Okay, I’m really bad at this. I promised to post these monthly looks back through the MLB Trade Rumors archives early in each month, preferably during the first week, yet I completely forgot about March. Never did it. Time to correct that now. Better late than never, right?

As a reminder, I’m not here to make fun of Tim and everyone else at MLBTR. They’re all great. I’m just having a little fun by looking back at rumors that didn’t come to fruition (as well as those that did!) with the benefit of hindsight. We’re going seven years back in time, so now it’s time to dive into the March 2008 archives. March isn’t a great month for trade and free agent rumors, so most of the Yankees-related nuggets were speculation. Away we go…

March 2nd:

Tyler Kepner of The New York Times explores the relative surprise that Robinson Canó has been considering his draft position and reputation as a prospect, and details how frequently the Yankees almost dealt him before he made the big club.  Canó was nearly dealt for Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltrán, and Randy Johnson in different instances. 

It seems like there’s a “he was almost traded as a prospect” story for every great player. Mariano Rivera was almost traded for Felix Fermin. Rivera and Jorge Posada were almost traded for David Wells. Andy Pettitte? He was in more trade rumors than I could possibly remember in the 1990s. Prospects get mentioned in trade rumors. That’s part of baseball. Every so often one of those prospects develops into a great big leaguer, like Rivera or Posada or Cano.

Robbie was not a highly touted prospect — he never once made a Baseball America top 100 list — because he wasn’t a great athlete, didn’t have much power, and earned a reputation for being lazy. Not a silly “he jogs to first on ground balls” kind of lazy reputation either. Cano had conditioning issues and didn’t put in any extra work while in the minors. He did a complete 180 in 2005 or so, becoming a fitness machine and a workaholic, reportedly because A-Rod got on his case a bit.

Anyway, trading Cano seems ridiculous given what he turned into, but back from 2002-04, I don’t think any of us would have thought twice about it. He was a good prospect with flaws, not a great prospect, and someone who eventually hit on the best case scenario because he matured as a person. That doesn’t mean teams should hang on to every prospect just in case, of course. It just makes me wonder about someone like, say, Mason Williams, who clearly doesn’t lack the physical gifts to be an impact player, just the maturity.

March 6th:

He says Paul Konerko “remains quietly available,” and expresses the opinion that the Mets or Yankees could both use him.  Rosenthal believes Chicago’s biggest need is starting pitching.

Just to make it clear, this was not an actual rumor, it was Ken Rosenthal speculating. Konerko, who had just turned 31, hit .259/.351/.490 (116 OPS+) with 31 home runs in 2007, which is good but down from the .291/.372/.540 (132 OPS+) with 39 homers he averaged from 2004-06. He then hit .240/.344/.438 (103 OPS+) with 22 homers in 2008, the third year of his five-year, $60M contract.

Had the Yankees traded for Konerko prior to the 2008 season and he did something like that, we all would have hated him. The “he can’t handle New York” stories would have been everywhere. Konerko presumably would have split time at first base and DH with Jason Giambi in 2008 before taking over as the regular first baseman in 2009, which potentially means no Mark Teixeira. That sure would have changed a lot, eh?

Of course, Konerko shook off that down 2008 season to hit .277/.353/.489 (114 OPS+) with 28 homers in 2009 and then a monster .312/.393/.584 (160 OPS+) with 39 dingers in 2010, the final year of his contract. Assuming all of that had happened in New York — a big assumption, I know — I wonder what kind of contract offer the Yankees would have made him after 2010. Konerko eventually sign a three-year, $37.5M deal to return to the White Sox in real life, though for some reason I think he would have ended up with more from the Yankees.

March 8th:

The Yankees are eyeing southpaw relievers Damaso Marte and Brian Fuentes, who’ve seemingly been on their radar for months.  Fuentes makes $5.05MM this year, Marte makes $2MM this year with a $6MM club option for ’09.

…

Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post has an update to Cafardo’s Yankees/Fuentes item.  Renck says that while the Yanks have scouted Fuentes, Rockies’ GM Dan O’Dowd says there’s “zero chance” of a trade at this time.  I imagine he wants to see a healthy Luis Vizcaino before considering it.

The Yankees went about ten years without a reliable lefty reliever after Mike Stanton was allowed to leave as a free agent, and I feel like Marte and Fuentes were the two names they were most connected to during that time. They eventually did get Marte — World Series hero Damaso Marte to you! — in 2008, though Fuentes remained nothing more than rumor fodder.

The nugget about Vizcaino was interesting. He had an okay year in New York in 2007 (4.30 ERA and 4.42 FIP) and turned that into a two-year, $7.5M contract with Colorado after the season. Best of all? The Yankees got a draft pick out of it! Vizcaino was a Type-B free agent under the old system and he rejected arbitration, giving the Yankees the 44th overall pick in the 2008 draft. (The Rockies didn’t have to give up a pick since he was a Type-B, not a Type-A). That pick didn’t work out (Jeremy Bleich), but still, it was neat. Those were the good ol’ days, when a decent middle reliever got you a supplemental first round pick.

March 16th:

Hounded by the Yankees-centric media, however, the soon-to-be free agent surely launched a jolt of pain through Yankees Nation when he was asked if he likes New York.

His response?  “It’s all right,” he said.

Sabathia continued to maintain with reporters that “in a perfect world,” he would want to stay with Cleveland.  After all, “I’ve been here since I was 17.”

This was the first time CC Sabathia and the Yankees were mentioned in the same rumor. Johan Santana had been traded to the Mets just a few weeks earlier and everyone shifted focus to Sabathia, an impending free agent. The Yankees later admitted that was their plan too — they passed on Johan so they could sign Sabathia after the season, an incredible gamble that paid off handsomely. I know CC ain’t all that good now, but man, he was a beast from 2009-12.

Also, the one thing I remember most about the Yankees’ pursuit of Sabathia as a free agent was how everyone tried to come up with reasons why he wouldn’t want to come to New York. He’s from the West Coast, he liked hitting in the NL, that sort of stuff. In this MLBTR blurb, Sabathia gave the answer he was supposed to give — what’s he supposed to say, “I can’t wait to leave the Indians” when he’s still with the Indians? — but it was spun into “Sabathia doesn’t want to be a Yankee” stories. Ah, the internet.

March 19th:

According to a source of Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, “the Yankees have apparently expressed interest in Rich Harden.”  Slusser believes the A’s would demand full price for Harden, perhaps asking for Ian Kennedy and young pitchers.

Man, Rich Harden was a boss back in the day. He had “best stuff in MLB” type of stuff. Mid-90s fastball, Tanaka-esque splitter, filthy slider … he was absurd. I’m trying to think of a modern day equivalent and I’m coming up empty. Andrew Cashner maybe?

Anyway, Harden was only 26 in March 2008 and his injury problems were just starting to set in. He made only nine starts in 2006 due to an elbow sprain and seven appearances (four starts) in 2007 due to a shoulder sprain. That said, he went into the 2008 season with a career 3.60 ERA (3.55 FIP) in 464.2 innings — that worked out to a 124 ERA+ back then (I miss offense) — and had insane stuff, so everyone was projecting ace-caliber production should he stay healthy.

The Yankees never did trade for Harden and he sure pitched like an ace in 2008 — 2.07 ERA (2.95 FIP) with 181 strikeouts in 148 innings. That’s a 210 ERA+ (!) and 30.4 K%. Ridiculous. The Athletics traded him to the Cubs in July 2008 for four players, most notably a middling catcher prospect named Josh Donaldson, and Harden threw only 315.2 more big league innings in his career after 2008. He had all sorts of shoulder trouble and eventually tore his capsule. Shame.

I remember being all in Harden during the 2006-08-ish period. I loved his stuff. Loved loved loved it. I’m much more apprehensive nowadays when it comes to pitches with injury concerns, especially arm injuries, even if they haven’t had surgery. That doesn’t mean I would avoid them at all costs, but the rumor says the A’s wanted “full price” for Harden, and while I was definitely open to that back then, it would be an easy no for me these days.

It’s a new month, and that means it’s time to take our monthly trip back through the MLB Trade Rumors archive. As a reminder, I’m not trying to make fun of Tim or anyone else at MLBTR. Those guys are awesome and do a great job. I just like to look back at everything we talked about years ago to see how silly it looks in hindsight. What good are rumors if you’re only going to read them once, right? This is the gift that keeps on giving.

Last month we covered January 2008, so now it’s time to jump ahead to February 2008. February isn’t the best month for rumors — the Johan Santana race was mercifully over at this point as well — but there was still plenty of interesting stuff going on seven years ago. I was surprised, honestly. By the way, this is a monthly feature now, at least until everyone gets bored of it, and I’m going to try to post it during the first week of each month. (I’m closer this month than I was last month!) Anyway, away we go.

February 7th:

Two teams are showing significant interest.  Rosenthal believes the Reds are one, and the Twins or Rays could be another.  He rules out the Dodgers, Yankees, Rockies, and Indians.  The Reds have had preliminary discussions for Blanton already.  How about the Phillies?  They came calling in July.

This was back when Joe Blanton was good and a desirable trade target. He had just turned 27, and he’d put up a 3.95 ERA (108 ERA+) with a 3.50 FIP in 230 innings in 2007. Blanton had a career 4.10 ERA (106 ERA+) and a 4.00 FIP at the time and there was reason to believe he was just about entire his peak, especially since his FIP had gone from 4.43 to 4.16 to 3.50 from 2006-08.

The Athletics didn’t trade Blanton that offseason though. He opened the year in Oakland, had a 4.96 ERA (83 ERA+) with a 4.23 FIP in 127 innings before being sent to the Phillies for a three-prospect package headlined by ex-Yankee Josh Outman. Yeah, that one didn’t work out too well for A’s. Blanton, meanwhile, had 4.79 ERA (85 ERA+) with a 4.39 FIP through the end of his career after the trade, so no, he wasn’t about to enter his peak. He’d already had his peak.

February 8th:

Yankees GM Brian Cashman expects an arbitration hearing for Chien-Ming Wang.  It would be the team’s first hearing in eight years, even though the two sides are just $600K apart.

The Yankees and Wang did ultimately go to an arbitration hearing and I remember thinking it was pretty dumb on the team’s part to potentially create bad blood with their ace. Arbitration hearings are not pleasant. The Yankees beat Wang in arbitration and paid him $4M in 2008 rather than the $4.6M he was seeking. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Wang hurt his foot that June and his days as an effective MLB pitcher were over. The Yankees haven’t been to an arbitration hearing since.

February 16th:

Carl Pavano doesn’t seem too popular in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

Pavano was still around back then — he was entering the final year of his contract — and he was working his way back from Tommy John surgery. This isn’t really a rumor but the linked story is pretty funny. Check it out:

To say Pavano is a pariah is an understatement. He asked one of the clubhouse kids for a small box today to store some things he had in his locker. The kid went over to a garbage pail, fished out an orange Nike shoebox, dumped a half-eated sandwich out of it and handed it to Pavano.

That more or less sums up Pavano’s tenure in pinstripes.

February 20th:

Peter Abraham thinks the Yanks should trade Hideki Matsui.

Not a rumor, just speculation. Matsui was pretty awesome in 2007, hitting .285/.367/.488 (123 OPS+) with 25 homers in 143 games, but his knees were starting to give out on him and the plan was to use him as the regular DH in 2008 with Johnny Damon in left, Melky Cabrera in center, and Bobby Abreu in right.

I remember thinking the Yankees should look into trading Matsui as well. Damon and Abreu were insanely durable players who never got hurt and Matsui at DH meant Jason Giambi would have to play first base. If they could get something decent for him with two years and $26M left on his contract, why not? The Yankees didn’t trade Matsui though, thankfully, and he hit .294/.370/.424 (108 OPS+) with nine homers in 93 games in 2008 while missing a bunch of time with knee problems.

It sounds completely insane now — trade Matsui, really?!? — but back then it wasn’t crazy at all. Trading a guy in his mid-30s who was in the middle of breaking down physically wasn’t a ridiculous idea.

February 20th:

SI.com’s Jon Heyman says Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon considered retiring a year ago in the spring.  He would’ve been walking away from $39MM.  He was coming off a fine season, too.

For some reason the link now redirects to Bleacher Report (?), so I can’t see if Heyman explained why Damon was considering retirement. Damon hit .285/.359/.482 (115 OPS+) with a career-high 24 homers in 2006, his first in New York, so there’s no performance reason why he would consider calling it quits. Then he hit .270/.351/.396 (96 OPS+) with 12 homers in 2007 and was banged up all year. Maybe Damon was hurting more than he let on and didn’t want to play through pain anymore? Either way, he didn’t retire. He still hasn’t, really. He’s been looking for a team to give him a chance since last year.

February 28th:

Freddy Garcia‘s agent talks about the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox for his client.  Garcia is targeting a June or July return.

This was right when Garcia was going through all the arm injuries that robbed him of his hellacious mid-90s sinker and turned him into a junkballer. He threw only 58 innings for the Phillies in 2007 and was terrible (78 ERA+ and 5.85 FIP) before having surgery to repair his labrum and rotator cuff, and he remained unsigned until the Tigers took a flier in August 2008. So his agent was out there trying to get Freddy signed but no one bit.

Garcia made three okay starts for Detroit (eight runs in 15 innings), signed with the White Sox after the season, then had a 4.34 ERA (109 ERA+) with Chicago in nine starts while again battling injury. From 2007-09, Sweaty Freddy had a 5.02 ERA (92 ERA+) and 4.55 FIP in 129 total innings. He looked done after the shoulder injury. Garcia has stayed relatively healthy since 2009 though and he did ultimately end up with the Yankees from 2011-12. Here are his ERA+ marks by year from 2010-13:

92
119 <– Yankees!
81
91

Freddy was alright.

February 29th:

Rosenthal notes that the Yankees, in search of a right-handed outfielder, considered Shannon Stewart and Mike Cameron this winter.

The Yankees had been connected to Cameron on and off for years, so that’s not surprising, but Shannon Stewart! Remember when he got traded to the Twins at the deadline in 2003, had that absurd second half (.322/.384/.470 for a 124 OPS+), and finish fourth in the AL MVP voting? What the hell was that about?

Anyway, Stewart had just hit .290/.345/.394 (100 OPS+) with 12 homers in 146 games for the Athletics in 2007 after putting up a weak .279/.329/.383 (87 OPS+) line with Minnesota from 2005-06. The Blue Jays signed him, he hit .240/.325/.303 (71 OPS+) in 52 games and got released in August. Hasn’t played since.

The Yankees, meanwhile, tried Shelley Duncan (43 OPS+), Morgan Ensberg (34 OPS+), and Richie Sexson (101 OPS+) as right-handed platoon bats before picking up Xavier Nady at the trade deadline. Platoon bats, huh? They always sounds like such a great idea until they actually get on the field.

Last month, before the chaos of the Winter Meetings, I decided to go back and look through the December 2007 archives at MLB Trade Rumors. The Yankees rumors, specifically. This is a Yankees site, after all. The idea was simple: to look through the old rumors to see how just they silly looked in hindsight.

Just to be clear, I had not intention of mocking or otherwise disparaging the hard-working crew at MLBTR, of which I was a member for more than three years. I just want to look back at some old rumors and remember how we reacted to them, mostly to see how ridiculous we were. Baseball rumors is a wacky business. You see a lot of weird stuff thrown around.

My trip through the December 2007 archives seemed to go over pretty well, so I think I’m going to try to make this a monthly feature. Hopefully with a more regular schedule. It’s not like there’s a shortage of rumors or anything. What good are they if we only look at them once and forget about ’em? Since we covered December 2007 last month, we’ll now flip the calendar to January 2008, which was peak Johan Santana trade craziness. Good times. Let’s get to it.

JANUARY 2nd:

Peter Abraham had a note this morning about Johan Santana. He says “there are no indications the Yankees will suddenly get back into the mix for Santana.” Abraham notes that the main issue for the Yanks remains the massive extension they’d have to give Santana.

Might as well start with Johan. In December we heard the Yankees’ best offer was Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez, and Mitch Hilligoss. This is the first time we heard that the extension — which ended up being a six-year, $137.5M deal — was the problem. The Yankees didn’t want to pay twice. They didn’t want to hand over a group of young players only to pay Santana like a free agent anyway.

The Yankees have sorta softened on that stance in recent years, but not when it comes to players of Santana’s caliber. They did trade young players for rentals like Brandon McCarthy and Chase Headley last year before trying (and half-succeeding) to re-sign them this offseason. It’s the big name players they seem unwilling to pay twice for, once in prospects and again with a contract. I can’t say I blame them, really. Especially considering the team’s current situation. If they were legit contenders, I’d hope they would be more open-minded about renting a big name player.

JANUARY 3rd:

Anthony McCarron got another tidbit out of Hank Steinbrenner in his interview yesterday. He learned that the Yankees will not consider re-signing Roger Clemens, if he does play in 2008.

Clemens never did play after the 2007 season, so the Yankees didn’t want to re-sign him and no other team wanted him either. The fun part of this rumor is the source: Hank Steinbrenner was doing the talking. He was the head honcho back then. This was a month after the team re-signed Alex Rodriguez, remember, a deal Hank reportedly brokered. Hal Steinbrenner and the rest of the family seems to have pushed Hank out of the limelight since then. Can’t say that’s surprising.

JANUARY 4th:

According to Tyler Kepner, Alex Rodriguez has been “privately endorsing” Mike Cameron. Well, it’s not private anymore! The Yankees could entertain such a signing if they trade Melky Cabrera but don’t want to move Johnny Damon back to center. Kepner’s article also discusses the internal struggle between Hank and Hal Steinbrenner. Hank wants Johan Santana, Hal wants to show a little financial restraint.

More Hank vs. Hal, more Johan, and the first time we really saw Hal wanting to show financial restraint. Cameron was still really good back then — he hit .255/.341/.456 (112 OPS+) with 43 homers for the Padres from 2006-07 while playing his his usually excellent defense — and the Yankees actually worked out a trade to acquire him at the July 2009 trade deadline, but Hal squashed it because he didn’t want to take on the extra salary.

Cameron, by the way, signed a two-year deal with the Brewers a few days after this rumor and hit .247/.337/.464 (111 OPS+) with 49 homers in 269 games for Milwaukee. Cameron was a damn fine player. Traded for both Paul Konerko and Ken Griffey Jr., you know.

JANUARY 7th:

Brian Cashman admitted that he lost some power when the Hank and Hal regime took over. He no longer has full authority to run everything, a sticking point when he signed on several years ago. It would not be shocking to see Cashman move on when his term ends after the 2008 season. He’s finishing up a three-year, $5.4MM deal.

Yeah, I think it was pretty obvious Cashman lost some power when Hank put that A-Rod contract together. Since then ownership has gone over his head to sign Rafael Soriano, trade for Alfonso Soriano, and re-sign Derek Jeter, among who knows what else.

That said, Cashman hasn’t moved on. He signed a three-year contract after the 2008 season, signed another three-year contract after the 2011 season, and another three-year contract after the 2014 season. Say what you want about Cashman’s moves, but the man is fiercely loyal to the pinstripes.

JANUARY 9th:

Kat O’Brien spoke to Hank Steinbrenner yesterday, and learned that the Yankees’ take on Johan Santana has not changed. They’re still in on him. One new tidbit: Hank said he wouldn’t go past a five-year extension for Santana. Since he’s already signed through 2008, an extension would go through 2013.

Hank’s still talkin’.

JANUARY 10th:

UPDATE, 1-10-08 at 10:34pm: According to Peter Abraham, the Yanks signed Lane to a minor league deal.

“Oh my gosh how could the Yankees sign Jason Lane!? What a dumb move. He’s taking playing time away from real prospects who might have a future with the team.”

I assume that’s what everyone said at the time. That’s what everyone says whenever the Yankees sign someone to a minor league contract. (Lane played 97 games with Triple-A Scranton and was released in August. The franchise somehow survived.)

JANUARY 14th:

The Yankees, Mets, and Pirates are interested in free agent lefty reliever Ron Villone.

Ron Villone! The search for a reliable lefty reliever in the post-Mike Stanton era really took some weird turns. Villone was with the Yankees from 2006-07 and had a 4.77 ERA (95 ERA+) in 122.2 innings as Joe Torre ran him into the ground. He signed with the Cardinals during this offseason and wasn’t very good for them in 2008 (91 ERA+).

JANUARY 14th:

UPDATE, 1-14-08 at 10:28pm: Hank says “there’s still a little back and forth” between the Yanks and Twins regarding Santana. Ugh.

Ugh is right. It never ended.

JANUARY 18th:

The same source told me on Friday that the Yankees, A’s, and Mariners have expressed interest in Wilkerson as well.

The Wilkerson in this case is Brad Wilkerson. The Yankees were looking for a first baseman to split time with Jason Giambi and, well, Wilkerson had hit 20 homers with a 104 OPS+ with the Rangers in 2007. He was as good a candidate as anyone. I don’t remember the Wilkerson chatter at all and I’m guessing my reaction would have been: meh.

JANUARY 25th:

Anthony McCarron says a long-term deal with Chien-Ming Wang looks unlikely, and the Yankees may have to go to a hearing with him regarding his ’08 salary.

The Yankees did eventually go to an arbitration hearing with Wang, and they beat him. He wanted $4.6M but they only had to pay him $4M. I’m pretty sure I was all for signing Wang to a multi-year extension back then, but it’s good thing they didn’t. Wang’s days as an effective big leaguer were over six months after this rumor made the rounds. For shame.

JANUARY 26th:

The Yankees considered bringing Octavio Dotel back, but wouldn’t go two years on him.

Dotel was only 34 at this time. It seemed like no matter how much everyone else aged, Dotel always stayed 38-39.

Anyway, the Yankees had Dotel in 2006 on one of those “he had Tommy John surgery but he’ll be totally awesome when he gets healthy in the second half!” contracts, when he allowed 13 runs in ten innings. Dotel got his two year contract from the White Sox and had a 3.55 ERA (131 ERA+) with 167 strikeouts in 129.1 innings from 2008-09. He was still pitching as recently as 2013.

JANUARY 28th:

Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Yankees are close to a four-year deal with second baseman Robinson Cano. Since he’s a Super Two, this will cover all of his arbitration years. Rosenthal also says that the deal will include a club option or two, allowing the Yankees to buy out some of Cano’s free agency. The deal looks to be worth $30 million.

No deal for Wang, but the Yankees did lock up Cano and the contract actually looked bad in the first year, when Robbie hit .271/.305/.410 (86 OPS+) with 14 homers. There was much second guessing.

Thankfully, Cano turned into a star in the second year of this four-year contract — Robbie hit the quietest .320/.352/.520 (121 OPS+) with 25 homers as a second baseman in history in 2009 — and the Yankees eventually did pick up those two option years. All told, Cano had a 129 OPS+ with 34.4 WAR during the life of the contract. The Yankees paid him $57M total. Heck of an investment.

JANUARY 29th:

Bob Nightengale of USA Today says an agreement to trade Santana to the Mets has been reached. They’ll send Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins. The Mets still have to work out a six or seven year extension for Santana, according to Nightengale. If this baby reaches its true conclusion we’ll sit down and analyze.

Thank the baseball gods! The Johan saga was finally over. Well, no, not really. The Mets and Twins agreed to the trade but the Mets still had to sign him to an extension within the 72-hour window, which eventually happened.

But what would have happened if they didn’t agree to an extension? Would the whole thing have been called off? And if it was, would the Yankees have jumped back in and low-balled the Twins? I’m guessing no since they seemed to be pretty firm on that “not paying twice” thing, but it’s fun to think about. Maybe they could have gotten Santana at a discount — Melky, Marquez, and Hilligoss with no Hughes? — then let him walk after 2008?

JANUARY 31st:

The Twins tried to re-engage the Yankees Monday night, calling and asking, again, for Hughes to be in a package. The Yankees said no, and the Twins then asked, instead, for Chien-Ming Wang and Ian Kennedy, and the Yankees said no.

The Twins wanted Hughes, and when the Yankees said no, the Twins instead asked for the team’s best MLB pitcher and their other prized pitching prospect? That seems backwards. Those were the days when prospects had more value than actual big leaguers, though thankfully that seems to have corrected itself the last few years. Hughes was an elite prospect, but Wanger was an above-average starter at the MLB level. Wang had more value.

JANUARY 31st:

According to a source, the Yankees have signed Morgan Ensberg. They’ll use him at first base (and maybe off the bench). It’s a minor league deal. Jerry Crasnick confirms it, noting that the Rays and Giants expressed interest.

Contrary to the Jason Lane signing, the reaction to the Ensberg signing was something along the lines of “he hit 36 homers three years ago, what a great pickup!” Then Ensberg had a 34 OPS+ in 28 games and everyone hated him. The Yankees released him on June 10th and he never played another MLB game.

Yeesh, dark ending to this month’s trip through the MLBTR archives, eh?

RAB has now been up and running for eight MLB seasons, and during that time we’ve seen countless rumors involving the Yankees and free agents or trades, and a very small percentage of them have actually come to fruition. I’d guess less than 5% of rumors turned into an actual transaction during those eight years.

So, with the Winter Meetings in full swing, I figured I would take a look back to RAB’s very first offseason to relive all the silly hot stove rumors we obsessed over day after day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s silly to obsess over rumors, this stuff is fun and that’s what it’s all about. I just want to look back at these rumors and mostly remember how I reacted at the time. Every time we hear the Yankees are connected to a player, we react and instantly decide one way or another whether it would be a good idea. That’s human nature.

Thanks to the magic of the MLB Trade Rumors archive, I went back and scrolled through every rumor involving the Yankees in December 2007, seven years ago. That was the winter of Johan Santana, so there were a lot of them. The highlights are below. Enjoy.

Important: Just to be perfectly clear, in no way am I making fun of Tim and everyone at MLBTR. I wrote there for three and a half years and they’re all awesome. I just want to look back at how silly some of these rumors sound now and MLBTR is an indispensable resource.

DECEMBER 1st:

UPDATE, 12-01-07 at 1pm: Olney now says the Yanks don’t have any serious interest in Loretta, and haven’t spoken to him in over a month.

Yeah I don’t even remember the Yankees being connected to Mark Loretta, who, by the way, was 35 at the time and had just put up an 88 OPS+ with the Astros. He re-signed with Houston and had a 96 OPS+ in 2008. The Yankees had a young Robinson Cano at second but Loretta was a utility player by then, playing all over the infield. That 88 OPS+ came with a .352 OBP and more walks (44) than strikeouts (41). Of course, 2008 was when men were men and a .352 OBP wasn’t the stuff of legend like it is today. I’m pretty sure I would have been okay with bringing Loretta aboard in a part-time role.

DECEMBER 1st:

UPDATE, 12-1-07 at 5pm: Ken Rosenthal says the Twins are asking for shortstop Alberto Gonzalez or starter Alan Horne as the third player from the Yankees.  Doesn’t sound like Hughes + Kennedy is any kind of possibility.  The Yankees cracked and put Hughes in…unless the Red Sox crack and put Ellsbury in it seems like Santana will end up in the Bronx.

UPDATE, 12-1-07 at 3:30pm: La Velle E. Neal III has a Santana update for us.  He says the Yanks are offering Hughes, Cabrera, and Ian Kennedy right now.  If that’s for real, I think the Twins should accept.  However, Neal’s assertion runs contrary to Jon Heyman’s take – he says the third player will not be Kennedy, Alan Horne, or Jose Tabata.

I’m not going to look back at all the Johan rumors because that would be insane. But Alan Horne! Alberto Gonzalez! They were kinda big deals back then. Horne had a 3.11 ERA with 165 strikeouts in 153.1 innings for High-A Tampa during the 2007 season and was one of the team’s four of five best prospects. His injury troubles began the next year and he threw only 107 more innings in his career. Gonzalez was a slick fielding shortstop who to this day continues to get paid American dollars to field slickly, mostly in Triple-A.

DECEMBER 3rd:

Billy Beane is happy to field offers on Dan Haren and Joe Blanton, but he’ll require a king’s ransom for either pitcher.  Jayson Stark says Beane asked the Yankees for two of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy for Haren.

Haren was 26 at the time and had a career 113 ERA+. He was traded to the Diamondbacks later that offseason and got better. Blanton was also 26 and had a career 106 ERA+. He wasn’t very good after that. Trading two of Hughes, Joba, and Kennedy for either guy would have been considered blasphemous at the time. It would have been worth it for Haren. Blanton … not so much.

DECEMBER 3rd:

The Yankees are receiving a lot of interest in The Farnz, according to Brian Cashman.

Apparently other teams actually wanted Kyle Farnsworth. December 2007 was weird.

DECEMBER 4th:

Chien-Ming Wang‘s agent, Alan Nero, wanted to talk to the Yankees about a long-term deal for him.  The discussion ended when the Yankees requested that Nero make the first move.

Wang was a monster from 2006-07, pitching to a 123 ERA+ and 11.0 bWAR in 417.2 innings. He was about to enter his arbitration years — the two sides actually went to an arbitration hearing that winter and the Yankees won, so Wang earned $4M in 2008 instead of $4.6M — and it seemed like the perfect time to sign him to a long-term extension. Four, five, six years. Something that like. Wang then hurt his foot in June 2008 and was never the same. Sucks. The Yankees dodged a bullet there.

DECEMBER 4th:

UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 4:10pm: Joel Sherman confirms the Cubs’ interest, so that’s officially 11 teams in on Bedard.  Sherman says the Yankees and Mets are unlikely to snag the southpaw ace, and names the Dodgers as the frontrunner.  Peter Angelos is letting Andy MacPhail run the show but doesn’t want Bedard traded within the division.  Sorry Yankees and Blue Jays.

Erik Bedard was 28 years old and coming off a year in which he had a 146 ERA+ with 221 strikeouts in 182 innings. I’m guessing that if he hit the trade market these days, I’d be pretty gung-ho about the Yankees doing whatever they could to acquire him. Angelos would have never ever ever traded him to New York though.

DECEMBER 5th:

UPDATE, 12-5-07 at 9:45am: Joel Sherman says the Yankees don’t like the price for Mahay and are considering alternatives such as Damaso Marte or John Grabow.

The search for a reliable left-handed reliever in the post-Mike Stanton era was entering year six at this point. The Yankees did acquire Marte at the 2008 trade deadline, so it seems the seeds for that deal were planted in the previous offseason. Mahay got a two-year, $8M deal from the Royals. He was 37 at the time but somehow had a 115 ERA+ and 1.7 bWAR as a lefty specialist during the life of the contract. How about that?

DECEMBER 5th:

UPDATE, 12-5-07 at 8:30am: The Yankees could’ve had Santana for Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez, and Mitch Hilligoss.  Brian Cashman, however, never wanted to sacrifice Hughes for Santana and convinced his bosses that the Yankees couldn’t afford him now that Andy Pettitte is in the fold.

My goodness, talk about a poo poo platter of prospects. Marquez did eventually reach MLB — the Yankees traded him as part of the package for Nick Swisher a few years later — but was a complete non-factor. He’s been out of baseball since 2012. Hilligoss set a Low-A South Atlantic League record with a 38-game hitting streak during the 2007 season. He hit .310/.352/.415 that year, .241/.287/.298 the next, and has been out of baseball since 2011. Prospects will break your heart.

DECEMBER 6th:

Joel Sherman noted today that the Twins and Yankees briefly discussed expanding the Johan Santana talks to include Joe Nathan.

This was back when we all thought the only possible way the Yankees would find a reliable eighth inning guy to set up Mariano Rivera would be by acquiring some other team’s All-Star closer. I wanted them to sign Andrew Miller B.J. Ryan so badly back in the day.

DECEMBER 6th:

Just a small blurb from Elliott – the Giants and Yanks have discussed Hideki Matsui.  Elliott notes that Matsui has a full no-trade clause.  He makes $13MM in each of the 2008 and ’09 seasons.  On November 8th, Ken Davidoff noted that the Yanks would prefer to move Matsui over Johnny Damon.

…

UPDATE, 12-6-07 at 1:38pm: Abraham has more than a no comment now – he confirms that the Yankees and Giants have discussed Matsui.  Abraham speculates that Noah Lowry could make sense.

Wait, what? What!? I don’t remember this Matsui to the Giants business at all. Godzilla’s knees were just starting to turn to mush around that time too. Seems weird an NL team had interest in him. Then again, San Francisco was running Barry Bonds out there year after year and he was barely mobile after 2003 or so.

Lowry had a 114 ERA+ in 156 innings in 2007 (87 walks and 87 strikeouts!) and literally never pitched again. He developed compartment syndrome in his forearm in Spring Training 2008 and it ended his career. That really sucks. Imagine if the Yankees had traded Matsui for Lowry in December 2007. Good gravy.

DECEMBER 8th:

31 year-old Japanese reliever Kazuo Fukumori is drawing plenty of interest – 10 teams have inquired, if you believe his agent.  A new interested party has been revealed – the Yankees.  They met with Alan Nero on Wednesday.  Fukumori wants a two-year deal.

Fukumori signed with the Rangers for two years and $3M. He threw four total innings for them and allowed nine runs on eleven hits and four walks in four innings. Pretty good reminder that most non-elite players who come over from Japan ain’t worth the trouble.

DECEMBER 10th:

Bob Matthews of the Times-Union Democrat and Chronicle (yes we’re really digging for rumors) notes today that the Phillies have “mild interest” in Mussina.  The 39 year-old Pennsylvania native may not want to leave New York, but it might not be a bad career move.

There was never any serious talk of moving Mussina even though he had a career worst 88 ERA+ in 2007. I’m guessing his stellar rebound in 2008 would have been lazily attributed to moving to the NL had he been dealt to the Phillies. I miss Moose.

DECEMBER 11th:

Carl Pavano, the American Idle, is deciding whether to take a minor league contract with the Yanks.   Peter Abraham says the Yankees are offering this to make sure they can collect on insurance.

Pavano was about to enter the fourth and final season of his four-year contract after throwing 11.1 total innings from 2006-07, though he was going to be out until midseason 2008 following Tommy John surgery. The Yankees wanted to get him off the 40-man roster but have him accept the outright assignment to Triple-A so they could continue to collect insurance. He said no, because being on the 40-man has perks. Benefits, pension contributions, licensing money, etc. I don’t blame him.

DECEMBER 11st:

Missed this tidbit – the Yankees have interest in Corey Patterson.  They’d almost have to trade an outfielder for that to make sense.  George King says they also have minimal interest in Kris Benson.

Patterson was still only 27. Think of the upside! He was once the best prospect in baseball! It’s amazing how we’ll hold onto any little sliver of hope when it comes to former top prospects. Benson didn’t pitch at all from 2007-08 due to injury. He was a reclamation project.

DECEMBER 13th:

The Yankees made A-Rod’s ten-year deal official.

Welp. The trade for A-Rod was phenomenal. He had a 153 OPS+ and 29.8 bWAR from 2004-07 before opting out. That ten-year contract is going to go down as the worst contract in sports history.

DECEMBER 15th:

UPDATE, 12-15-07 at 8:48am: Ed Price adds that the Yankees and Mets have both shown preliminary interest in Prior.  Apparently he is throwing on flat ground and could be ready by May.

I repeat: it’s amazing how we’ll hold onto any little sliver of hope when it comes to former top prospects. Prior had last pitched in MLB in August 2006 and his shoulder was complete cooked. He tore his capsule three (3) times — once in Spring Training 2007, once in Spring Training 2008, and again in April 2009. The Padres beat out the Yankees and Mets and signed Prior, a San Diego native, later that month. He still hasn’t pitched in MLB since August 2006.

DECEMBER 19th:

A source of Stark picks the Yankees as the favorite for Johan, but it should be noted that they’re having internal debates about pulling Phil Hughes off the table.

Things were pretty quiet for about a week after the Winter Meetings aside from more non-stop Santana updates. Man, remember how relentless the Johan stuff was? It was an all day, every day thing. I’m so happy the Yankees have become so tight-lipped during the offseason. Most of their moves are surprises that come out of nowhere. It’s exhausting following this stuff everyday and hey, surprises are fun.

DECEMBER 26th:

Murray Chass reports this morning that the Twins have scaled back their demands for Johan Santana, at least with the Yankees.  He says they are now willing to substitute Jeff Marquez for Ian Kennedy.  So the Yankees would have to give up Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and Marquez (and one more player, I’m guessing).

On December 5th we heard the Hughes/Melky/Marquez/Hilligoss package would get it done. On December 26th we heard the Twins were willing to swap out Kennedy for Marquez. Okie dokie.

If I’m remembering correctly, the team’s final offer for Santana was that Hughes/Melky/Marquez/Hilligoss package. Remember there was only one year left on Santana’s deal at the time. He wasn’t traded to the Mets until February 2nd, so there was still more than a month of non-stop Johan watch to come at this point.

DECEMBER 29th:

Interesting note – Neal says Kei Igawa‘s name has surfaced in regards to the Yankees talks.  It wouldn’t materially change the deal though.

This is another Santana update. The Yankees could have let Igawa go on waivers in August 2007 — the Padres claimed him off trade waivers, so New York could have dumped Igawa and his entire contract on San Diego — but ownership didn’t want to cut bait less than a year into his five-year contract. Apparently the Twins had some interest in him during Santana talks. The Yankees also worked out two deals to send him back to Japan, but Igawa declined both moves. Four chances to get rid of him and none worked.

DECEMBER 29th:

El Vocero, one of the bigger newspapers in Puerto Rico, is reporting that the Yankees signed Juan Gonzalez to a two-year, $2MM deal.

Juan Gone was 37 at the time. He had last played in MLB in 2005, and that was only one at-bat with the Indians. He played in 33 games in 2004 and had a 109 OPS+ in 185 total games from 2002-04. What the hell were the Yankees thinking? They took this “prefer old players” thing way too far.

UPDATE, 12-29-07 at 12:43pm: I’m told the article is the equivalent of an April Fool’s joke.

Oh. Silly Puerto Ricans.