River Avenue Blues

Yankees re-sign four to minor league contracts

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Via Matt Eddy: The Yankees have re-signed LHP Juan Cedeno, LHP Francisco Rondon, OF Abe Almonte, and OF/DH Cody Johnson to minor league contracts. All four players became six-year minor league free agents at the end of the season.

Cedeno (29-year-old lefty reliever) and Almonte (speedy 23-year-old outfielder) could actually help the big league team as soon as 2013. Both players will be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft this December unless added to 40-man roster by the November 20th deadline — I doubt they will be, otherwise the Yankees would have done it to avoid letting them hit free agency — but the risk that they stick with a club next year is worth the reward of not clogging up the 40-man with more fringy prospect types. Both guys are nice depth pieces to have in the high minors.

Surprise Surprise! No one has called about A-Rod’s availability yet

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Via Jon Heyman: No teams have contacted the Yankees to inquire about trading for Alex Rodriguez yet. This is not surprising for two reasons: one, the season just ended and clubs probably don’t have their entire offseason plan formulated at this point. Two, A-Rod isn’t exactly a hot trade commodity. Brian Cashman recently said that he isn’t planning to trade his third baseman but that doesn’t mean he won’t listen to offers. He would be foolish not to. I just wouldn’t expect a flood of ’em.

Cashman: We’ll only get younger if it makes us better

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Via Kristie Ackert: Brian Cashman said during a recent radio interview that while he wants to make his roster younger, he’ll only do so if it makes the team better. “Do we need to get younger? Only if it gets us better,” he said. “Do I want us to be younger and better? Yes, but will I sacrifice, would I go younger to make us worse and forego better choices that are older that make us better? No … In theory, I want us to get younger and better, but in reality, that’s not always realistic; it depends on what is immediately coming through your system and if you feel that the players currently knocking on the door are potential everyday guys.”

The Yankees had the oldest roster in baseball this past season and they absolutely should look to get younger moving forward, but that doesn’t mean they should throw a bunch of kids out there an expecting to contend. Getting younger for the Yankees means acquiring players in the primes of their careers, so 27, 28, 29 years old. Something like that. Going any younger than that almost always means getting worse first, and there’s no reason to do that.

Friday Night Open Thread

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The Giants and Tigers are off today for travel, so the World Series will resume tomorrow in Detroit with San Francisco leading the best-of-seven series two games to none. You’re on your own as far as entertainment goes, but that look back at Reggie Jackson’s three-homer game in the 1977 World Series is a great way to kill a few minutes. Once you’re done with that, feel free to use this thread to talk about anything (except politics!) you like. Enjoy.

Update: Reports from Instructional League

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Friday: McDaniel following up with a part four looking at a number of secondary pitching prospects — including an interesting 18-year-old right-hander just brought up from the Dominican Summer League — as well as OF Slade Heathcott, SS Cito Culver, and SS Austin Aune. So yeah, get on that.

Tuesday: Over at FanGraphs, Kiley McDaniel put together some scouting notes on various Yankees prospects he saw in Instructional League the last few weeks (part one, part two, part three). Among those covered were OF Tyler Austin, 2B Angelo Gumbs, RHP Hayden Sharp, 3B Dante Bichette Jr., RHP Dellin Betances, 3B Miguel Andujar, C Peter O’Brien, and C Gary Sanchez. Some of the reports are good, others not so much. They’re all worth the read though, so make sure you head over to check all of them out.

Teixeira takes home 2012 Fielding Bible Award

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For the first time in his career, Mark Teixeira has won the Fielding Bible Award at first base for his defensive skills. Albert Pujols had won the award five times in the last six years, but he finished third in the voting behind Tex and Adrian Gonzalez in 2012. Teixeira received 95 of 100 possible points in the scoring system and was probably long overdue for this award, which I feel is a far better representation of defensive ability than Gold Gloves. Tex has a few of those already.

Brett Gardner won the left field award in both 2010 and 2011, but his season-long injury took him out of the running this year. Alex Gordon won it instead.