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Sanchez, Pope sent down

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Yankees agree to terms with pre-arb players

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Yankees send Edwar Ramirez to Texas

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Edwar, we hardly knew ye

Randy Winn doubles off Mike Pelfrey at Citi Field in August. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Proving once and far all that the team was serious about both having a budget and not overpaying for Johnny Damon, the Yankees today reached a one-year deal with Randy Winn, pending a physical. Joe Sherlman broke the news this afternoon via Twitter, and as Winn’s signing marks the definitive end of Damon’s tenure in the Bronx, Yankee fans were, unsurprisingly, up in the arms about the deal.

According to Sherman, Winn will probably get $2 million in 2010, and the Yanks opted for him over Reed Johnson both because of the price tag and because they view Winn as “a better overall player.” Even with this signing, it’s no sure thing that Winn will be the starting left fielder; I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brett Gardner remain a starting outfielder with Winn as the Yanks’ defensive-minded fourth outfielder or see a platoon situation develop in the outfield.

Winn, 35, is seven months younger than Damon but hasn’t been nearly as productive a hitter as Johnny over the last few years. In 2009, Winn suffered through a .262/.318/.353 with just two home runs in 597 plate appearances. Based on his four-year line, he’s no better than Melky Cabrera but will cost $1 million less in 2010.Against lefties, he hit .158/.184/.200 in 125 PAs and was, according to Baseball Prospectus, the worst showing by a right-hander against left-handed pitching since 1954. It’s worth noting that Winn hit lefties to the tune of .289/.343/.470 in 2008, but with the most recent data on hand, it’s hard to see how Winn fills an offensive need. Joel Sherman reports that the Yanks could still ink a right-hander to a minor league deal.

On the other side of the ball, though, Winn is still a plus defender. He put up a overall OF UZR of 16.9 last year with a 7.9 mark in 54 games in left. His arm too is above average, and as he struggled offensively last year, he put up a 1.7 WAR. If he can simply duplicate those results, he will outperform the $2 million the Yanks are paying him.

And so Johnny Damon’s reign in New York comes to an end at the expense of someone no better than a fourth outfielder. The Yankees were drawn to Winn because he comes cheap and — with Carl Crawford nearing free agency — he comes for just one year. It was clear, based on recently discussions and rumors, that Damon wouldn’t re-up for a single season or at a price that fits the Yanks’ budget. Considering that the Yanks will probably still sport the same starting outfield tomorrow as they did yesterday, the team could have found a better fourth outfielder. Whether or not that player would have signed for so little is an entirely different story.

I couldn’t fit this into the post, but a good old tip o’ the cap to Jay Jaffe for highlighting the BP article about Winn’s 2009 platoon splits.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Yanks reach one-year deal with Randy Winn

I tackled a potential Gaudin deal earlier today, and I had planned to do the same for Logan later tonight. However, since the Yanks’ impatiently announced his deal today, I’ll just include what I had written after the jump. Enjoy.

This afternoon we took a look at what kind of contract Chad Gaudin could receive for 2010 by looking at some statistically similar players when they were at the same point in their careers. All signs seemed to point to a one-year contract worth around $3M, which is pretty much what we’ve been assuming all offseason. The Yanks have one other remaining arbitration eligible player in lefty specialist Boone Logan, so let’s take a second to see what kind of salary he could command next year.

Before we get to that, let’s talk a little about who Logan is since I don’t think we’ve ever actually done it. He was drafted in the 20th round out of a Texas high school by the White Sox back in 2002, then posted a 5.49 ERA with a 130-70 K/BB ratio in 170 IP during his first two-and-a-half seasons in the minors. The White Sox inexplicably included him on their Opening Day roster in 2006 when he had thrown a grand total of 5.1 innings above rookie ball (not A-ball, rookie ball) in his career, and then watching him predictably get his brains beat in. Logan bounced back and forth between the bigs and Triple-A for the next three years, then was traded to the Braves along with Javy Vazquez last year before coming to the Yanks with Javy this year.

Because he was rushed so brutally by the White Sox, Logan’s big league performance has been awful. He’s done basically all of his learning against unforgiving Major Leaguers, and owns a career 5.78 ERA and 1.70 WHIP in 127.2 IP. However, Logan is still an interesting guy to keep around because his physical tools suggest that he could be an effective pitcher in the bigs. He’s huge at 6′-5″ and 215 lbs, his fastball has sat around 92-94 over the last three years, and he’s less than a year older than Mike Dunn, the lefty relief prospect he was traded for. Logan’s low-80’s slider gives him a second weapon, so all the tools are there to be successful down the road. Here’s the one shred of video evidence MLB.com has of his existence. All of one pitch. Yay.

More than anything, Logan just needs a chance to catch his breath and make up for all that development time he lost. However, his arbitration case won’t be built on future potential and sympathy for being rushed, it’ll be based on his big league performance to date. Just as I did for Gaudin, I found some pitchers who were statistically comparable to Logan, so let’s once again tabulate…

Remember, the arb cases are going to be based on simple stats since that’s pretty much all the three-person panel can understand. As you can see, all three were better than Logan in the all important ERA department despite similar peripherals. I guess this would represent the best case comparison, maybe what Logan and his agent base their case on. Here’s the salary figures…

All four guys earned just about the league minimum in their final pre-arb year, and our three comps basically had their salaries doubled. Former Yank Randy Choate is the low man on the totem poll, getting just a 40% raise. Given his inferior performance, Logan seems like a better candidate for a 40% raise than a 100% raise, though the two sides might end up settling somewhere in the middle, say 70%. That would put his 2010 salary at $682,550, and for simplicity’s sake let’s call it $690,000. That would buy you basically a two-run player on the open market, or two-tenths of a win.

CHONE projects Logan to be one stinkin’ run above replacement level in 53 relief appearances next year, which means that for all intents and purposes, the Yankees could probably call someone like Wilkins Arias up and get similar production. However, as we noted above, Logan has everything needed to be better than that, it’s just a question if he starts to put it together now. Of the 257 relievers who threw at least 20 innings in the bigs last year, 166 managed to contribute at least two-tenths of a win to their club, or more than five relievers per team. Even at a $690,000 or so, it won’t take much for Logan to justify his salary in 2010.

Photo Credit: Hannah Foslien, AP

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Yankees avoid arbitration with Gaudin, Logan

The 24-year-old Winfree is a career .270-.318-.442 hitter in the minors, .273-.317-.460 in Triple-A. He’s spent considerable time at first, third, and in right field in his career, and TotalZone says he sucks at all three spots. I assume the righty hacker is going to take over the Eric Duncan role of filling in at the different corner every day for Triple-A Scranton.

Our Depth Chart has been updated to reflect all the recent minor moves.

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Yankees sign Royce Ring, David Winfree

Mitre was pretty terrible with the Yankees (6.79 ERA, 5.30 FIP), but it’s a good low risk deal. Very easy to back out of, and if nothing else he’ll be a decent innings eating mop up guy. Chad Gaudin is the team’s only remaining arbitration eligible player.

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Yanks, Mitre avoid arbitration

• The 2011 option is for the same base salary with a $250,000 buyout. If Johnson comes to the plate at least 550 times next year, the buyout jumps to $500,000. Both sides have to pick up the option for it to kick in.
• The guaranteed value of the option year can increase to $6M with 500 plate appearances in 2010, $6.5M with 550 plate appearances, and $7M with 600 plate appearances.
• Johnson could potentially pocket another million bucks in both years of the deal with plate appearance based incentives: $50,000 each for 400 and 425 trips to the plate, $75,000 each for 450 and 475, and $125,000 each for 500, 525, 550, 575, 600, and 625 plate appearances.
• If both sides pick up the mutual option and Johnson reaches all of the incentives, he’d take home a total of $14.5M.

There doesn’t appear to be any no-trade protection or any other benefits like that, which is always a plus. Hopefully Nick The Stick stays healthy and it’s $14.5M well spent.

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Details on Nick Johnson’s contract

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Yanks sign Mike Rivera to a minor league deal