Via George King: Among the players on the Yankees’ radar this offseason is free agent right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez. The Indians made him a qualifying offer earlier this week and he’ll presumably reject it before next Monday’s deadline, meaning it will cost a high draft pick to sign him. For New York, that means the 18th overall pick.
Jimenez, 29, had a 3.30 ERA and 3.43 FIP in 182.2 innings this season, but he was awful in the first half (4.56 ERA and 4.50 FIP) and great in the second half (1.82 ERA and 2.17 FIP). He’s been incredibly up and down in recent years and there’s an A.J. Burnett-esque quality to him in that you don’t really know what you’re getting from start to start. Jimenez is still relatively young and he misses bats (9.56 K/9 and 25.0 K%), but his fastball velocity has declined in each of the last four years. The Yankees need pitching and should be looking at everyone, but Ubaldo is so very unpredictable. I don’t really know what to think.
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