Friday, December 8, 2006

Yankees.com - Villone declines Yanks’ arbitration offer

  Ron Villone declined the Yankees’ arbitration offer Thursday, leaving the left-hander available on the free-agent market.

  Villone, who returned Thursday from a 12-day vacation in Italy, spoke with his agent, Scott Boras, before making his decision. Villone has drawn interest from five or six teams, several of which may be willing to give the reliever a two-year contract.

I wouldn’t mind bringing Villone back for one year, but if he can get a better offer somewhere the Yankees get a sandwich pick in the draft. That’s good, but it then puts them in a position where they’re going to need to get a second lefty for the pen, unless they think Sean Henn can do the job (which I think is pretty unlikely).

No news on Andy Pettitte, or the exciting hunt for a backup catcher and utility infielder. The Yankees did make some news when they selected Josh Phelps in the Rule 5 draft. Phelps had a solid season in AAA Toledo this year, hitting .308/.370/.532. His ZiPS projection for 2007 is .279/.338/.486. Unfortunately, Phelps is a butcher with the glove. He’s played only 31 games at 1B in his career, and has a career zone rating of .744. That is actually better than Jason Giambi’s .722 last year, but would equate to about a -18 over a full season. He probably doesn’t replace Andy Phillips on the roster, but he could be useful as a backup DH against lefties and an occasional game at 1B. He does have a background as a catcher, although he hasn’t played there in years so that’s probably not a viable option for him either.

One interesting name did pop up yesterday as a potential backup catcher. Jim Leyritz is talking about making a comeback. He’ll be 42 and hasn’t played in six years. In this market that’s probably worth $4 million.

Comments

Hey, check it out -- nobody's commented yet! You could be the first to comment on this AWESOME post! Hurry up and think of something to say! And not "First!", or anything like that, because that would be lame, and you'd be lame for doing it. Especially if someone beats you to it.

Well, since you spent so much time reading this, you've probably missed your shot to be first, but go ahead and post anyway. Someone might read it. Not ME, but someone.

0 of 963 registered readers are currently logged in.
There are currently 70 visitors who are not logged in.
There was a record 241 simultaneous visitors on May 2, 2011 at 11:54:25 pm.

---