Yankees Hotstove Update

Posada Is Back

As you would expect, Jorge Posada signed with the Yankees for 4 years $52.1m.

Jorge Posada, the 36-year-old free agent catcher, will remain a Yankee, sources familiar with the negotiations told the Daily News Monday night.
After being schmoozed by Mets general manager Omar Minaya Monday afternoon during a lengthy lunch at Le Cirque, Posada and his agents finally received the offer from the Yankees they had been hoping for all along.
The Yankees offered Posada a four-year, $52 million contract - the same deal they gave both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui two years ago - to remain in pinstripes. The deal will become official pending a physicial and final contract language being ironed out.

This is excellent news as he is still one of the best hitting catchers in the game.
He's one of my fave Yankees. it will be good for him to see out his career in pinstripes.

Pavano Is Out

Carl Pavano is about to get the boot off the 40-man roster. In case you forgot, this is the guy the Yanks signed, along with Jaret Wright tat brought about the fateful 2005 season - yeah, you remember, the one with Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon bailing out the crapped-out rotation...

Pavano had Tommy John surgery in the first week of July. A quick healer might make it back to the mound in a year. But Pavano is not a quick healer. There probably is a slim chance that since they have invested so much in the right-hander that the Yanks will keep him on the roster, hope he recuperates and then try to trade him late in the season. Nevertheless, as one AL executive said, "Who would trade for a guy like that who basically hasn't pitched in three years?"

In addition, the Yanks would have to eat just about Pavano's entire salary anyway, even if there were a trade to be made. Pavano is due $11 million in 2008 and has a 2009 team option for $13 million with a $1.95 million buyout. The Yanks likely will see it as a sunk cost and value protecting their prospects over some pipedream of getting any value out of the indifferent Pavano. The Yanks already have a complicated 40-man roster situation because to sign Juan Miranda and Andrew Brackman, they had to give them major league contracts and, thus, 40-man-roster slots years before they would have been eligible for them.

If Pavano is not released this month, he probably will be before spring training as the Yanks' 40-man roster refills with either their own signed free agents such as Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, or their replacements.
So for a four-year, $39.95 million contract, the Yanks would have received 19 starts and a load of headaches and heartaches from the brittle Pavano. He went 5-6 as a Yankee with a 4.77 ERA. He had as many wins in four years as a Yankee as reliever Luis Vizcaino did in the four weeks from to June 22-July 21 last year.

Why indeed!.
He's been on the 60-Day DL, but the 60-Day DL is gone during the off-season, so in order for the Yankees to protect the prospects, rather than collect 90% of the 13million owed to him from insurance, Pavano will be non-tendered. Awesome!

Mike Lowell Is Available
A few months back, I covered why it was bad to move Mike Lowell back in '98. 10 years later, he's available. Well, he was available two years ago for a price, but of course the Yankees had a third-baseman then...

Here's Pete Abraham:

The Globe says there is no deal for Mike Lowell with Boston. Not yet anyway. He wants four years.
Now he’s on the market and a certain team in the Boogie Down needs a third baseman. But the Yankees should be careful of Lowell.
Home in 2007: .373/.418/.575
Away in 2007: .276/.339/.428
Career at Yankee Stadium: .278/.330/.456 (90 ABs)
This is guy is one of the finest people in all of baseball. I’ve known him for 11 years and he’s a great guy. But this is also a guy who went .236/.298/.360 for Florida in 2005. Playing at Fenway Park in that lineup revitalized him.
The Yankees need a third baseman and taking him would weaken Boston. But a four-year deal for him would be a reach.

Yeah. Tough choice. Will Lowell fall off the face of the Earth or will he retain his value? Reasonably speaking, he's at the point you'd only want to give 3 years and no more. He wants four. Four years means he would be at best a DH or bench guy at the end, probably blocking the next 3B coming through the system.
Pass.