TODAY’S SHOW: Crutches-bound Yankees general manager Brian Cashman chats with weatherman Al Roker then talks of signing retired third baseman Chipper Jones during a wacky day George Steinbrenner would have loved. (
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TAMPA — George Steinbrenner would have loved the Yankees’ pursuit of Chipper Jones, including calling whatever the organization did yesterday a “pursuit.”
The Boss adored chasing superstars and assuring the Yankees dominated news cycles. If there was a touch of the bizarre in it, all the better.
And yesterday unfolded so bizarrely the Coen Brothers should have directed it.
The Yankees non-pursuit pursuit of Jones — the longtime Braves third baseman who retired following last season — lasted about three hours with the media doing the legwork usually provided by the general manager. Of course, the Yankees’ GM is not capable of much actual legwork.
Cashman opened this can of Chipper talking to three reporters with his right leg — broken in a sky-dive gone wrong — propped up on a bench in the home dugout at, fittingly, George M. Steinbrenner Field. He was discussing the already unorthodox strategy of trying to talk Derrek Lee out of retirement when — unprovoked — Cashman mentioned what “a perfect fit” Jones would be.
I was one of the three reporters, and, at first, we thought Cashman might be kidding because he brought up Jones with the kind of nonchalance used to order lunch.
But Cashman said he didn’t have the number for Jones’ agent on him and figured in the Twitter-fueled world it would expedite matters if the media circulated word.
“Get it out there,” Cashman encouraged when asked about his seriousness. “I would sign [Jones] in a heartbeat.”
The Twitter word stirred a larger scrum of reporters to circle a wheelchair-bound Cashman a half-hour later in the Yankee clubhouse. Jones’ ability to play first, third and DH, switch-hit and — close your eyes, Mets fans — handle New York moved the GM to ask the media, “Don’t you think Chipper would be a perfect fit?” Cashman said he hoped his openness on the subject would reach Jones’ agent.
At that point, Jack Curry of YES, who was part of the original trio, told Cashman that I already had talked to B.B. Abbott and tweeted the agent’s response. Which led to me reading quotes to Cashman in which Abbott essentially said his client was flattered and had thought at points in his career about playing for the Yankees because of the franchise’s history, but that Jones was now retired and would not want to mess with his Braves legacy.
Jones later took to Twitter to echo those sentiments and write, “I am happy with life as a bad golfer.”
With that, the Yankees’ short, strange trip to Chipper World was over, having lasted from batting practice to the third inning of yesterday’s exhibition game.
Cashman knew it was a farfetched long shot, but he has been the GM long enough to see some farfetched long shots come through. The Yankees once had a sudden need for a third baseman just before spring training and acquired the greatest shortstop in the world (Alex Rodriguez) to fill the need. Last spring, Andy Pettitte came out of a year’s retirement.
Jones, though, is the Braves’ Derek Jeter, so ultimately there was as much chance of getting him into pinstripes this year as acquiring Hank Aaron.
But what those few hours The Boss would have loved underscored is how much Steinbrenner would have hated the reasons it was required.
As opposed to in their Steinbrennerian past, these current Yankees are more mindful of payrolls — particularly future payrolls — and thus had not loaded their bench with any Strawberrys and Raines or even Chavezes and Ibanezes. Instead, the Yankees were outbid on Jeff Keppinger and Nate Schierholtz and didn’t want to go to a second year for Scott Hairston or Russell Martin. If they would have signed any or all of them — which hardly would have been payroll demolishing — the Yankees probably would not be on a Plan B that has Cashman seeing if he can divert the retirement plans of Jones, Lee or Scott Rolen.
Cashman insisted the Yankees were being “creative,” not desperate. He said stars almost never become available at this time of year. Instead, there are generally only opportunities to improve incrementally, which the Yankees tried yesterday by signing righty-hitting outfielder Ben Francisco — released by Cleveland — to a minor league deal.
So if Cashman saw an “outside-the-box” way to hold the offensive fort while Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira recuperate then, he figured, why not? Lee is at least mulling the Yankee possibility. Rolen already has rejected $4 million from the Dodgers and Reds, and will only sign for guaranteed dollars and playing time the Yankees will not offer.
The Boss would have loved it all, the outside-the-box approach and the star chase. But he certainly would not have Jonesed for the reasons why.