teixeira it would leave them with a payroll about $10,000,000 less than in 2008. If they wanted to go out and get a better backup catcher, one more starter, or a bullpen arm they could do that. Although I’m not sure the Yankees will be able to sign both Teixeira and Sabathia, they certainly have the payroll room to do so. I think the key thing is for the Yankees to realize that they have a good bullpen and a base for their rotation as well as a great offense and to use their payroll room to sign a few premium guys to build around that. With that starting rotation and that lineup it would be hard for the Yankees to be anything but favorites to go to the world series, however as we have seen before injuries and bad luck can prevent any team from doing what they should. A good starting lineup, rotation, and bullpen only get you so far. You need to have depth to win in major league baseball and with the high level talent in the Yankees farm system and versatile guys like Nick Swisher and Johnny Damon  I think they have that.