Rumor de l’après-midi: Rosenthal on the bullpen

Apropos of our early discussion on Nick Swisher’s availability comes one of the more tenuous and sketchier bits of Hot Stove reporting we’ll see all year. In what may or may not qualify as something worth publishing on FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal tells us that the Yankees’ pitching plans are still unclear. According to Rosenthal, the Yankees have not yet decided if the bullpen or rotation will undergo an off-season boost. Furthermore, the team may or may not be interested in some free agents. First, “one rival executive” says the Yanks are interested in both Rafael Soriano (RHP) and Mike Gonzalez (LHP), but “another source with knowledge of the Yankees’ thinking” believes the team will fill bullpen holes from within. The two strategies are, by the way, not mutually exclusive.

Anyway, the big problem with this type of reporting is that it does not engender trust in any of the people involved. Rosenthal seemingly puts his own theory — that Soriano or Gonzalez or both would do the Yankees some good — into the mouths of two unnamed baseball sources. Since the free agency frenzy does not commence until midnight tonight, nothing has happened, and it’s starting to show.