The Yankees recently offered Kevin Millwood a non-guaranteed minor league deal, but the 36-year-old right-hander has rejected that offer, Joel Sherman of The Post reported this morning. Millwood, coming off a season in which he went 4-16 with a 5.10 ERA and a FIP nearly to match, wants a guaranteed Major League deal while the Yanks are “adamant” that Millwood not receive one. Rather, the team wants to structure his potential deal as they did with Freddy Garcia who will make $1.5 million if he makes the club and can earn $3.6 million more in performance bonuses.
Millwood’s refusal to take a minor league deal strikes me as a clear sign of a player who doesn’t know his own value after a five-season run of below-average pitching. The Yanks are quite content to let Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Sergio Mitre and Ivan Nova battle it out for rotation spots while Millwood remains unemployed.