Heyman on the Yanks: Nady, Girardi

Over the weekend, Jon Heyman has chimed in with two Yankee-centric items of note. Let’s break them down.

First, in a piece about the best and worst free agent signings, Heyman checks in on Xavier Nady’s prognosis. Heyman wonders about Nady’s future: “One person said first surgeries have close to a 90 percent success ratio while second surgeries are as low as 20 percent.”

Will Carroll at Baseball Prospectus had a different take in Friday’s Under the Knife. Carroll said that Nady “should be fine” for Spring Training. Nady, clearly, isn’t a pitcher and should have a slightly different rehab path. Unless the scar tissue presents a problem, I don’t see why Heyman’s source would be right.

In another piece, Heyman handicaps the managers on the hot seat. Girardi, says Heyman, won’t be fired this year no matter the ups and downs of the Yankee season. He will however have to get the team into the playoffs.

Heyman notes that Girardi is the “handpicked successor to the legendary Joe Torre.” While Girardi is under contract for next season, Yankee officials higher up in the food chain than Cashman may not be keen to welcome Girardi back in 2010 if the Yanks can’t make the playoffs this year. They didn’t spend all of that money this winter to stay home in October.