Call to Arms

With Joba Chamerlain back in the starting rotation (for now), one thing is for certain, the Yankees bullpen is atrocious. Even with Mariano River re-signed, the Yankees’ set up core at the moment consists of Kyle Farnsworth and a bunch of unproven young pitchers. Farnsworth is completely unreliable and virtually useless (or worthless as is the nickname often given to him with a play of words on his last name) so basically it boils down to depending on the kids to step up. That is, unless, Cashman brings in some more help form the outside to give Girardi something to work with. I’ll outline some of the out of organization options now and then next week I’ll take a closer look at the in house options. Anyway, many of the big name, big contract pitchers have already been signed, such as Scott Linebrink, Francisco Cordero, and David Riske but free agency does still yield some interesting options. Luis Vizcaino has declined the Yankees offer of salary arbitration, and seems visibly upset with how the Yankees are handling him so he seems unlikely to return. His agent does say though that he wants to stay in New York, but the Yankees just haven’t “stepped up their offer” enough to satisfy him. He is probably not worth the four year deal he may have required anyway, but he would still be a fairly reliable arm for at least the first two years of that deal. Ron Mahay, formerly with the Atlanta Braves, is an intriguing option mostly because he is left handed, but did finish last season with a 2.55 ERA. The only problem is that he is 36 years old and many teams are interested in him. Still, he should be Cashman’s main target as of now to give the Yankees’ their first reliable lefty bullpen arm probably since Mike Stanton (the first time). The other option via free agency, one no one seems to be talking much about, is Eric Gagne. Yes, the Yankees must surely be scared off by how poorly Gagne performed upon arriving in Boston, but the fact that Gagne stayed relatively healthy for most of the season should be a positive sign. Gagne declined Boston’s offer of arbitration and the Rangers have declared themselves out of the race for his services, so the competition for Gagne is decreasing. The Yankees are unlikely to receive the Gagne from his Dodgers days, or maybe not even from Texas, but are likely to receive better then what he gave Boston (what a bad trade for the Red Sox by the way).
Then there’s the trade market, which can be very unpredictable. I think this is where Cashman is likely to turn for bullpen help but I will not pretend to know who is available as well as Cashman. Perhaps the Angels have soured on Scott Shields enough after his rough stretch last season to trade him, but probably not. Cashman may have to load up on low risk, high reward players to try to hope enough of them pan out to form a formidable bullpen. The player I would target here would be Tom Gordon of the Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, he is 40 years old, due $5.5 million in 2008, and did have an injury rattled season with a 4.73 ERA, but it might not hurt to bring the former Yankee back. For those reasons, the Phillies asking price must be very low for him and with Brad Lidge in tow they do not need him to close. In 2006 Gordon posted a 3.34 ERA so the Yankees would be thrilled with it. It’s pretty unlikely that Gordon will return to his previous Yankee days in 2004 and 2005 where he posted a 2.21 and 2.57 ERA’s respectively, but there’s little risk in bringing Gordon in since Cashman would have to give up virtually nothing to get him and there’s still some upside. Throw in the fact that he is only under contract for next season (with a club option for 2009 with a $1 million buyout) it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot. Bullpen arms are so unpredictable anyway that most pitchers are long shots to perform at some point, and GM’s just have to hope the pieces fall in line properly to form a good bullpen. Cashman still needs to add a few pieces, though, before he can hope for that to happen.