Quick updates: Hairston, Damon, Nady
ByBuster Olney gives us two interesting nuggets today. First off, he says the Yankees never made an offer to Jerry Hairston Jr., despite their reported interest in bringing the jack-of-all-trades back. Jerry Jr. got his ring last year, so he headed to San Diego over the weekend for a little extra cash and the chance to play with his brother. Can you blame him?
Olney also mentions that the Yanks have had no recent contact with Johnny Damon. Ever since the Nick Johnson signing became official, there’s been basically zero movement on the Damon front. It’s apparent the team has no interest in bringing him back unless it’s on their terms and their terms only. Will Scott Boras crack? I say no.
And finally, Boras indicated that Xavier Nady is on schedule to be ready for Spring Training. “The doctors have his throwing program ahead of schedule,” said the superagent, however we’ve already heard that he’s out of the Yanks’ price range. Given the concern about a second Tommy John surgery, I don’t see why the Yanks should risk a roster spot and anything more than the league minimum on a proven league average commodity with basically zero upside.
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“I don’t see why the Yanks should risk a roster spot and anything more than the league minimum on a proven league average commodity with basically zero upside”
repeated for emphasis.
+1
Eric Byrnes at $500k>>>>>>Nady at $2 mil+
I agree with that statement also
Can’t disagree really – 2nd TJ’s don’t have a great record of success.
His fielding numbers before 2008 weren’t pretty – and he was an average corner outfielder as far as hitting:
http://www.fangraphs.com/stats.....osition=OF
Reed Johnson might be the best safety net for the Gritty one crapping the bed. The organization must think that one of the kids (Russo, Pena, Corona, Nunez) can handle the utility role
The track record for second TJ surgeries is basically irrelevant. Can you name another position player that established himself at the ML level and then failed to return to that level after a second TJ surgery during some of his prime years? I understand there’s a huge risk, but there’s not a track record of players in Nady’s position.
Give that man a prize.
So what would be the case if Nady was willing to accept a deal based at $400k plus incentives?
He won’t.
Correction: Boras won’t.
How do you know?
The same reason that everyone “knew” that Nick Johnson wouldn’t take a one year deal or play for a team where he would DH full time…..
” with basically zero upside.”
A little strong i think specially if the guys stays healthy, but RAB knows best.
And another thing Nady healthy being Nady if Mr. Gardner opens the door by going into a slump the only time he will ever see LF again would be as a defensive replacement.
His upside is a league average hitter; that’s not much, especially when one factors in his age.
2008- .305 /25 HR/97 RBI’s with .357 OBP that’s about his upside I would think and even if it’s a 10% to 15 % less still sounds good to me.
Based on the track record of position players coming off of their second Tommy John surgeries, you’d probably have to knock down those numbers by at least 25 percent and probably more. Unless the Yanks can get Nady at the league minimum with incentives and could easily pull the plug on a deal, he’s just not worth it.
Based on the track record of position players coming off of their second Tommy John surgeries
Everyone always mentions this but I’ve never seen any actual proof. Do you have a link to back this up? I’ve never even seen the name of another position player to have two TJ surgeries.
Can you name any position players that came off a second Tommy? How did they do?
Was there a 25 % drop in there production? What was there drop off if any?
Just wondering?
Most of the guys who had second TJ surgeries never really made it back to the point of being full-time players. I’ll put a post together within the next few days of the “before-and-after” for those guys.
That would be real interesting thank you.
The wikipedia page on the surgery lists only Nady and Vance Wilson as position players who’ve had it twice, hopefully you were able to find some more.
I can’t believe how many pitchers have had it three times, geeze.
How did the pitchers who had it twice or three times do? we are talking about a part- time position player here so arm use is much less.
Citing his career year is dishonest, no?
You did say upside right that’s as upside as he going to get. You would go down from there.
This age he is 31 !!!!!
Yup. 31′s on the wrong side of an offensive player’s peak performance curve.
If you’re looking for a player with upside, would you look at a 31 year old? I doubt it.
So then why bother even posting anything on LF for the last 3 weeks or so because most of those players were over 31 anyway.
if they cant afford damon,,,is afraid of nady….i guess we just need to go with baldelli at 500,000.,.and take our chances..he is after all a great ball player…with gods help he will stay healthy and produce like he can……i say take a chance yanks…
Baldelli had great potential early in his career but I just checked wikipedia and he wouldn’t be worth the gamble. Even if he were to stay healthy (I’d bet my house he won’t), he has that fatigue disorder which causes him to occasionally sit on the field during a break in the action. Now that Hairston went to the Padres, I think their best bet at a good defensive LF is Reed Johnson. He’d come cheaply. I like Jermaine Dye but he’d command a much higher salary.
isn’t nady’s upside somewhere around a .290 BA with 25 HR’s? that seems like more than zero to me
That’s what i was thinking.
since he’s done that only once in his career, i’d call it more wishful thinking
Career.
avg .280
OBP .335
SLG .458
OPS .793
I can live with that.
as would the yankees.
it’s the not knowing if he could stay on the field long enough to amass those #s, that’s the issue
True, but basically everyone who is left has some kind of issue it seem to me that it’s a bit unfair to label Nady “commodity with basically zero upside” when if healthy he might have the most upside.
So until someone can come up with actual proof of decline for a position player who has had TJ twice I don’t understand the label.
“if healthy he might have the most upside.”
incorrect. if healthy he would have the most upside.
if the yanks knew they could get 400 PAs out of him and could sign him to $1M or so, they’d have done it already
It’s Scott Boras lets see how it plays out.
Whomever they plug into left feild to replace Damon will be an upgrade defensively. However they are losing a clutch bat at the top of the line up. Especially in the post season. Johnny should of put a leash on boras and made nice. Cashman should of shown a little respect to Damon who was a warrior for the yanks. They will miss him next year.
Damon should do to Boras what A-Rod did. If he wants to come back, then tell his agent to shut his face; then Damon could negotiate with the Yankees on his own.
Sign Reed Johnson, please.
Please tell the Yankees to get Damon back and move on! You can always make other moves in the season!
For God’s sake, this is getting ridiculous. Why the Yankees haven’t signed Damon yet is a mystery to me; they can absolutely afford him ten times over, no matter what “budget” BS they’ve been trying to feed the public. Damon is absolutely worth at least 2 years, 14 million; give him that. If not that, 2 years, 10-12 million. Apparently it’s what they originally offered Damon, but when Boras countered with 2 years, 20 mil, the Yanks immediately slammed the door and signed Johnson. Come on; this is horrible. Damon has played great for the Yanks, and he’s an incredible clutch player. Is this any way to treat JD?? Fans love him, his team loves him, and he makes the Yankees interesting, as opposed to Derek Jeter who, aside from baseball, is about as interesting as permanent ink (I absolutely respect Jeter and his ability, but you have to admit, it would be nice to see him loosen up once in a while). Now that Hairston is gone, and Matsui, and Cabrera…what do we need? Another really good left-handed hitter…Damon murdered the right field porch this season…SIGN HIM UP!!! ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT!!!! I wish George was still in charge as opposed to that little man Hal…George would sign JD in a second, price be damned, because JD makes the team win. Hal and Brian “Cash” man don’t seem to understand that.
just signing everyone because you can, yeah, that’s the way to run the team
Use the $2MM left to sign Nady to a one year incentivized contract and occasional platoon with Gardner. Evaluate mid-season and make change if necessary.