LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Yankees dined with Carl Crawford on Tuesday night and by yesterday he reportedly was headed for the Angels.
Yet last evening the free-agent outfielder landed in Boston with a seven-year, $142 million deal that stunned the Winter Meetings.
The Yankees’ interest in the former Rays star was purely as a fall-back plan if Cliff Lee stiffs them. And they engaged Crawford in order to drive up the price on the Red Sox.
“We never made an offer,” Brian Cashman said Thursday. “That is not a need for us.”
However, Jayson Werth’s seven-year, $126 million deal with Washington probably had more to do with Crawford’s price rising than the Yankees’ interest.
Naturally, the Yankees would have preferred Crawford in Anaheim instead of joining their blood rival. However, if they get Lee, the Yankees will be satisfied because starting pitching was their top goal going into the offseason.
Crawford, 28, is coming off the best season of his career. He hit .307 with a career-best 19 home runs, 90 RBIs and 110 runs. The four-time all-star stole 47 bases.
The Red Sox, in a move to get back to the postseason. have now made the two biggest position-player acquisitions of the offseason. Monday, they completed a trade with the Padres for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
However, the Red Sox lost C/DH Victor Martinez to the Tigers in free agency and it is virtually certain that third baseman Adrian Beltre won’t be back.
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Lee has paralyzed the Yankees’ universe.
“I feel like Hannibal Lecter in a straitjacket waiting on this Cliff Lee thing,” Brian Cashman said of his obsession with getting Lee.
There are other areas beside the rotation that need to be addressed. The Yankees are talking to utilityman Bill Hall, catcher Russell Martin and reliever Kerry Wood.
“I have talked to his agents, they called me [yesterday],” Cashman said of Wood, who pitched very effectively in the final two months of the season for the Yankees. “Right now, [we] are going to wait on Cliff.”
The Yankees like Hall, who played for the Red Sox last year. However, there are multiple teams with two-year offers and the Yankees may not want to go more than one.
Martin, who was non-tendered by the Dodgers, was drawing interest from the Red Sox, but recently that appears to have cooled.
The Yankees are going to give neophyte Jesus Montero a chance to win the starting catcher’s job in spring training and Martin could provide competition for that job or be the backup.
The Yankees talked to the Dodgers about trading for Martin, but there were medical questions.