“I will not lose our No. 1 draft pick”

Via Chad Jennings, Brian Cashman said (very explicitly) that he will not forfeit the team’s first round draft choice to sign a free agent this afternoon. “I will not lose our No. 1 draft pick,” he said. “I would have for Cliff Lee. I won’t lose our No. 1 draft pick for anyone else.” There’s only two unsigned free agents that would cost a draft pick remaining (assuming Carl Pavano goes back to the Twins): Rafael Soriano and Grant Balfour. The latter was never going to happen, but conflicting reports have surfaced about the former in the last few days. Either way, I’m glad this is over with now. Time to move on.