TAMPA – The Yankees and Chien-Ming Wang will know this morning who won the right-handed pitcher’s arbitration hearing, held yesterday in St. Petersburg. Three arbitrators heard the cases from Wang and the club in a session that started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m.
Wang, who has won 19 games in each of the past two seasons, attended the marathon hearing and listened to why the Yankees want to pay him $4 million and not the $4.6 million he filed for.
Industry experts were puzzled why with a difference of $600,000 the case wasn’t settled before the hearing started. But that was an indication both sides believed they had solid cases.
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Hideki Matsui surfaced at Legends Field yesterday and admitted his right knee hindered his playing ability late last year.
“From about mid-August,” Matsui said when asked if he was bothered during last season by the knee, on which he had surgery in November. “When I tried to run I wasn’t 100 percent and that was starting to be a problem.”
Though Matsui was used as a DH to take the stress off the hinge late in the season, he is looking forward to more time in left field, where the Yankees also have Johnny Damon.
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Does Phil Hughes feel more pressure because the Yankees’ refusal to part with him early in the process stalled the Johan Santana trade talks?
“I put more pressure on myself than anybody else can,” Hughes said.
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As he does regularly, George Steinbrenner was at Legends Field – which the Yankees announced this week will be renamed Steinbrenner Field late in March. The Boss was seen moving through the lobby and said he was looking forward to spring training.
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After sporting a shaved scalp for the first two years of his forgettable Yankee career, Kyle Farnsworth arrived in camp with a full head of curly brown hair.
With Chamberlain ready to set up Mariano Rivera and LaTroy Hawkins to work the seventh inning, Farnsworth could be expendable if he proves he is healthy and another team isn’t wary of his $5.75 million salary.
Pitchers and catchers work out for the first time today at Legends Field.