At long last, the offseason and Spring Training are over. That applies both to the present day Yankees and the Yankees of yesteryear. Our MLB Trade Rumors archive series moves (concludes, really) into April 2014. The Yankees lost to Scott Feldman and the Astros — Houston went 51-111 the prior season — on Opening Day that year. Most notably, Dellin Betances pitched that day and made the first of what would eventually be 70 dominant appearances that season.

The Yankees had a very busy 2013-14 offseason. Robinson Cano left as a free agent and the Yankees responded to their forgettable 2013 season with several big free agent signings (Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka) and several smaller free agent signings (Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, Matt Thornton). Anyway, April is usually not a great month for rumors and transactions, but let’s go through the archives anyway.

April 1st, 2014: Yankees Designate Eduardo Nunez For Assignment

The Yankees have designated shortstop Eduardo Nunez for assignment, tweets Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. A 40-man roster spot was needed for fellow infielder Yangervis Solarte, who beat out Nunez for the club’s utility infield role.

The end of the Nunie era. Nunez spent the 2011-13 seasons as a most of the time player, hitting .266/.313/.380 (87 wRC+) with -35 DRS. It was time to move on. Nunez made the most of his fresh start with the Twins and the Yankees certainly made the right move going with Solarte, a minor league contract guy who blew everyone away in Spring Training and helped keep the Yankees relevant in April and May. Solarte took Nunez’s roster spot, his utility infielder job, and his uniform number (No. 26). Replaced him in every way possible.

April 5th, 2014: AL Notes: Teixeira, Lester, Kipnis

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira has been placed on the 15-day DL with a hamstring injury, the club announced today. Needless to say, that is not the start to the year that he or the team had hoped for as the 33-year-old works back from wrist surgery. The injury has revealed some roster issues in New York, which will move Kelly Johnson from third to first for the time being and call up catcher Austin Romine to take the open active roster spot. While the team was surely uninterested in carrying three backstops, the move was dictated by 40-man constraints.

Oh geez, I forgot about Teixeira’s hamstring injury. He missed most of 2013 with his wrist injury, remember. Now he had a hamstring problem. He missed 13 games with the injury and Teixeira’s injury is what gave Solarte his first real big league opportunity. Teixeira got hurt, Johnson moved over from third base to first base, and Solarte took over at the hot corner. He went 15-for-47 (.319) with four doubles and a homer while Teixeira was out, and the Yankees couldn’t take him out of the lineup.

April 6th, 2014: AL Notes: Davis, Kottaras, Omogrosso

Brian Omogrosso‘s agency, MCA, says (via Twitter) that the pitcher is drawing interest from the Yankees, Rangers and Blue Jays after pitching at a showcase Friday in Arizona. The White Sox recently released Omogrosso. He appeared in 37 1/3 innings for them in the past two seasons, posting a 5.54 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9.

Brian Omogrosso, eh? He put 67 guys on base and allowed 24 runs in 37.1 innings as an up-and-down arm with the White Sox from 2012-13. No team signed him in April 2014. He wound up with the independent Bridgeport Bluefish that year, allowed nine runs in six innings, and that was that. Omogrosso’s been out of baseball since. Crazy has fast this game can be taken away from a player. General rule of thumb: When a player’s agency tweets out the teams that are interested in signing him, take it with a grain of salt. A big one.

April 7th, 2014: Twins Acquire Eduardo Nunez

The Twins have acquired infielder Eduardo Nunez from the Yankees in exchange for left-hander Miguel Sulbaran, tweets Twins director of baseball communications Dustin Morse. Nunez has been assigned to Triple-A Rochester.

The Yankees took the loss on this one. Baseball America never ranked Sulbaran among his team’s top 30 prospects and he threw 186 minor league innings with a 3.87 ERA (3.55 FIP) while with the Yankees. He was released after missing 2016 with injury and serving a 25-game drug suspension in 2017. Been out of baseball since. Nunez hasn’t been great by any means since then (+4.5 WAR from 2014-18), but he’s certainly been more useful than Sulbaran. Shrug.

April 11th, 2014: AL East Notes: Moore, Trout, Cashman, Jays

The Yankees have been fined by Major League Baseball for tampering due to comments made by team president Randy Levine in regards to Mike Trout, The Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin reports.  The amount of the fine isn’t known.  Levine cited Trout last December when discussing why the Yankees didn’t match the Mariners’ 10-year contract offer for Robinson Cano, saying “If it was Mike Trout, I’d offer him a 10-year contract, but for people over 30, I don’t believe it makes sense.”  The Angels took exception to Levine’s comments and asked the Commissioner’s office to investigate the matter.

If only there were some 20-somethings the Yankees could’ve given a ten-year contract this offseason!

April 14th, 2014: Quick Hits: Puig, Yankees, Lester, Tigers, Blackouts

The Yankees come in at a surprising second in the early-season defensive shift count, writes ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Insider subscription required). As Olney notes, that kind of decision requires organizational commitment on every level, and two offseason infield acquisitions — Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts — played an important part in the first discussions involving players.

The 2014 season is when we first started to see the team’s analytical efforts trickle down to the field. Infield shifts had been around for years, they were hardly new in baseball, but they were new to the Yankees. They shifted quite a bit in 2014 and weren’t especially good at it. I think part of it was personnel. The shift was still relatively new to veterans like Johnson and Roberts. The Yankees are much more well positioned now and it helps that guys like Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, and others were able to learn the shift in the minors. Back in 2014, the Yankees just kinda threw it out there and hoped it work. There’s a much better plan in place now.

April 18th, 2014: Yankees Designate Cesar Cabral For Assignment

The Yankees designated reliever Cesar Cabral for assignment after tonight’s game, reports Marly Rivera of ESPN Deportes (via Twitter). Cabral, 25, had a rough outing, giving up three earned runs and failing to record an out before he was ejected for hitting his third batter of the inning.

I remember that Cabral outing. It was ugly. He entered the eighth inning at Tropicana Field with the Yankees down 8-5 and went single, single, hit batter, hit batter, single, hit batter. The hit-by-pitches didn’t look intentional — Cabral also threw a wild pitch that inning and only nine of his 23 pitches were strikeouts — but come on, the umpire can’t leave a guy in when he’s hit three of six batters.

Cabral spent the rest of the season in Triple-A, hooked on with the Orioles the next year and did return to the big leagues briefly (one inning in 2015). The independent Sugar Land Skeeters recently drafted him out of a showcase event, so Cabral’s still active. The Yankees liked him so much that they took him in the 2011 (!) Rule 5 Draft and waited all that time for him to overcome elbow problems.

April 20th, 2014: Yankees Designate Matt Daley For Assignment

The Yankees have designated right-hander Matt Daley, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (on Twitter). In related moves, New York activated Mark Teixeira, recalled right-handers Preston Claiborne and Bryan Mitchell, placed right-hander Ivan Nova on the 15-day disabled list with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and sent infielder Scott Sizemore to Triple-A.

Good gravy what a series of transactions. There’s a lot going on there. First, Daley, who currently works in the Yankees’ front office, will forever be remembered as the guy who was summoned from the bullpen to replace Mariano Rivera after Rivera’s memorable farewell in 2013. He spent the rest of the 2014 season in Triple-A before hooking on with the Yankees as a scout.

Claiborne got off to a real nice start with the Yankees in 2013 before crashing late and continuing to crash in 2014. He managed to make it back to the big leagues with the Rangers in 2017. This call-up was Mitchell’s first big league call-up, though he didn’t get a chance to pitch before being sent down, kinda like Domingo Acevedo last year. Mitchell eventually made his MLB debut in August 2014.

Sizemore went 5-for-16 (.313) in limited time with the Yankees and I was Mad Online they didn’t give him a longer look while Teixeira was out. He’s been out of baseball since 2016. Oh, and this is when Nova blew out his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery. Nova’s injury led to Chase Whitley getting called up. Whitley and Jacob deGrom made their MLB debuts as opposing starters in a game the Yankees won 1-0. It was the game Betances did this:

Lordy. That was right when it was starting to become clear Betances was legit. I miss Dellin. Can’t wait for him to come back.

April 25th, 2014: Yankees Sign Bruce Billings To Major League Deal

The Yankees have signed right-hander Bruce Billings to a Major League contract and selected him to their 25-man roster.  The club announced the signing prior to yesterday’s game against Boston.  Billings is represented by John Boggs & Associates.

Okay, this MLBTR post is a bit misleading, because the Yankees had signed Billings to a minor league deal over the winter and he started the season with Triple-A Scranton. When a non-40-man roster guy gets called up, he technically signs a new Major League contract as part of the process. The Yankees didn’t sign Billings as a free agent in April 2014. They just called him up. Anyway, Billings made one appearance with the Yankees, allowing four runs in four mop-up innings against the Angels. It was his last MLB game and he’s been out of baseball since 2015. The 2014 Yankees really gave the 2013 Yankees a run for their money with the random journeyman call-ups.

April 26th, 2014: AL East Notes: Campos, Masterson, Stroman

Yankees minor-league pitcher Jose Campos had Tommy John surgery on Friday, CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler tweets. Campos, of course, arrived from the Mariners prior to the 2012 season with Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi, a trade that seems to have been cursed for everyone involved.

From 2012-15, Campos threw 167 innings in the farm system due to various injuries. As soon as he showed some semblance of good health in 2016, the Yankees cashed him in as a trade chip. He went to the Diamondbacks for Tyler Clippard. No one won the Pineda-Montero trade. The Yankees just lost it less. Campos at least got a taste of the big leagues with Arizona later in that 2016 season, allowing three runs in 5.2 innings. He allowed 14 runs in 22.1 innings with the independent Sugar Land Skeeters last season. Still only 26 too.

April 26th, 2014: Minor Moves: Freddy Garcia, Nik Turley

The Yankees have announced that they’ve released pitcher Nik Turley. Turley, 24, posted a 3.88 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 139 innings for Double-A Trenton in 2013. He experienced arm tightness in spring training and has not pitched this season, but if healthy, one would think that a left-hander with his strikeout rate and ability to start could get a look from another organization.

Turley went from 50th round draft pick to the big leagues. The Yankees released him after some injuries, then he bounced from the Giants to the Red Sox to the Twins. Turley allowed 22 runs in 17.2 innings with Minnesota in 2017, but he didn’t pitch at all last season due to an elbow injury and a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Even though the results stink, seeing a kid drafted that late reach the big leagues is always pretty cool.

April 28th, 2014: Yankees Sign Chris Leroux To Minor League Deal

The Yankees signed Chris Leroux to a Major League contract and added the right-hander to their 25-man roster, the club announced over the weekend.  Leroux joined the Yankees on a minor league deal signed in January.  Leroux is represented by the Octagon Agency.

Same deal as Billings. Leroux was with Triple-A Scranton and was called up. He made two appearances with the Yankees and managed to allow five runs in two innings. Leroux’s been out of baseball since 2016. Billings and Leroux were called up in April, but folks, there were still plenty Jim Millers and Josh Outmans and Jeff Franci to come during this 2014 season.

April 28th, 2014: Quick Hits: Tigers, Nevin, Murphy, Polanco

John Ryan Murphy has drawn the attention of several opposing scouts and the young catcher could become a sought-after trade chip for the Yankees, John Harper of the New York Daily News reports.  “Some team might see him as a guy who could start for them,’’ one scout told Harper. “He’s solid with the bat and behind the plate.’’

Murphy didn’t play much with the 2014 Yankees — Brian McCann and Francisco Cervelli were the primary catching tandem that year — but he was a really good prospect. A borderline top 100 guy. Murphy gave the Yankees a quality season as the backup catcher in 2015 (.277/.327/.406 and 100 wRC+) before they turned him into Aaron Hicks. Even with Hicks dealing with his back injury, that trade has been a huge win for the Yankees. Murphy is with the D’Backs right now and they made him throw 54 pitches (!) in a two-inning mopup appearance two weeks ago. Seven runs in two innings. Man. How is letting a position player (or a pitcher, for that matter) throw that many pitches in two innings safe?

April 29th, 2014: Injury Notes: Profar, Figueroa, Pineda, Nova

Speaking of injured pitchers, Yankees hurler Michael Pineda will have an MRI after leaving a simulated game with a sore lat muscle, Newsday’s David Lennon tweets. Pineda’s suspension for pine tar is due to end Monday, but the Yankees might be without him longer than that.

You all remember the pin tar incident, right? Of course you do. Pineda was busted for having pine tar on his neck at Fenway Park, and was given a ten-game suspension. Everyone remembers that. How many people remember Pineda got hurt while suspended though? He was throwing in Tampa during his suspension when he injured his lat. The pine tar game was April 23rd. Pineda did not rejoin the Yankees until August 13th.

April 30th, 2014: AL Notes: Abreu, Carbonell, Astros, Baker

The Yankees are interested in Cuban outfielder Daniel Carbonell, according to media outlet Diario de Cuba (hat tip to Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues).  The Yankees scouted Carbonell during a February workout.  The switch-hitting 23-year-old is a free agent and can be signed for any price as long as he signs before July 2.

For some reason I had it in my head that the Yankees signed Carbonell. I must’ve been confusing him with someone else. The Giants signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5M contract and he spent the entire four-year contract in the minors. Didn’t play much above Single-A ball. Carbonell hit .178/.229/.267 in the Mexican League last season, which sources confirm is not good. I somehow wrote three (and now four) RAB posts about this guy. Maybe I should’ve started a monthly RAB Archives feature where I looked back at all the stupid things I wrote five years ago. That would’ve been a hoot.

We are in a new month, and because that month is March, it means meaningful baseball is coming. The Yankees will open the 2019 regular season four weeks in three weeks and six days. Back in 2014, the regular season did not begin until April 1st. The 2014 Yankees made it through Spring Training healthy. (Brendan Ryan started the season on the 15-day DL with a back problem. That’s all.) Let’s hope the 2019 Yankees do the same.

Anyway, after going 85-77 and missing the postseason in 2013, the Yankees abandoned their luxury tax plan during the 2013-14 offseason, and committed big dollars to Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Masahiro Tanaka. They also made smaller additions like Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts. Oh, and they lost Robinson Cano to free agency. That was kind of a big deal. March usually isn’t a great month for trade and free agent rumors, but that’s not going to stop us from making our monthly trip through the MLB Trade Rumors archives. Let’s get to it.

March 1st, 2014: East Notes: Orioles, Yankees, Braves

Yankees hurler CC Sabathia wasn’t concerned after his fastball topped out at 88 MPH in his first Spring Training outing, Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News reports. “My fastball is what it is. If it gets better, it will. If it’s not, it won’t,” Sabathia commented. McCarron writes that the concerns are likely to persist if the lefty’s heater doesn’t tick up, noting that Sabathia lost a significant amount of weight this offseason.

The 2013 season was the first season in Sabathia’s terrible three-year stretch before he reinvented himself as a cutter guy. He threw 211 innings (good!) with a 4.78 ERA and 4.10 FIP (bad!) that year. Spring Training velocity hysteria was still at its peak in 2014 following the Michael Pineda fiasco, so it was impossible to tell what was meaningful and what was noise. In Sabathia’s case, those 88 mph spring heaters were meaningful. His average fastball velocities:

• 2012: 93.2 mph
• 2013: 92.3 mph
• 2014: 90.6 mph
• 2015: 91.2 mph
• 2016: 92.1 mph

Sabathia pitched terribly in 2014 (5.28 ERA and 4.78 FIP) and injury ended his season in mid-May. It wasn’t his arm though. It was that right knee. The knee absolutely could’ve played a role in the velocity loss — Sabathia could’ve been holding back a bit in an effort to reduce the force on his landing knee, even subconsciously — and while his peak velocity never returned, it did rebound after 2014.

Who would’ve guessed that, as this was happening back in 2014, Sabathia would still be out here slingin’ in 2019? He looked close to done that season and it’s not like he was any good when healthy in 2015 either (4.73 ERA and 4.68 FIP). It wasn’t until late in that 2015 season that he adopted the cutter and carved out a nice little second phase of his career.

March 2nd, 2014: AL East Notes: Rays, Lowe, Peralta, Napoli, Ortiz

Jhonny Peralta said the Yankees offered him a three-year contract and the opportunity to play third base, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter links).  The Yankees were Peralta’s preferred Big Apple team since the Mets only offered him a two-year deal that Peralta described as “not really good.”

The Yankees went with Kelly Johnson at third base in 2014, which opened the door for Yangervis Solarte, so in the grand scheme of things missing out on Peralta was a positive even though he was quite productive for the Cardinals. They gave him a four-year deal and he hit .263/.336/.443 (120 wRC+) with +4.6 WAR in 2014 and .275/.334/.411 (105 wRC+) with +2.1 WAR in 2015 before things went south. Missing out on Peralta wasn’t quite as fortunate as missing out on Omar Infante, but standing pat at three years was a good idea for the Yankees.

March 5th, 2014: Teams Scouting David Phelps, Yankee Catchers

The Mariners sent a scout to watch David Phelps‘ recent Spring Training outing, George A. King III of the New York Post reports, while the White Sox and Brewers also had scouts on hand to watch the Yankees’ catchers.  King previously reported last week that the White Sox had their eyes on the Yankees’ catching surplus and that the Yankees were scouting Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks.

Phelps was a good but not great depth arm coming off a 4.98 ERA (3.81 FIP) in 2013. He was the kinda guy who was perpetually available in trades. The Yankees kept him that year and he wound up third on the team in starts in 2014. Good grief. As for the catchers, the Yankees had just signed Brian McCann, and they had three backup candidates in Austin Romine, John Ryan Murphy, and Frankie Cervelli. They kept all them too in 2014.

By 2014, Weeks was basically done as an everyday player. He hit .209/.306/.357 (84 wRC+) in 2013 and had lost a step in the field. New York’s infield was a mess though, and rolling the dice on Weeks wasn’t the worst idea when your starting infield is Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, and 40-year-old Derek Jeter. Weeks did bounce back with a .274/.357/.452 (126 wRC+) line as a platoon bat in 2014. Anyway, there were lots of rumors about Phelps and the catchers during spring 2014 and it all amounted to nothing.

March 7th, 2014: Quick Hits: Perez, Pineda, Mariners, Ramirez, A’s

Yankees starter Michael Pineda took an important step tonight on the road back from shoulder surgery, writes Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. Throwing a slider that catcher Brian McCann called “pretty much unhittable,” Pineda tossed two scoreless innings and struck out four Tigers — including Austin Jackson, Rajai Davis, and reigning AL MVP Miguel Cabrera.

The Yankees acquired Pineda in January 2012 and he didn’t throw a single pitch for them in 2012 or 2013 following shoulder surgery. In Spring Training 2014, there was some optimism Big Mike would be in the Opening Day rotation. He was still only 25 at the time and his fastball and slider looked good in the early days of camp. Shoulder trouble and the pine tar suspension limited Pineda to 13 starts that season, during which he had a 1.89 ERA (2.71 FIP) in 76.1 innings. Those 76.1 innings were all the Yankees got from him from 2012-14. There were no winners in this trade. The Yankees just lost it less.

March 13th, 2014: AL East Notes: Sox, Romero, Gausman, Soriano

MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports that the Yankees are planning to give Alfonso Soriano a look at first base to improve his versatility, but there’s been no talk of him seeing any time at second base.

Oy vey. I can’t imagine 38-year-old Soriano at second base. He wasn’t good there when he was 28. The Yankees were very much in their “we’ll play anyone at first!” phase at this point and letting Soriano try it made sense. They had five outfielders for the three outfield spots plus DH (Soriano, Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Ichiro Suzuki) and little first base depth. It never happened though. Soriano never played first base, he completely stopped hitting, and was released in July. Remember how great he was after the trade in 2013? Man did it fall apart quick.

March 23rd, 2014: AL Notes: Pierzynski, Harang, Ichiro, Orioles, Rangers

The Yankees are willing to eat part of Ichiro Suzuki‘s $6.5MM 2014 salary in the right trade, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes. No deal appears to be imminent, however. Ichiro, who hit .262/.297/.342 with the Yankees in 2013, does not have a starting role this season.

You will be surprised to learn no team wanted to give up something to acquire a 40-year-old outfielder who stopped hitting four years earlier, even with the Yankees eating money. I get it, Ichiro is an all-time great and a first ballot Hall of Famer, and I fully acknowledge his greatness and place in history as a global baseball icon, but the two-year contract covering 2013-14 was ill-advised and he never should’ve been anything more than a fourth outfielder for the Yankees. Naturally, Ichiro played 143 games in 2014, fourth most on the team. Figures.

March 26th, 2014: AL East Links: Murphy, Romine, Rays, McGowan

Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters (including ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews) that he’s “hearing from a lot of people about” catchers John Ryan Murphy and Austin Romine.  The Yankees have been shopping their catching depth for weeks, and now that Francisco Cervelli has won the backup job, Murphy and Romine could be more expendable.  Cashman, however, doesn’t feel pressure to move either players.  “They’re assets. We’re not in any position where we have to do anything, but if something made sense, we’d consider it. But right now, we’re happy with what we’ve got,” Cashman said.

If you would have asked me, in March 2014, to rank those three catchers based on how likely they were to have a long-term future with the Yankees, I would’ve ranked them:

1. John Ryan Murphy
2. Francisco Cervelli
3. Austin Romine

Murphy was the hotshot prospect and Cervelli had been the incumbent backup for several years running. Romine spent a good chunk of the 2013 season backing up Chris Stewart when Cervelli was on the disabled list. He hit .207/.255/.296 (49 wRC+) in 148 plate appearances, then went to Triple-A in 2014 and hit .242/.300/.365 (82 wRC+) in 313 plate appearances. The Yankees designated Romine for assignment at the end of Spring Training 2015 and he went through waivers unclaimed.

Now, five years later, Romine is heading into his fourth straight season as the undisputed backup catcher. Murphy was traded for Aaron Hicks and the Yankees turned Cervelli into one year of Justin Wilson and then Chad Green (and Luis Cessa). The Yankees had three backup catchers in March 2014 and, over the next 18 months, they turned them into one backup catcher, a comfortably above-average center fielder, and multiple excellent reliever seasons. Is that good? That seems good.

March 28th, 2014: Yankees To Sign Alfredo Aceves

The Yankees have reached agreement on a minor league deal with pitcher Alfredo Aceves, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). Aceves will work out of the Triple-A rotation, and has a July 1 opt-out clause.

The return of Al Aceves. The second go ’round didn’t go nearly as well as the first. He was hurt and ineffective with the Red Sox from 2012-13 (5.21 ERA and 4.95 FIP), the Yankees rolled the dice on a minor league deal, and Aceves wound up in the bullpen in early-May. I remember Aceves giving up some garbage time dingers in this game, throwing two pitches inside at the next hitter, and Larry Rothschild chewing him out on the mound. The video:

The YES Network broadcast had a better look at it, but I can’t find that video. Trust me though, it happened. The Yankees designated Aceves for assignment after the game and he hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since. He spent the 2014-17 seasons in the Mexican League and didn’t pitch anywhere last season as best as I can tell. As good as Aceves was for the 2009 Yankees, he was essentially done as a productive big leaguer by 2012, and he was a big time clubhouse liability. Dude was kinda crazy.

Welcome to February. Spring Training is right around the corner. Now that we’re in a new month, it’s time again to dive into the MLB Trade Rumors archives to remember Some Guys and relive some old hot stove rumblings. The Yankees went 85-77 against all odds in 2013 and were looking to get back to the postseason. The Alex Rodriguez suspension saga was looming over them, as was an aging roster.

The 2013-14 offseason was a big one for the Yankees. Most notably, they lost Robinson Cano to the Mariners. They attempted to prop up the roster with four big signings (Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka) and several smaller signings (Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, Matt Thornton). It didn’t work out — the Yankees went 84-78 in 2014 and missed the postseason again — but we didn’t know that in February. Let’s go back in time, shall we?

February 6th, 2014: Twelve Teams Have Asked Nationals About Espinosa

The Nats are balking at moving Espinosa despite interest from the Yankees, among other clubs, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

The Danny Espinosa collapse was well underway at this point. He hit .242/.319/.408 (99 wRC+) with 38 homers from 2011-12 and was a +3 WAR player each year. A league average hitting middle infielder with 20-ish homer pop and very good defense is a nice little player. Espinosa fell apart in 2013 (22 wRC+), however, and never really recovered. Given the state of the infield in February 2014, it made sense for the Yankees to try to buy low on 26-year-old Espinosa and see whether he could get back to being a +3 WAR player. I can’t help but wonder what they were willing to give up. Espinosa was in camp with the Yankees as a non-roster invitee last spring. They got their man eventually.

February 7th, 2014: Minor Moves: Cole Kimball, Omir Santos

The Yankees have signed righty Cole Kimball to a minor league deal, reports Matt Eddy of Baseball America. Kimball, 28, had spent his entire career with the Nationals organization, making a brief big league debut in 2011 with a 1.93 ERA in 14 innings (though he both struck out and walked 7.1 batters per nine). Since then, however, Kimball has struggled with shoulder issues. In 2012, he threw just 5 2/3 minor league innings. Last year, splitting time between Rookie ball and Triple-A, Kimball posted a 7.31 ERA in 28 1/3 innings with 8.9 K/9 against 4.8 BB/9.

Once upon a time Kimball had some prospect shine as a reliever with the Nationals. The Yankees scooped him up to see whether he could help out with a healthy shoulder, then he allowed 14 runs in 26.2 innings with Double-A Trenton. Kimball went to an independent league and later Mexico, and was out of baseball by 2015. Pretty wild how quickly it can fall apart in this game. Kimball was a good reliever prospect who got a taste of the show in 2011 and was poised to assume a larger role with Washington in 2012. Instead, out of baseball by 2015. Yeesh.

February 7th, 2014: Quick Hits: Epstein, Cespedes, Tanaka, Arb Hearings

Turning back to the aforementioned Tanaka, Yankees GM Brian Cashman told ESPN Radio today (via ESPNNewYork.com’s Andrew Marchand) that the club views its new acquisition as “a really solid, consistent number three starter.” Cashman noted that, though the club scouted Tanaka extensively, uncertainty remains as to how he will transition to the big leagues. “If we get more than that,” Cashman said, “all the better. He’s got a great deal of ability.”

Ah yes, the famed “a really solid, consistent number three starter” comment that was repeated ad nauseum for weeks. Brian Cashman always — always — downplays expectations. The Yankees had just given Masahiro Tanaka a seven-year contract worth $155M, and paid a $20M release fee on top of that. Yeah, sure, they expected a No. 3 starter. Cashman has always been an “underperform and over-deliver” guy and I’m not sure there’s a better example of that than Tanaka. Since his 2014 debut Tanaka is 21st in WAR and 22nd in ERA+ among all pitchers (min. 500 innings). That ain’t no No. 3 starter.

February 8th, 2014: East Notes: Marlins, Orioles, Yankees

The Yankees are making upgrades to their minor-league complex in Tampa, Fla., including a cafeteria for players and field refurbishments, reports Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News. The Yankees have also added to their player development staff, bringing in more scouts and a statistics guru, following a season that saw struggles up and down their farm system.

This was the start of the farm system turnaround. For years the Yankees struggled to produce even complementary players from within. There was Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang in 2005 and Brett Gardner in 2008, and not much else before the current crop of homegrown players. In 2014 the Yankees overhauled their player development system. Facilities were upgraded and personnel was changed, most notably Gary Denbo replacing longtime farm system head Mark Newman. We can never truly know how much of the farm system revival is the result of the changes that took place in 2014. My guess is basically all of it can be attributed to the overhaul. Things weren’t working out, things changed, things got better. Hooray for that.

February 12th, 2014: Derek Jeter To Retire After 2014

Legendary Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter announced today on his Facebook page that he will retire after the 2014 season (hat tip to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News, whose colleague Mark Feinsand tweets that agent Casey Close has confirmed the retirement). Jeter, who turns 40 in June, re-signed with the Yankees — the only franchise he’s ever played for — earlier in the off-season.

Jeter’s announcement came as a surprise, even to the Yankees. I mean, yeah, it was not the most shocking thing in the world that a soon-to-be 40-year-old shortstop announced his impending retirement following an injury-plagued season the year before, but it was not set in stone. With Mariano Rivera, there were some pretty good indications he was ready to call it a career following the 2013 given what happened with his knee and everything in 2012. With Jeter, it kinda came out of nowhere.

The 2014 season was not Jeter’s best — he hit .256/.304/.313 (75 wRC+) with four homers in 634 plate appearances — but he did do this in his final Yankee Stadium at-bat, and this was pretty darn cool:

Not counting the 2009 World Series win, that’s arguably the best moment in new Yankee Stadium history, isn’t it? It’s either that, Rivera’s farewell, or Jeter’s 3,000th hit. I guess we could throw Didi Gregorius’ home run in the 2017 Wild Card Game and Alex Rodriguez’s game-tying home run against Joe Nathan in Game Two of the 2009 ALDS into the mix. This sport can be so great sometimes.

February 18th, 2014: Yankees Made Offer To Drew Earlier In Off-Season

The Yankees made an offer to free agent infielder Stephen Drew earlier in the off-season, believed to be for two or three years, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Nevertheless, the report indicates, the Yankees do not appear to be one of the four teams still pursuing the 30-year-old.

Yikes, I do not remember this. Drew eventually signed a one-year deal to return to the Red Sox in late-May. It was worth $10.2M, or the pro-rated portion of the $14.1M qualifying offer he rejected over the winter. We’ve seen top free agents wait very long to sign these last few years, even before these last two offseasons. Drew, Ubaldo Jimenez, Nelson Cruz, Kendrys Morales, and Yovani Gallardo all got stuck sitting in free agency until February and March (or later) in recent years. This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s just more wide-spread.

Anyway, the Yankees were tentatively scheduled to go to into the 2014 season with Kelly Johnson at third, Derek Jeter at short, Brian Roberts at second, and Mark Teixeira at first. Eduardo Nunez was in the mix as well, though he lost his roster spot to Yangervis Solarte in Spring Training. The Yankees eventually traded Johnson for Drew at the deadline, then re-signed Drew the next year. If they offered him two years as this report says, they wound up with him for a year and a half.

February 23rd, 2014: Yankees Agree To Terms With Andrew Bailey

SATURDAY, 11:18pm: Bailey will earn a prorated base salary of $1.975MM if he works his way up to the Major League club, Olney reports. All told, the Major League side of the deal is valued at $2.5MM, and includes a 2015 option and buyout.

Once upon a time Bailey was a Rookie of the Year closer with the Athletics. He wound up with the Red Sox and made 49 appearances from 2012-13 (4.91 ERA and 4.68 FIP) before his shoulder gave out. The Yankees signed him and rehabbed him through numerous setbacks in 2014 and 2015, and then he allowed eight runs in 8.2 innings as a September call-up in 2015. My lasting memory of Bailey as a Yankee will be the three-run home run he gave up to Russell Martin …

… that closed the door on Yankees’ AL East title chances in late September. Dellin Betances was warmed up and ready to go in the bullpen, but Joe Girardi decided to stick with broken down Andrew Bailey, and there went any shot at the division. Signing injured pitchers on the cheap and rehabbing them is a smart move that doesn’t pay dividends all that often. So it goes.

February 24th, 2014: Yankees Extend Brett Gardner

Brett Gardner was positioned to be one of the top free agents in next year’s class, but he’s no longer on the market. The Yankees officially announced today that they have signed the Pro Star Management client to a four-year extension with a club option for a fifth season. Gardner’s new deal begins in the 2015 season and is reportedly worth $52MM. He receives a $2MM signing bonus and will earn $12MM in 2015, $13MM in 2016, $12MM in 2017 and $11MM in 2018. The 2019 club option is worth $12.5MM and contains a $2MM buyout.

Only four times this century have the Yankees signed a player in his arbitration years to a long-term extension: Derek Jeter in 2001 (ten years, $189M), Javy Vazquez in 2004 (four years, $45M), Robinson Cano in 2008 (four years, $30M), and Brett Gardner in 2014 (four years, $52M). All except Cano were entering their final season of team control. (The Yankees also signed CC Sabathia and Hideki Matsui to extensions, but those guys were veterans already working on free agent contracts.)

The Yankees have been stingy with long-term extensions and I thought the Gardner deal was an indication the way the team did business was going to change, but nope. To be fair, it’s only now that the Yankees have some young players worth extending. It sure would’ve been rad had they signed Didi Gregorius in, like, January 2016, but alas. The Gardner contract worked out quite well — that $52M bought them +14.2 WAR across four years — and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Yankees wait until Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, et al are a year away from free agency before extending them.

February 25th, 2014: Quick Hits: Santana, Billingsley, Tejada, Drew, Hanrahan, Diaz

Across town, the Yankees are keeping tabs on reliever Joel Hanrahan after inking another rehabbing former closer in Andrew Bailey, reports Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. As Martino explains, interest in arms like Bailey and Hanrahan shows that the club has some concern with its pen depth.

The Red Sox made some really terrible reliever trades back in the day. They gave up Josh Reddick (and two others) to get Andrew Bailey, who stunk for them and got hurt. They also gave up Mark Melancon (and three others) to get Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan allowed eight runs in 7.1 innings with the Red Sox, all in 2013, and never pitched again. Wrecked his arm. The Tigers gave him a look in Spring Training in 2014 and 2015 but nothing came of it. Hanrahan was a two-time All-Star with a 2.24 ERA (3.24 FIP) from 2012-13. His career lasted 7.1 more innings. Brutal.

Welcome to 2019. The present day Yankees are looking for bullpen help and a middle infielder to replace the injured Didi Gregorius. The 2013 going on 2014 Yankees were looking for rotation help and a Robinson Cano replacement at this moment five years ago. They went 85-77 the previous year and missed the postseason for the first time since 2008, and it was clear they needed more help to return to October in 2014.

At this point of the 2013-14 offseason the Yankees had already made most of their major moves. Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Carlos Beltran had all been signed and both Derek Jeter and Hiroki Kuroda were re-signed. The Yankees still had to figure out second base and they needed to get Kuroda, CC Sabathia, and Ivan Nova some rotation help. On the first day of 2019, it’s time to go back in time five years to January 2014. Here’s the latest edition of our MLB Trade Rumors archives series.

January 10th, 2014: Yankees Sign Matt Thornton

More than three weeks after the initial agreement was reached, the Yankees have officially announced their two-year deal with left-hander Matt Thornton. The longtime White Sox hurler will reportedly receive a $7MM guarantee. Thornton is represented by Diamond Sports Management.

Man, I’d forgotten Matt Thornton was a Yankee. He had that great stretch with the White Sox from 2008-10 (2.70 ERA and 2.46 FIP) before gradual decline started to set in. Thornton’s surface numbers with the Yankees were pretty good (2.55 ERA and 2.73 FIP in 24.2 innings) but he had some trouble with inherited runners and a few notable meltdowns. The Yankees let him and the $4.5M remaining on his contract go to the Nationals on a straight August trade waiver claim. Salary dumped him. Those multi-year contracts for left-on-left relievers didn’t out well for the Yankees for a while there.

January 11th, 2014: Alex Rodriguez Suspension Now 162 Games

The result of Alex Rodriguez‘s appeal is in, and he will be suspended for 162 games, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. Rodriguez plans to appeal the suspension in federal court. The suspension will cover the full 2014 season, and also the postseason, Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown tweets. The suspension previously was 211 games. Even though the suspension was reduced, the decision by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz appears to be a victory for Major League Baseball, which won a suspension for A-Rod that goes far beyond those of other first-time PED offenders.

What a nightmare this was. The appeal process was ugly — A-Rod did all sorts of radio interviews and bashed the entire process while it was still ongoing (at one point he claimed the Yankees made him play through his hip injury hoping it would end his career) — and eventually his suspension was reduced. He then filed lawsuits against the Yankees, MLB, the MLBPA, and some others. They were later dropped. For a while there though, Rodriguez’s appeal and the fallout was ugly. The ugliest period for the Yankees in a long time.

Two weird things about A-Rod’s suspension. One, the suspension covered 162 games, but the Yankees still had to pay Rodriguez for the team’s 20 off-days in 2014. For real. That amounted to a little more than $3M. And two, A-Rod could’ve still gone to Tampa and been a full participant in Spring Training, which would’ve been a major distraction. Ultimately, he announced he wouldn’t go to camp when he dropped all his lawsuits and whatnot. Imagine though? A-Rod suspended for the regular season but still a regular in Spring Training? That would’ve been a hoot.

January 11th, 2014: Minor Moves: Coello, Braddock, Keppel, Manzella

The Yankees have signed righty reliever Robert Coello to a minor-league deal, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy tweets. Coello, 29, pitched 17 innings for the Angels in 2013, posting a 3.71 ERA with 12.2 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9.

Oh man, I totally forgot about Coello. He never did pitch for the Yankees — Coello had a 1.69 ERA (3.08 FIP) in 32 innings with Triple-A Scranton before being released at midseason — but he was notable because he threw what amounted to a knuckle-forkball. Coello gripped it like a forkball but the ball had no spin like a knuckleball. The statheads nicknamed it the WTForkball. Look:

Coello hooked on with the Orioles after the Yankees released him, then he spent 2015 in Triple-A with the Giants and Rangers, and 2016 in Korea. He’s been out of baseball since. Thanks to the WTForkball, Coello struck out 39 (and walked 17) in 29 career MLB innings with the Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Angels.

January 11th, 2014: Reynolds Unlikely To Return To Yankees

Mark Reynolds is unlikely to return to the Yankees, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News tweets, citing a source who says the Yanks have only offered the infielder a minor-league deal. “He won’t take that,” Feinsand says.

The Brewers gave Reynolds a one-year deal worth $2M about a week later and he went on to hit .196/.287/.394 (87 wRC+) with 22 homers in 2014. Five players batted 140 times as a right-handed hitter for the 2014 Yankees. Their numbers:

1. Francisco Cervelli: 130 wRC+ (in 162 plate appearances)
2. Mark Teixeira: 97 wRC+ (in 146 plate appearances as a right-handed batter)
3. Derek Jeter: 75 wRC+ (in 634 plate appearances)
4. Alfonso Soriano: 66 wRC+ (in 238 plate appearances)
5. Carlos Beltran: 52 wRC+ (in 153 plate appearances as a right-handed batter)

Reynolds was terrible in 2014 and he would’ve been the third best right-handed hitter on the Yankees. Woof. Reynolds is still around though. Dude hit .248/.328/.476 (112 wRC+) with 13 homers as a part-timer for the Nationals this season, and even had a 5-for-5 with 10 RBI game. Twelve years in the big leagues, six homers away from 300 for his career, and nearly $30M in contracts. Not too shabby.

January 12th, 2014: Yankees To Sign Scott Sizemore

3:50pm: Sizemore has opt-out dates of May 1 and August 1, if he isn’t on the Yankees’ 25-man roster, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. In a second tweet, Sherman reports Sizemore had two Major League offers, but saw more opportunities with the Yankees.

10:55am: The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Scott Sizemore, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).

The 2014 Yankees had such a crummy infield that I was on this very website practically begging them to give Sizemore more playing time. He hit .266/.329/.433 (108 wRC+) with Triple-A Scranton that season and went 5-for-16 (.313) in his brief big league stint with the Yankees. Once you’ve begged for Scott Sizemore to get playing time, potentially replacing Didi Gregorius with Tyler Wade or Hanser Alberto doesn’t seem so bad.

January 13th, 2014: Yankees Sign Brian Roberts

JAN. 13: After nearly a month, Roberts’ deal with the Yankees is now official, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on Twitter). Roberts will receive Alex Rodriguez‘s 40-man roster spot.

Going from Robinson Cano to late career Brian Roberts was like going from, well, Aaron Judge to Shane Robinson. It was bad. Roberts hit .237/.300/.360 (86 wRC+) in 348 plate appearances for the Yankees, and he was very uneven. He hit a tolerable .247/.318/.367 (95 wRC+) in April and May and a dreadful .226/.281/.352 (77 wRC+) in June and July before being released. Roberts did do this though …

… and that was pretty cool. No one picked Roberts up after the Yankees cut him loose and he retired as a career .276/.346/.409 (101 wRC+) hitter with 1,527 hits and +30 WAR. Nice little career he had. Too bad injuries sabotaged his early 30s. Roberts could’ve been up over 2,000 hits otherwise.

January 13th, 2014: Yankees Have Asked Padres About Trade For Infielder

The Yankees have inquired with the Padres about the possibility of trading for some of San Diego’s infield depth, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The most realistic target is utilityman Logan Forsythe, according to Morosi.

At the time the Padres had Forsythe, Chase Headley, Jedd Gyorko, and Everth Cabrera on the infield. The Yankees eventually acquired Headley and had on-and-off interest in Gyorko and Forsythe over the years. I distinctly remember folks in our comments and on social media first wondering why the Yankees wanted Forsythe (73 wRC+ in 2013), then wondering why the Yankees didn’t get him from San Diego after he broke out with the Rays a year later (125 wRC+ in 2015). Good times.

January 16th, 2014: Yankees Release Vernon Wells

JANUARY 16: The Yankees have released Wells, according to the MLB.com transactions page.

Wells was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Thornton and there as much rejoicing. Wells hit .233/.282/.349 (77 wRC+) with the Yankees in 2013 — that includes a .216/.258/.296 (49 wRC+) batting line after April — and no team signed him after he was cut loose. Probably not a good sign that so many 2013-14 Yankees were immediately shuffled into forced retirement after being released, huh?

January 22nd, 2014: Yankees Sign Masahiro Tanaka

After months of drama and speculation, the Masahiro Tanaka saga has come to an end. The Yankees today officially announced that they’ve signed the Japanese righty to a seven-year contract that is reportedly worth a massive $155MM. The contract provides Tanaka with an opt-out clause after the fourth season and also contains a full no-trade clause. Tanaka is represented by Excel Sports Management — the same agents that negotiated Clayton Kershaw‘s record-setting extension.

It’s easy to forget how young Tanaka was at the time. On the day he officially signed with the Yankees, Tanaka was 131 days older than Luis Severino is today. The Yankees were getting the prime years of a very talented pitcher — a talented pitcher with no MLB track record, but a talented pitcher nonetheless — and, by and large, Tanaka has delivered. In the first five years of his contract he’s pitched to a 3.59 ERA (118 ERA+) and 3.80 FIP with +15.6 WAR in 824.2 innings. Over the last five seasons Tanaka ranks 21st in WAR despite being 34th in innings. And he’s delivered in the postseason too. Imagine where the Yankees would be without him the last few years? In an era when most big money pitching contracts become disasters, Tanaka’s been well worth the money.

January 22nd, 2014: Yankees Designate David Huff For Assignment

The Yankees announced that they’ve designated left-hander David Huff for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for Masahiro Tanaka.

Huff somehow had two stints with the Yankees. He threw 34.2 innings with a 4.67 ERA (4.95 FIP) in pinstripes in 2013, was traded to the Giants for cash after this DFA, then was reacquired for cash in June 2014. Huff had a 1.85 ERA (4.00 FIP) in 39 innings in his second stint with the Yankees. David Huff really had a 3.18 ERA (4.45 FIP) in 73.2 innings with New York? Who knew? This past season he had a 4.87 ERA in 94.1 innings for the Yakult Swallows in Japan.

January 22nd, 2014: AL East Notes: Carp, Blue Jays, Yankees, Robertson

David Robertson will be the Yankees’ closer in 2014, Steinbrenner told Sherman and Dan Martin of the New York Post. Cashman wasn’t quite as firm during a media conference, saying that Robertson is “obviously…the odds-on favorite” but not ruling out any further bullpen additions.

Everyone freaked out — understandably, I think — about having to replace Mariano Rivera in 2014, yet Robertson made it easy. He had a typical Robertson season after moving from the eighth inning into the ninth inning. And, really, the Yankees haven’t had much trouble replacing Rivera at all. At least not during the regular season. Their post-Rivera closers:

• 2014: Robertson
• 2015: Andrew Miller
• 2016: Aroldis Chapman (then Dellin Betances after the trade)
• 2017-18: Chapman

There have of course been some hiccups along the way — closers always have hiccups, they’re inevitable during a 162-game season — but, by and large, the Yankees have fared pretty well in the ninth inning since Rivera retired. Things aren’t quite as automatic in the postseason and that’s the key difference. There will never be another like Mo in October.

January 27th, 2014: Minor Moves: Chris Leroux, Pete Orr, Blake Davis

29-year-old righty Chris Leroux has inked a minor league deal with the Yankees, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. The Canadian hurler has 69 2/3 MLB innings under his belt, all in relief, over which he has maintained a 5.56 ERA and 8.1 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9.

The Yankees signed Leroux after he allowed 26 runs in 22 innings for the Yakult Swallows in Japan in 2013. He spend most of the 2014 season with Triple-A Scranton (4.94 ERA and 4.25 FIP) but he did manage to find himself in the Bronx for two appearances. Two innings, five runs. Leroux hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since and he’s been out of baseball since 2016. David Hale was the 2018 Chris Leroux. I wonder who 2019’s Chris Leroux will be?

January 29th, 2014: East Notes: Kimbrel, Rodney, Yanks, Phils, Red Sox

Also from Martino, the Yankees haven’t had any talk with Rodney since one “very preliminary” discussion back in November. While the team is aware of its bullpen holes, a Major League source tells Martino that they lack the payroll flexibility to address the ‘pen after signing Masahiro Tanaka. The Yankees are hoping that Dellin Betances can serve as a power reliever, Martino adds.

Geez, I don’t remember the Yankees being in on Fernando Rodney at all. He tends to make things interesting and I’ve always kinda hoped the Yankees would steer clear because of that. Rodney had that rebirth season with the Rays in 2012 (0.60 ERA and 2.13 FIP) and was again pretty good with Tampa in 2013 (3.38 ERA and 2.84 FIP). The Mariners gave him two years and $14M and hey, he saved 48 games with a 2.85 ERA (2.83 FIP) in 2014. Things have gone downhill a bit since then. Still pretty amazing 41-year-old Fernando Rodney was out there slinging 95 mph fastballs in 2018. May we all have that sort of longevity.

Welcome to December. The offseason’s busiest month has arrived and that means gobs of rumors and transactions. That is every bit as true for the 2018 going on 2019 Yankees as it was the 2013 going on 2014 Yankees. In fact, this month’s edition of our MLBTR Archives series includes over 1,600 words of copied and pasted MLB Trade Rumors blurbs alone. Then we added our commentary on top of that.

Anyway, the Yankees went 85-77 in 2013 and missed the postseason. By time December 1st rolled around they’d already re-signed Derek Jeter, signed Brian McCann, and shown interest in Jhonny Peralta, Omar Infante, and Brandon Phillips as backup plans in case Robinson Cano signed elsewhere, which of course he did. December 2013 was one of the busiest months in recent Yankees history. Let’s go back in time five years.

December 2nd, 2013: Yankees Sign Brendan Ryan

3:27pm: Ryan will receive $2MM in 2014 and 2015, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Yankees hold a $2MM club option for 2016 that becomes a $1MM player option if it is declined, he adds.

Two years and a player option! What a time to be alive. The Yankees acquired Ryan in an ultra-rare September trade because Jeter got hurt and they needed someone to play shortstop the final few weeks of the 2013 season. They then re-signed Ryan to this contract to be their utility guy. It went how everyone expected. Ryan didn’t hit (37 wRC+) but he played some nifty defense from 2014-15. He of course exercised his player option for 2016 and, to shed the salary, the Yankees included him in the Adam Warren-Starlin Castro trade. The Cubs immediately released him. Ryan spent the 2016-17 seasons in Triple-A and did not play at all this past season.

December 2nd, 2013: Yankees Will Not Offer $200MM To Cano

The Yankees will not offer star free agent second baseman Robinson Cano a deal for over $200MM, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. With a current offer of seven years and $160MM already on the table, the club plans to stand on that figure and does not foresee wiggle room of greater than about $15MM, says Passan.

The Yankees’ final offer to Cano was seven years and $175M, so that maxed out that reported $15M in wiggle room on top of the $160M offer. At this point, it still felt like only a matter of time until Robbie re-signed with the Yankees. No other teams were showing serious interest yet and the Yankees had made him a monster contract offer. He was holding out for more and the Yankees were obviously willing to wait him out.

December 2nd 2013: American League Non-Tenders

GM Brian Cashman says that the Yankees will non-tender infielder Jayson Nix, tweets Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News. The 31-year-old veteran appeared in 87 games for New York last season, putting up a .236/.308/.311 line in 303 plate appearances. The club will also non-tender reliever Matt Daley and infielder David Adams. New York confirmed the moves via press release.

And thus ends the Nixy era. Nix spent two years in pinstripes, hit .239/.307/.340 (78 wRC+) in 505 (!) plate appearances, and was let go after the 2013 season. He bounced from the Phillies to the Pirates to the Royals in 2014 and has been out of baseball since 2015. Also, wow were people made the Yankees non-tendered David Adams. I mean irate. He still had some prospect shine at the time but it didn’t really work out. Adams bounced around the Double-A and Triple-A levels for various organizations from 2014-16 and hasn’t played since. He rejoined the Yankees as a minor league instructor last year and this summer he managed one of their rookie Gulf Coast League teams.

December 3rd, 2013: Mariners Have Emerged As Major Players For Robinson Cano

The Mariners have emerged as a major player in the Robinson Cano sweepstakes, several sources told Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com.  With the Yankees not wanting to go to seven years or as much as $200MM, an industry source with knowledge of the negotiations termed the Yankees chances of retaining Cano at “less than 50-50.”

Haha real funny guys knock it off.

December 3rd, 2013: A’s Likely To Trade Brett Anderson Next Week

3:54pm: The Yankees are also interested in Anderson, according to Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (on Twitter). According to Passan, the A’s are likely to deal Anderson at next week’s Winter Meetings.

Acquiring Brett Anderson always seems like a good idea until you actually acquire Brett Anderson. Injuries limited him to 163 innings total from 2011-13, the Athletics traded him soon after this rumor to the Rockies for Drew Pomeranz, and then Anderson made eight starts for Colorado around injuries. He became a free agent after the 2014 season and has bounced around since. He made 17 starts for the A’s this season. It is the fourth most games he’s started in his ten-year big league career.

December 3rd, 2013: Quick Hits: Granderson, Beltran, Trumbo, Cano

The Yankees have signed right-hander Brian Gordon to a minor league deal, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (on Twitter).

You might remember Brian Gordon from such appearances as those two random starts he made in June 2011. Bartolo Colon and David Phelps hit the disabled list at the same time and the Yankees were desperate for a spot starter. Gordon exercised the opt-out clause in his minor league contract with the Phillies, the Yankees scooped him up, and he allowed six runs in 10.1 innings in two starts.

That was 2011. The Yankees released Gordon about a month later so he could go to Korea. He played there for a few years before returning and inking this new minor league contract with the Yankees. Gordon spent the first half of the 2014 season with Triple-A Scranton, where he allowed 46 runs in 77.2 innings before being released at midseason. He hasn’t played since. Rough.

December 6th, 2013: Yankees Sign Kelly Johnson

The Yankees have signed Kelly Johnson to a one-year contract, the team announced today.  Terms of the deal weren’t made public but ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that the deal is for exactly $3MM (Twitter link), giving Johnson a small raise from the $2.45MM he earned with Tampa Bay in 2013. 

A few weeks ago, as I was waiting for Game One of the World Series to start, I thought to myself “Matt Kemp is probably the best DH an NL team has used in the World Series in quite some time.” So I looked it up. Turns out the Dodgers used Justin Turner and Joc Pederson at DH in 2017 and those guys are pretty good, plus the Cubs used Kyle Schwarber at DH in 2016, so I was wrong. Kemp wasn’t the best DH an NL team used in World Series in a while.

I mention this because that search led me to discover that Kelly Johnson started at DH in Game One of the 2015 World Series for the Mets. True story. He started at DH, went 0-for-1 with a hit-by-pitch, then was replaced by pinch-hitter Michael Cuddyer against a lefty in the late innings. How about that? Anyway, I was overly excited about the Johnson signing. He then hit .219/.304/.373 (93 wRC+) while bouncing all around the infield for the Yankees before being traded to the Red Sox for Stephen Drew. Boston then sent him to the Orioles for Jemile Weeks. In the span of three seasons (2012-14), Johnson played for all five AL East teams.

December 7th, 2013: Yankees Receiving Significant Interest In Brett Gardner

After inking outfielder Carlos Beltran last night, the Yankees have received “significant interest” in Brett Gardner, reports Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger (via Twitter). The club is willing to deal Gardner, says McCullough, though it is not actively shopping him.

Death, taxes, Brett Gardner trade rumors in the offseason. I should note that some of these events are out of order because deals get agreed to one day and made official another day, and when MLBTR updates their post, the timestamp gets changed. At this point the Yankees had already signed Beltran and Jacoby Ellsbury. Those two joined Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, and Alfonso Soriano. Five outfielders for the three outfield spots plus DH. Gardner was out on the trade market and the Yankees kept him, which is pretty much exactly what happened every offseason from 2009-17. Injuries and Soriano getting old fast cleared up the outfield jam rather quickly.

December 7th, 2013: Yankees Re-Sign Hiroki Kuroda

The Yankees and Hiroki Kuroda finalized a one-year, $16MM contract last night that will allow the right-hander to earn up to $500K worth of incentives, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on Twitter). Kuroda, a client of Octagon’s Steve Hilliard, will earn $250K for reaching the 190-inning and 210-inning milestones, according to Sherman.

Hiroki Kuroda was the right pitcher at the wrong time for the Yankees. They had Kuroda from 2012-14 and they needed him from 2017-19. Kuroda was the man. He was a no nonsense plow horse who racked up 620 innings and +11.2 WAR in three seasons in pinstripes, all on one-year contracts. One of the best one-year contract signings in franchise history, hands down. Heck, Kuroda was three of the best one-year contract signings in franchise history. I miss this guy.

December 7th, 2013: Yankees Agree To Sign Jacoby Ellsbury

The Yankees have agreed to sign Jacoby Ellsbury, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (via Twitter).  Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com first reported that the two sides were closing in on a seven-year pact.  It is believed the deal will top Carl Crawford‘s $142MM, seven-year deal with one estimate pegging the deal at about $150MM, according to Heyman.

This date, December 7th, 2013, is still the highest trafficked day in RAB history. It’s not even close, really. It surpassed July 9th, 2010, the day of the Cliff Lee non-trade. The hot stove blew up on December 7th, 2013. On that day:

• The Yankees agreed to sign Ellsbury.
• The Yankees agreed to sign Beltran.
• The Yankees agreed to re-sign Kuroda.
• Curtis Granderson left for the Mets.
• Robinson Cano left for the Mariners.

Yep, that’s how you get the most visited day in RAB history. As for Ellsbury, gosh what a mess. It was a terrible contract at the time and you could tell that because he was Scott Boras’ top client that offseason and the top Boras client never signs the week before the Winter Meetings. The Yankees had to blow Boras and Ellsbury away with an offer to get him to sign that early. Supposedly the Yankees had been told Cano would be leaving a few days earlier, so they hustled to sign Ellsbury before the Cano news became public and they lost leverage. If that’s the deal they cut with leverage, I don’t want to know what would’ve happened with no leverage.

In his five seasons with the Yankees Ellsbury has hit .264/.330/.386 (98 wRC+) with +7.9 WAR while playing in 520 of 810 possible games, and there’s still two more years to go. There’s a decent chance he’ll never play another game with the Yankees too. This is on the short list of the worst free agent signings in history, Yankees or otherwise.

December 8th, 2013: Yankees Open To Trading Ichiro Suzuki

The Yankees have begun discussing Ichiro Suzuki in trade talks with other clubs, Chad Jennings of the Journal News reports. Jennings notes that this does not mean an Ichiro deal is imminent.

You will be surprised to learn there was minimal interest in a 40-year-old outfielder who hit .262/.297/.342 (72 wRC+) one year earlier. Ichiro is an all-time great. First ballot Hall of Famer. But that two-year contract the Yankees gave him for 2013-14 made no sense from a baseball perspective. We know ownership went over the front office’s head to re-sign Ichiro and it seems clear they were hoping to cash in on his pursuit of 3,000 hits, a milestone he didn’t reach until 2016.

December 8th, 2013: New York Notes: Cashman, Santana, Pelfrey, Ibanez

The Yankees have checked on free agent right-hander Mike Pelfrey, tweets CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman.

Mike Pelfrey! Big Pelf had a 5.19 ERA (3.99 FIP) with the Twins in 2013 and fortunately this rumor didn’t go anywhere, because he allowed 23 runs in 23.2 innings in 2014, also with the Twins. Pelfrey was still in the big leagues as recently as 2017. Never would’ve guessed it. I thought he was done in like 2015.

December 9th, 2013: Jeff Samardzija Rumors: Monday

Although the Yankees like Samardzija, they may not have the sort of prospects the Cubs are seeking, writes Joel Sherman. One member of the Cubs organization told Sherman that the Yankees “have no upper-level talent.”

It was true! The Yankees’ best prospects during the 2013-14 season were Gary Sanchez, Slade Heathcott, Mason Williams, and Tyler Austin. They all finished the 2013 in Double-A and were hardly MLB ready. The Cubs held on to Samardzija that offseason and eventually sent him to the Athletics for Addison Russell and former Yankee Billy McKinney at the 2014 trade deadline.

December 10th, 2013: At Least Seven Teams Interested In Eric Chavez

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that at least seven teams are interested in free agent third baseman Eric Chavez. According to Heyman, the Rangers, Rays, Pirates, Braves, Nationals, Diamondbacks and Yankees have all checked in on Chavez, though New York’s recent signing of Kelly Johnson may close that door.

Bringing Eric Chavez back from the dead was one of the most successful reclamation projects in baseball in recent years. The guy was basically done in 2010 and 2011, then, from 2012-14, he hit .277/.342/.483 (120 wRC+) with 28 homers and +3.0 WAR in 648 plate appearances. That’s a mighty fine part-time player. Chavez went to the Diamondbacks in 2013 and returned to the Diamondbacks in 2014. He joined the Yankees front office in 2015 before leaving for the Angels with Billy Eppler in 2016. There was some thought Chavez would replace Mike Scioscia as Angels manager this offseason, but that didn’t happen. The Yankees struck reclamation project gold with him in 2012.

December 10th, 2013: East Notes: Mets, Burnett, Phillies, Benoit

The Yankees have had “lots of internal discussions” about free agent reliever Joaquin Benoit, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter). The Yankees would like to add two bullpen arms.

The Yankees would like to add two bullpen arms? Where have I heard that before? Benoit was still in his heyday in 2013. He threw 67 innings with a 2.01 ERA (2.87 FIP) for the Tigers that season and was very in demand during the 2013-14 offseason, so he signed a multi-year contract with … the Padres? The Padres. Benoit had a 1.49 ERA (2.32 FIP) in 2014 too. Then the wheels came off in 2015 and he bounced around a bit. From 2010-16, Benoit threw 427 innings with a 2.40 ERA (3.23 FIP) and +11.0 WAR. That’s a heck of a six-year run for a pitcher who had major shoulder surgery at age 31 in 2009.

December 11th, 2013: Eight Teams Showing Interest In Johan Santana

Eight teams have expressed interest in left-hander Johan Santana, reports Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York. The Yankees, Mets, Twins, Rays, Orioles, Royals, Brewers and Pirates have all expressed varying levels of interest.

Johan in his prime was something else, man. His 2004-06 seasons (2.75 ERA and 2.92 FIP in 693.1 innings) were as dominant a three-year stretch as we’ve seen from any non-Kershaw since peak Pedro Martinez. By December 2013 though, Santana’s shoulder was cooked. He had a 4.85 ERA (4.09 FIP) in 21 starts with the Mets in 2012 and didn’t even pitch in 2013 because of injuries. I was totally cool with giving him a minor league contract. The Orioles eventually signed him — the Blue Jays signed him in 2015 too — but he never did take the mound. Santana received ten Hall of Fame votes last year, the same number as Jamie Moyer, and fell off the ballot on his first year of eligibility. He was a monster at his peak. One of the best changeups I’ve ever seen.

December 11th, 2013: Indians Told Masterson He Won’t Be Traded

The Indians are said to be open to listening to offers on Justin Masterson, and the Yankees have emerged as a possible suitor, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Nightengale reports that the Yankees would be interested in acquiring Masterson in a deal involving Brett Gardner. A third team would likely be required, since the Indians don’t have a need Gardner (Twitter links).

Oh man, I completely forgot about Justin Masterson. That dude’s career was all over the place. His ERA+’s from 2008-13: 147, 99, 84, 122, 79, 110. A Gardner-for-Masterson trade would’ve been a disaster for the Yankees because Masterson started to break down in 2014. He had a 3.45 ERA (3.35 FIP) in 193 innings in 2013 and 5.79 ERA (4.62 FIP) in 188 innings total the rest of his career. Masterson was active as recently as 2017 though, in Triple-A with the Dodgers. Somehow he’s still only 33. Jon Heyman says Masterson is doing missionary work now.

December 11th, 2013: West Notes: Hoes, Doolittle, Rockies, Gregorius

Diamondbacks shortstop Didi Gregorius has drawn some interest from the Yankees, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The D-Backs reportedly could use their shortstop surplus to land a starting pitcher, but the Yankees are in the market for starters themselves and don’t seem to be a good fit in that regard.

December 11th, 2013: The first time we heard the Yankees connected to Gregorius. It wasn’t until 12 months later that the Yankees acquired Sir Didi. Brian Cashman has said the Yankees were after Gregorius for a long time, dating back to his time with the Reds. Didi hit .252/.332/.373 (91 wRC+) with seven homers in 103 games for Arizona in 2013 and everyone was wondering what the Yankees saw in him. Now it’s hard to imagine the Yankees without him.

December 12th, 2013: AL Central Notes: Jackson, Pelfrey, Garza, Butler

The Tigers have discussed trading Austin Jackson to the Yankees in exchange for Brett Gardner, Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun reports.  Both players have been above-average fielders in center over their careers and have comparable career batting lines, though Gardner is a better base-stealer and Jackson has more doubles pop. 

Huh, I don’t remember this at all. Gardner was 29 at the time and coming off a .273/.344/.416 (109 wRC+) line and +3.3 WAR season in 2013. Jackson was 26 and he hit .272/.337/.417 (108 wRC+) with +3.2 WAR. Same player! Except Gardner was three years older and had one fewer year of team control. I reckon I would’ve been all for a Gardner-for-Jackson trade at the time and hey, maybe I was and I don’t remember it. Fortunately the Yankees didn’t do it. Gardner was a 112 wRC+ and +3.3 WAR player in 2014. Jackson slipped to 86 wRC+ and +1.1 WAR and has been a journeyman fourth outfielder since.

December 17th, 2013: AL East Links: Floyd, Ackley, Ortiz, Rays

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that there’s no traction to trade talks between the Yankees and Mariners regarding Dustin Ackley (Twitter link).

This was December 2013. The Yankees didn’t trade for Ackley until July 2015. Ackley was coming off back-to-back poor seasons with the Mariners and the Yankees were looking to buy low on a former top prospect, like they did with Gregorius and Aaron Hicks. Eventually they landed Ackley and it didn’t work out. He was a +0 WAR player in 51 games in pinstripes. Ackley’s spent the last two seasons in Triple-A with the Angels and Fabian Ardaya (subs. req’d) wrote a great article in September about Ackley coming to terms with being a bust.

December 17th, 2013: New York Notes: Reynolds, Baker, Murphy, Tejada

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees have also expressed interest in Jeff Baker as a potential right-handed bat to get some time at second base and third base (Twitter link). Baker mashed against lefties in 2013, posting a .314/.407/.667 batting line with 10 homers.

That’s Jeff Baker, career .296/.350/.509 (126 wRC+) hitter against lefties to you. He hammered southpaws and played several positions, albeit none of them well, and I wanted him on the bench. I wanted him in place of Ichiro, if I remember correctly, but it didn’t happen. The Marlins gave Baker two years and he was limited to 131 sub-replacement level games with them from 2014-15.

December 18th, 2013: Choo Turned Down Seven-Year Offer From Yankees

While the market for Shin-Soo Choo has been slow to develop, he could have already found a home had accepted a lavish offer from the Yankees. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that even after signing Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year, $153MM contract, the Yankees offered Choo a seven-year, $140MM contract. Agent Scott Boras reportedly countered by asking for Ellsbury money, and the Yankees instead elected to sign Carlos Beltran to a much cheaper three-year, $45MM pact.

Good gravy, could you imagine if the Yankees had signed Ellsbury and Choo to seven-year contracts that offseason? Choo’s been the more productive hitter than Ellsbury to date, but, over the last five seasons, these two have been worth +15.3 WAR combined while being paid $197.3M. Spending almost $13M per WAR seems … inefficient.

December 19th, 2013: Yankees To Sign Carlos Beltran

It didn’t take long for the Yankees to move on from losing Robinson Cano.  The Yankees have officially announced the signing of Carlos Beltran to a three-year deal.  The contract is reportedly worth $45MM and will pay Beltran an even $15MM per season as well as provide him with a no-trade clause.  Beltran is represented by agent Dan Lozano of the MVP Sports Group.

The Yankees finally got around to announcing the Beltran deal on December 19th. The two sides agreed to terms on December 7th. Anyway, the Beltran deal worked out a lot better than I expected. He struggled and battled injuries in 2014, but otherwise he hit .270/.327/.470 (116 wRC+) in pinstripes. Pretty good for ages 37-39. And the Yankees cashed him in as a trade chip too. Not bad. Not bad at all. It still bugs me the Yankees didn’t sign him in 2005 though. What a blunder.

December 19th, 2013: Yankees Designate Brett Marshall For Assignment

The Yankees announced that they have designated Brett Marshall for assignment.  The move will make room for the newly-signed Carlos Beltran on the 40-man roster.

Marshall had some prospect shine back in the day and apparently he made three appearances with the 2013 Yankees? I don’t remember that at all. Six runs in 12 innings in his only MLB action (to date).

The Cubs claimed Marshall on waivers after this and he’s spent the last few seasons bouncing around Double-A, Triple-A, and independent leagues. This past season Marshall had a 4.56 ERA with 108 strikeouts and 79 walks in 132.1 innings for three different independent league teams.

December 26th, 2013: Minor Moves: Matt Daley, Chris Narveson

After non-tendering Matt Daley in early December, the Yankees have agreed to a new minor league deal with the 31-year-old right-hander, per the team’s transactions page. Daley pitched well in six innings for the Yankees in 2013 and owns a career 4.38 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 86 1/3 big league innings.

Daley somehow made 13 appearances with the 2014 Yankees. He allowed four homers and eleven runs in 14.1 innings. Daley retired after the season and he joined the Yankees as a scout. He’s currently working his way up the organizational ranks and probably isn’t far off from running one of the scouting or player development departments.

December 26th, 2013: Quick Hits: Tanaka, Eaton, Cardinals, Reds

Masahiro Tanaka‘s posting period opened this morning and the Yankees have already contacted Tanaka’s agent Casey Close, Newsday’s Marc Carig reports. 

At long last, Tanaka hit the market. We went through the usual “they might not post him” nonsense for the first few weeks of the offseason. MLB and NPB agreed to rewrite the posting agreement that winter and it allowed Tanaka to negotiate with any team. It was no longer a blind auction with the high bidder winning the player’s negotiating rights. Anyway, the day after Christmas, Tanaka hit the market.

December 30th, 2013: Yankees Plan To Incur 2014-15 Int’l Spending Penalties

The Yankees plan to spend $12MM-$15MM on the 2014-15 international amateur free agent market, incurring $10MM-$12MM in penalties, Kiley McDaniel of Scout.com reports. That $12MM-$15MM figure would not include potential spending for Masahiro Tanaka, who is not subject to international bonus pools that govern spending for most Latin American amateurs.

Gosh, the 2014-15 international spending spree was such a failure. The Yankees spent $30M total between bonuses and penalties and got basically nothing out it. Estevan Florial is far and away the best prospect from the 2014-15 international haul and he was a lower profile signing late in the signing period. Big bonus guys like Nelson Gomez, Jonathan Amundaray, Juan De Leon, Miguel Flames, and Wilkerman Garcia all failed to develop.

The money is whatever. Who cares if the Yankees blow $30M on prospects? The real downside was being limited to $300,000 bonuses in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 signing periods. The Yankees still landed some good prospects those years (Roansy Contreras and Luis Medina, most notably), but they had no chance at the top prospects. Seven-figure guys like Vlad Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto, Adrian Morejon, Michel Baez … the bonus cap took the Yankees out of the running for all of them. Sigh. The 2014-15 signing spree was well-intentioned. It worked out about as poorly as possible though.

Welcome to November. The offseason’s first month. And, since we’re in a new month, it’s time to go back in time to make our regular run through the MLB Trade Rumors archives. The transactions and rumors pick up now because, well, it’s the offseason. Not much happens in September and October.

The 2013 Yankees went 85-77 and could’ve been a whole lot worse. They missed the postseason and went into the 2013-14 offseason needing everything. Starters, relievers, infielders, outfielders, a catcher … you name it. The farm system was thin and the core was aging. And Robinson Cano was a free agent. That was a pretty big deal. Time to dive into the five-year-old hot stove talk.

November 1st, 2013: Yankees Re-Sign Jeter To One-Year, $12MM Deal

The Yankees announced that have re-signed shortstop Derek Jeter to a one-year deal worth $12MM. Jeter, who is represented by Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, had a $9.5MM player option on his previous contract, but this deal will override that option. 

This was the time the Yankees gave Derek Jeter a raise simply because he’s Derek Jeter. There was no other reason. Injuries limited Jeter to 17 games in 2013 and the Yankees, who were supposedly planning to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold in 2014, could’ve let Jeter exercise his $9.5M player option and been done with it. Who was signing a soon-to-be 40-year-old Jeter after the season he just had? Instead, the Yankees reworked his contract and have him an extra $2.5M just because he’s Derek Jeter. It’s good work if you can get it.

November 3rd, 2013: Yankees Interested In Infante If Cano Signs Elsewhere

Though the Yankees remain the odds-on favorite to employ star second baseman Robinson Cano for the foreseeable future, GM Brian Cashman has reached out to Omar Infante as a fall-back option, report George A. King III and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Cashman was vague when approached for comment by the Post, and there is no reason to believe that this report indicates any change in Cano’s status.

Cano was, obviously, the best second baseman on the free agent market that offseason. Infante was second. He hit .318/.345/.450 (118 wRC+) with the Tigers in 2013 and it was so very far out of line with the rest of his career. His first full big league season was 2004. He hit .282/.320/.410 (95 wRC+) from 2004-12, then he had that big 2013 season. Infante timed his career year quite well.

The Yankees were on Infante pretty much all offseason and especially so after Cano went to Seattle. He eventually signed a four-year deal worth $30.5M with the Royals and you’d have thought the Yankees missed out on peak Joe Morgan the way the media and a portion of the fan base reacted. Infante went on to hit .252/.295/.337 (74 wRC+) in 2014 and .220/.234/.318 (43 wRC+) in 2015. Kansas City released him midway through 2016, the third year of his four-year deal. Bullet dodged.

November 4th, 2013: Yankees Make Qualifying Offers To Cano, Granderson, Kuroda

The Yankees made qualifying offers to Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Hiroki Kuroda, according to a team press release.

A formality. The qualifying offer was only $14.4M that offseason. I remember there being some speculation the Yankees could pass on giving Granderson the qualifying offer after he missed so much time with injuries in 2013, but that never made much sense. Worst case scenario is he takes it and you get 33-year-old Granderson for one year and $14.4M? Not bad at all.

Given their free agent signings and losses, the Yankees had a very busy and complicated 2013-14 offseason when it came to draft pick compensation. Here’s how it all broke down:

• Yankees forfeit 18th overall pick to sign Brian McCann.
• Yankees gain supplemental first round picks for losing Cano and Granderson.
• Yankees forfeit the Cano and Granderson picks to sign Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.
• Kuroda re-signed with the Yankees, so no draft pick compensation.

The Yankees signed three qualified free agents and lost two qualified free agents. Their first pick in 2014 was No. 55 overall, which they used on Jacob Lindgren. He appeared in seven games for the Yankees in 2015 and was non-tendered following the 2016 season after getting hurt. Lindgren hasn’t pitched since. He’s with the Braves and is currently rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery.

November 5th, 2013: Yanks Made Preliminary Inquiry On Brandon Phillips

Preparing themselves in the event that Robinson Cano signs elsewhere, the Yankees have placed a preliminary call to the Reds on Brandon Phillips, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Cincinnati’s asking price for Phillips is said to be “way too steep” according to Heyman.

Among trade candidates, Phillips was probably the most discussed Cano replacement. He had a down season in 2013 (90 wRC+) and the Reds were good at the time — they lost the 2013 NL Wild Card Game and were planning to contend in 2014 — so they were never serious about moving him. A few years later reports surfaced that the Yankees and Reds had a deal in place for Phillips at some point (I think at the 2014 trade deadline), but he used his no-trade clause to block it. Phillips blocked a bunch of trades over the years. He didn’t want to leave his Cincinnati and hey, that was his right. But there was a lot of Phillips chatter during the 2013-14 offseason. A lot.

November 6th, 2013: Five Teams Showing Early Interest In Grant Balfour

Grant Balfour is expected to sign with a new team as a free agent this offseason after three excellent years with the A’s — two of which came as the team’s closer. According to the latest from Susan Slusser at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Yankees, Tigers, Rockies, Rays and Angels have all expressed interest in the hard-throwing Aussie.

Balfour was dominant with the Athletics from 2011-13, throwing 199.1 innings with a 2.53 ERA (3.40 FIP) and a bunch of saves. He agreed to a two-year, $15M contract with the Orioles and then the O’s backed out over something they saw during his physical. Everyone laughed because the O’s are notoriously stingy with their physicals, and hoped their team would sign Balfour on the cheap. The Rays scooped him up for two years and $12M and … he broke down the next year. Threw 66.2 innings with a 5.00 ERA (4.32 FIP) on that contract and was done for good by the middle of 2015. The Orioles had this one right.

November 8th, 2013: Yankees Making Tanaka A Top Priority; Won’t Pursue Ervin Santana

The Yankees are planning to make Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka a “top priority” this winter and are considered the team to beat in bidding for the 25-year-old, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports … The Yankees are not expected to be in the market for Ervin Santana, he adds, as they don’t feel that he would fit well in New York. 

Given their Japanese free agent activity at the time (or lack thereof), it was easy to be skeptical of the Tanaka rumors. The Big Erv stuff was completely believable. He’d been complaining about the new Yankee Stadium for years and years. And why wouldn’t he? Santana has allowed 29 runs in 39.1 career innings at the new park, postseason included. Granted, he faced the Yankees in those 39.1 innings, but still. Santana wound up with the Braves on a one-year deal and had a nice 2014 season (3.95 ERA and 3.39 FIP) before going to the Twins the next year.

November 11th, 2013: Minor Moves: Crotta, Richardson, Blue Jays

The Yankees signed outfielder Antoan Richardson to a minor league deal and invited him to their Major League Spring Training camp, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. 

Antoan Richardson! Richardson spent pretty much the entire 2014 season with Triple-A Scranton, where he hit .271/.380/.364 (114 wRC+) in 93 games. The Yankees called him up in September to be their designated pinch-runner and he appeared in 13 games. Richardson will forever be the answer to a trivia question: Who scored on Derek Jeter’s walk-off single in his final home game? It was Yankees legend Antoan Richardson.

Jose Pirela started the bottom of the ninth with a ground ball single, Richardson pinch ran, Brett Gardner bunted him up to second, and Jeter punched a Jeterian single to right to win the game. The 2014 season pretty much stunk. Jeter’s farewell was really cool though.

November 13th, 2013: Feinsand On Freese, Yankees, Ellsbury, Beltran

The Yankees are talking to the Cardinals about a deal for third baseman David Freese, a source tells Feinsand (via Twitter).  The Cardinals could theoretically part with Freese since they can move Matt Carpenter to third base and use Kolten Wong at second.  Freese, 30, would give the Yankees a solid plan B in the event that Alex Rodriguez’s suspension is upheld.

It amazes me that David Freese has never been a Yankee. He’s been available a bunch of times over the years and, once Alex Rodriguez became a full-time DH, the Yankees had a revolving door at third base for a while. Basically from 2011 until Chase Headley arrived in 2014. And yet, Freese was never a Yankee. Seemed like such a natural fit. A relatively low-cost third baseman who the Yankees could promote thanks to his championship pedigree. Never happened. I thought a marriage was inevitable.

November 13th, 2013: Latest On Brian Wilson

General Manager Brian Cashman told reporters, including Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger (on Twitter), that you can rule out the Yankees signing Brian Wilson after his agent told the team he won’t shave his beard.  

So silly. I mean, Wilson’s free to do whatever he wants. He had plenty of suitors, so he was getting paid either way, but imagine telling the richest team in baseball you’re not interested because you want to keep that stupid beard? Wilson signed a cheap one-year deal with the Dodgers in 2013 as he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery, then, after looking good in 18 late season appearances, they gave him a new one-year deal worth $10M. He had a 4.66 ERA (4.29 FIP) in 2014 and has been out of baseball since. Wilson is now beardless and he races cars.

November 14th, 2013: Yankees Notes: Morales, Cano, Jeter, Trades

The Yankees are interested in Kendrys Morales, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports.  Despite Morales’ history of leg injuries, Yankees scouts feel the switch-hitter could add first base depth behind Mark Teixeira in addition to taking regular DH at-bats. 

Morales had a pretty good year in 2013. He hit .277/.336/.449 (119 wRC+) with 23 homers for the Mariners. That’s not great for a DH, but it’ll work. I don’t remember whether the masses wanted the Yankees to sign Morales though. Mark Teixeira was coming off basically a lost year with his wrist surgery and there was no obvious in-house first base replacement/fill-in. Morales eventually signed a one-year, $12M deal with the Twins and hit .218/.274/.338 (72 wRC+) in 2014. Ouch. Teixeira stayed mostly healthy that season. His primary backup? Kelly Johnson.

November 15th, 2013: Mutual Interest Between Yankees, Javier Lopez

There’s mutual interest between the Yankees and left-hander Javier Lopez, agent Barry Meister tells Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger. The two sides have had preliminary discussions and plan to have more substantial discussions later in the offseason once the Yankees have had time to address their biggest issues.

The Yankees were set to lose Boone Logan that offseason and they were looking for another lefty reliever. They eventually settled on Matt Thornton, who was fine, then was let go on a trade waiver claim in August so the Yankees could save money and give Rich Hill a look. Lopez was one of the best left-on-left matchup guys in baseball with the Giants from 2010-13 and he returned to them on a three-year deal worth $13M. He was fine. Declined a little in his mid-to-late-30s but was fine overall. Everything was fine.

These days, I’m not sure a guy like Lopez sticks around all that long. Those one or two-out left-on-left guys are a dying breed. Teams use their bullpens so much now that using a roster spot on a guy who only gets one or two outs doesn’t make sense, even if they are high leverage outs. Four lefty relievers made at least 60 appearances and averaged no more than two outs per appearance this year (Luis Avilan, Jerry Blevins, Andrew Chafin, Tim Hill). Back in 2013, just five years ago, eight guys did it.

November 17th, 2013: Minor Moves: Valaika, Whiteside, Wheeler

The Yankees signed third baseman Zelous Wheeler to a minor league contract.  Wheeler split time between the Orioles’ Triple-A and Double-A affiliates in 2013, posting a .275/.354/.414 batting line.

Zelous Wheeler! The Yankees called him up in July 2014 because Yangervis Solarte was struggling big time and they wanted to try someone else. Wheeler hit .296/.367/.467 (132 wRC+) with Triple-A Scranton that year, and, in his second big league at-bat, my dude went deep.

Come for the Zelous Wheeler dinger, stay for the Phil Hughes cameo. Wheeler went up and down the rest of the season and finished with a .193/.230/.298 (46 wRC+) batting line in 62 plate appearances.

The Yankees sold Wheeler (at his request) to the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan following the 2014 season and you know what? He’s still over there mashing. Wheeler hit .264/.332/.414 with 13 homers in 103 games this year. Last year he hit .271/.342/.493 with 31 homers in 153 games. Huh. Rakuten gave him an extension and a couple million bucks last year. Good for him. Wheeler’s only 31 too. Still has a lot of baseball left to play.

November 18th, 2013: Yankees Interested In Jhonny Peralta

The Yankees are now expressing interest in Jhonny Peralta, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Peralta would provide the Yankees with insurance should Alex Rodriguez miss significant time with a suspension or in the event of a Derek Jeter injury. He has extensive big league experience at both shortstop and third base.

It was kinda funny Peralta was being mentioned as suspension insurance for A-Rod when Peralta himself was coming off a suspension. He was one of the players who accepted the 50-game suspension for his ties to Biogenesis. Peralta wound up with four years and $53M from the Cardinals. His numbers from 2014-17 are pretty much the classic aging curve for middle infielders from age 32-35:

• 2014: 120 wRC+ and +4.6 WAR
• 2015: 105 wRC+ and +2.0 WAR
• 2016: 91 wRC+ and +0.0 WAR
• 2017: 27 wRC+ and -0.5 WAR

Imagine if the Yankees had invested $80-something-million in Infante and Peralta from 2014-17 to replace Cano and hedge against Jeter and A-Rod? Lordy.

November 19th, 2013: Yankees Won’t Wait For Cano Before Pursuing Other Free Agents

Reports have indicated that Robinson Cano is willing to wait until January to get the deal that he’s looking for, but don’t expect the Yankees to exercise similar patience. Yankees president Randy Levine told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that the team is interested in five or six free agents and doesn’t plan on waiting for resolution on the Cano front before making offers.

November was loaded with “Cano wants $300M+” and “the Yankees and Cano are far apart” rumors. There was a daily update, it seemed. Levine coming out and saying the Yankees were ready to move forward with other free agents was designed to a) put some pressure on Cano, and b) let everyone know the Yankees were open for business. Remember, they missed the postseason in 2013, and they were desperate to improve the team. There was some thought the club would hold off on everything until Cano’s deal was done. That definitely was not the case.

November 20th, 2013: Minor Moves: Twins, Pirates, Cabrera, Ely, Alfaro

The Yankees announced that they traded right-hander Ben Paullus to the Padres for utility man Dean Anna.  Anna, who recently celebrated his 26th birthday, posted an .892 OPS in Triple-A last season.  Paullus, 24, worked his way up to Advanced-A Tampa last season.

Dean Anna! He made the Opening Day roster in 2014 and had a very short stint with the Yankees. Twelve games and 25 plate appearances. Anna spent most of the season with Triple-A Scranton. I do remember two things though. One, Anna pitched for the Yankees. Two runs in one inning. And two, he drew an eight-pitch go-ahead bases loaded walk in the 12th inning at Tropicana Field.

That was Anna’s last plate appearance as a Yankee and his second-to-last plate appearance as a big leaguer. The Yankees send him down a few days later and then released him after the season. The Cardinals signed him and he appeared in one game with them in 2015. Anna’s been bouncing around Triple-A ever since. He hit .271/.367/.341 (106 wRC+) with the Phillies’ Triple-A team this year, so I suppose he could get back to MLB at some point.

As for Paullus, he threw 81 innings after the trade, only one of which was above Single-A. He got hurt and has been out of baseball since 2016.

November 22nd, 2013: Brian McCann Closing In On Deal With Yankees

The deal is for five years and $85MM and has a sixth-year vesting option that could boost the contract’s value to $100MM, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. The deal is simply pending a physical, Rosenthal adds in a second tweet.

The first of several big free agent signings that offseason. McCann was a priority. The catching was so bad in 2013. So incredibly bad. I mean, look at the Yankees’ catcher ranks that year:

• AVG: .213 (26th in MLB)
• OBP: .289 (23rd)
• SLG: .298 (29th)
• OPS+: 70 (26rd)
• WAR: +0.9 (23rd)

It is very hard to win with catching that crappy. McCann hit .256/.336/.461 (118 wRC+) with the Braves in 2013 and ZiPS projected him for .258/.340/.451 (113 OPS+) in 2014. Going from the Chris Stewart/Francisco Cervelli/Austin Romine catching trio to McCann was one of the single biggest upgrades any team could make during the 2013-14 offseason. Gary Sanchez was still years away and the Yankees needed outside help behind the plate.

McCann fell well short of his ZiPS projection in 2014, hitting .232/.286/.406 (94 OPS+) overall, but he was still a pretty substantial upgrade behind the plate. He was better in 2015 and 2016 (102 OPS+) before the Yankees shipped him to the Astros. McCann was definitely a bit of a disappointment offensively but he was a lot better with the Yankees than I think he gets credit for. He was a big upgrade — on both sides of the ball, it should be noted — over what they had. The signing didn’t really work out as hoped though. Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?

November 25th, 2013: AL East Notes: McLouth, McCann, Orioles, Saltalamacchia

The Yankees are interested in Nate McLouth writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but more as a backup plan to primary targets such as Carlos Beltran and Curtis Granderson.

Man did we get a lot of McLouth mailbag questions back in the day. What about trading for him? What about signing him? What about trading for him now? Every offseason. It started with McLouth’s breakout 2008 season (121 wRC+ and +3.8 WAR) but he never came particularly close to those numbers again. His dead cat bounce year with the Orioles in 2013 was .258/.329/.399 (100 wRC+) with 12 homers, 30 steals, and +2.2 WAR. That’s about as good as it got after 2008. The Nationals gave him two years and $10.75M and received 79 games and -0.1 WAR in return. Imagine if the Yankees would’ve let Granderson walk, lost out on Beltran, and signed McLouth to plug into the outfield? Gosh.

November 27th, 2013: AL East Notes: De Jesus Jr., Lavarnway, Infante

The Yankees paid a good amount to sign Cuban lefthander Omar Luis last year and they’ll be making him available in this year’s Rule 5 draft, writes Ben Badler of Baseball America.  The Yanks initially signed Luis for a $4MM bonus but when an unexpected issue popped up in his physical, they negotiated that figure down to $2.9MM.  It may be a long shot that any team will draft Luis, however, given how far away he is from contributing.

Luis was the last big money prospect the Yankees signed before the international spending restrictions kicked in and he was a total waste of money. He allowed 66 runs in 99.1 pro innings, almost all in rookie ball, and walked (75) nearly as many batters as he struck out (86). I can’t find any record of the Yankees releasing Luis, but he hasn’t pitched since 2015, so I assume he’s out of the organization.

November 30th, 2013: Pirates, Yankees Nearing Chris Stewart Trade

The Pirates are on the verge of acquiring catcher Chris Stewart from the Yankees, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney (Twitter link).

Stewart was a goner either way, with or without the McCann signing. He was slated to earn seven figures through arbitration and, rather than non-tender him, the Yankees were able to send Stewart to the Pirates for a player to be named later. That player: Kyle Haynes, a righty who spent a few seasons in the farm system as an organizational arm before being released. Stewart spent four seasons in Pittsburgh and slugged .298.

November 30th, 2013: Cano Asking Yankees For Nine Years, $250-260MM

Cano asked for a nine-year deal at $28MM per year, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney, a $252MM total that would match Alex Rodriguez‘s first free agent contract.  He also wants a tenth year vesting option at $29MM.  Olney says the Yankees are in the $170MM range, leaving a gap of around $80MM. 

This was the first time we heard an actual dollar figure from the Yankees. Cano’s camp had been saying $300M total and $30M annually for weeks and weeks. This was the first time the Yankees’ offer was reported. Also, the fact they were at $170M indicated they were not offering ten years. It wasn’t until after Cano signed with the Mariners that we learned the Yankees capped their offer at seven years and $175M. That’s a gap of three years and $65M. It was a bummer to see Robbie go. I wish he could’ve been a lifelong Yankee. But the Mariners made it very easy to say goodbye with that offer.

Another season is complete. Both in 2018 and in our 2013 time travel series. The 2013 Yankees went 85-77 with a -21 run differential, and they missed the postseason for the first time since 2008. It was a bad, ugly, no fun year with a revolving door of replacement level injury replacements. We got to say farewell to Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte. The rest of the season isn’t worth reliving.

Heading into the 2013-14 offseason, we all wondered two things. One, would Joe Girardi return? The answer was ultimately yes, but his contact expired after the season and his hometown Cubs would surely come calling. And two, how much money would the Yankees spend? They wanted to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold in 2014. They also missed the postseason and had several gaping roster holes. October is usually a very slow month for hot stove news, but the Yankees did handle some business in October 2013, so let’s dive into the MLB Trade Rumors archives once again.

October 2nd, 2013: Quick Hits: Humber, Kuroda, Indians, Mattingly

During a press conference yesterday, Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters (including Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger) that he hopes Hiroki Kuroda will pitch for his team again in 2014. Cashman said that Kuroda was the Yanks’ ace in 2013 but admitted that he wasn’t sure what the future holds for the right-hander. McCullough quotes Kuroda as saying that while anything’s possible, he hasn’t given serious consideration to returning to Japan for his final season.

Kuroda was the right pitcher at the wrong time. The Yankees needed him from 2017-19 more than 2012-14. He was awesome. Kuroda gave the Yankees 620 innings of 3.44 ERA (3.68 FIP) ball from 2014-14 before returning to Japan for two final seasons with the Hiroshima Carp, his original team. The Yankees gave Kuroda one year deals worth $10M and $15M in 2012 and 2013. He eventually re-signed for 2014 at $16M. Dude was worth every single penny. I miss him.

October 4th, 2013: Alex Rodriguez Dues Major League Baseball

10:01am: Alex Rodriguez has filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball, accusing MLB of buying the cooperation of Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch to further a “witch hunt” to push him out of the game permanently, according to Steve Eder, Serge Kovaleski, and Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times.

A-Rod had been suspended for his ties to Biogenesis in August and he appealed the suspension, then, in the offseason, he went on his scorched earth tour. He sued everyone. Everyone. The Yankees, MLB, the MLBPA, everyone. This was only the start of what became a true fiasco. What a circus. It was about as embarrassing an ordeal as a team can go through. This was really only the beginning.

October 5th, 2013: AL East Notes: Logan, Yankees, Pitching, Delmonico

Left-hander Boone Logan had arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow this week and should resume his throwing program in December, Andy McCullough of The Star-Ledger reports, citing an unnamed baseball official. The surgery was performed by Dr. James Andrews. Logan reaches free agency this winter after compiling a 3.38 ERA over 176 innings for the Yankees over the last four years.

The 2013 season was Logan’s final season with the Yankees. Although he was hated at the time, Logan did throw 176 innings with a 3.38 ERA (3.63 FIP) and a 26.9% strikeout rate in pinstripes. Held lefties to a .223/.295/.365 (.290 wOBA) batting line with 33.1% strikeouts too. A perfectly fine left-on-left matchup guy, he was. The elbow surgery didn’t really hurt Logan’s market during that 2013-14 offseason either. The Rockies gave him three years and $16.5M. Logan with the Yankees: 3.38 ERA in 176 innings. Logan with everyone else: 5.24 ERA in 266 innings. Dude banked over $30M in player contracts and reached ten years of service time, thus qualifying for a full pension. Not bad for a former 20th round draft pick. Good for him.

October 9th, 2013: Yankees Re-Sign Joe Girardi

The Yankees announced that they have re-signed manager Joe Girardi to a four-year deal that will keep him in place as manager through the 2017 season. Girardi, 48, was at the top of the Cubs’ wishlist this winter, but he’ll be back in the Bronx for a seventh season in 2014.

The season ended on September 29th and, ten days later, the Yankees re-signed Girardi. Felt like much more time passed by before he re-signed. Girardi was able to leverage interest from the Cubs into a four-year deal worth $16M that, at the time, made him the second highest paid manager in baseball behind Mike Scioscia. There was also another $4M bonuses tied to the team’s finish and whatnot.

Prior to this four-year contract, Girardi worked on back-to-back three-year contracts, and I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if he’d signed another three-year contract during the 2013-14 offseason. Do the Yankees re-sign him during the 2016-17 offseason? Or let him walk a year earlier than they actually did? I think it would’ve been the latter.

October 11th, 2013: Yankees Expected To Pursue Masahiro Tanaka Aggressively

Masahiro Tanaka‘s video-game numbers for NPB’s Rakuten Golden Eagles this season have turned quite a few heads in the United States, and according to George A. King III of the New York Post, the Yankees “are going to be serious players” for the Japanese ace.

The Mariners, Cubs, Angels, and Dodgers were said to be among the suitors for Tanaka at the time. Given their track record with Japanese players — they’d basically ignored the Japanese market following the Kei Igawa disaster — it was easy to doubt the Yankees making a serious push for Tanaka. They had interest in Yu Darvish and others over the years and never really came close. I was definitely in “I’ll see it when I believe it” mode. The Yankees came through though. Tanaka was (eventually) posted and they gave him that big seven-year, $155M contract. In his five seasons in pinstripes, Tanaka has a 3.59 ERA (3.80 FIP) and +15.6 WAR in 824.1 innings. That is money well spent.

October 15th, 2013: Mutual Interest Between Beltran, Yankees Expected This offseason

Carlos Beltran showed interest in the Yankees during his two previous trips through free agency, but there wasn’t enough interest in 2005 or 2011 on the club’s side.  This year, however, the two sides could be a match as sources tell Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that there is mutual interest.

I wouldn’t say it was a foregone conclusion, but the Yankees clearly needed an offensive upgrade in 2014, and the outfield was an obvious spot for such an upgrade. Beltran was a pretty clear fit. He had wanted to be a Yankee forever. Basically his entire career. Who can forget when he offered to take less money to join the Yankees before having the settle for the Mets? The Yankees gave Beltran a three-year contract during the 2013-14 offseason, two years after declining to give him a two-year contract because they were worried about his knees. Go figure. Desperation can make a team do weird things.

October 16th, 2013: Managerial/Coaching Notes: Adair, Rothschild, Williams

The Yankees and pitching coach Larry Rothschild have agreed to terms on a new deal, though nothing has been finalized or announced yet, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.

Rothschild joined the Yankees during the 2010-11 offseason. (Was it really that lone ago? Geez.) The team’s pitching ranks during his tenure:

• 3.87 ERA (9th in MLB)
• 3.88 FIP (7th)
• 93 ERA- (3rd)
• 91 FIP- (1st)
• +167.1 WAR (1st)

The park-adjusted numbers are among the best in baseball. Shrugs. Eventually the Yankees will replace Rothschild, everyone will celebrate, and then like a year later they’ll hate the new guy. It’s the coaching circle of life.

October 23rd, 2013: Shin-Soo Choo On Yankees Radar

The Yankees have been linked to a handful of big name free agents like Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann in recent weeks, but there’s apparently a new name on their radar.  The Yankees also discussed outfielder Shin-Soo Choo at their organizational meetings over the past couple of days, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.

We eventually learned the Yankees offered Choo a seven-year contract worth $140M even after signing Jacoby Ellsbury. They tried to sign both of them and instead went for Ellsbury and Beltran after Choo joined Texas. I wanted Choo over Ellsbury because I’m an offense first guy. Don’t get me wrong, Ellsbury’s defense and baserunning are clearly valuable skills. I just preferred Choo’s on-base ability. Since signing their contracts:

• Ellsbury: .264/.330/.386 (96 wRC+) and +7.9 WAR in 520 games
• Choo: .260/.363/.424 (113 wRC+) and +7.4 WAR in 615 games

The Yankees are ahead here because Ellsbury has more WAR in fewer games, but yeah, there are no winners here. The Yankees would undo the Ellsbury contract and the Rangers would undo the Choo contract in a second if were possible.

October 24th, 2013: AL Notes: Oh, Yankees, Twins, Martinez

The Yankees are among the teams interested in Korean pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh, the New York Post’s George A. King III writes. Oh, a reliever, must go through the posting process, which begins in November. The 5’10, 31-year-old righty throws a 94-96 MPH fastball and a splitter. He pitched in 51 2/3 innings for the Samsung Lions in 2013, with a 1.74 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9.

Geez, the Yankees were in on Oh early, eh? He didn’t come over to MLB until 2016. Here’s a rumor about him from 2013. Huh. Oh jumped from the Samsung Lions in Korea to the Hanshin Tigers in Japan during that 2013-14 offseason. He spent two years with Hanshin before signing with the Cardinals. I don’t remember the Yankees being connected to Oh much when he finally did come to MLB. He’s had two excellent (2016 and 2018) and one okay (2017) season in the big leagues and is now reportedly looking to return to Korea, even though his $2.5M option for 2019 vested.