Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera aren’t the only Yankees who will be saying farewell to The Bronx in the next few days.
With just a three-game series remaining against the Rays and then three more in Houston to close the regular season, the Yankees will soon be staring at an offseason filled with decisions because of a slew of key free agents, coupled with ownership’s stated desire to get next year’s payroll under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold.
Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson — as well as Joe Girardi — are among those whose futures are in doubt. And there’s no telling when Alex Rodriguez will play again at Yankee Stadium after this homestand, since he is looking at a 211-game ban that he is appealing. That appeal will be heard once the regular season ends. Derek Jeter has a player option worth $9.5 million.
And then there are the younger players who may have to be relied upon to replace some of the departing veterans.
“We’re not thinking about any of that stuff right now,” general manager Brian Cashman said Monday. “We still have business to attend to for this season. We’ll get to that when the season is over.”
When asked what he has thought of the newcomers’ performance of as the team’s postseason hopes have faded, Cashman said: “The effort has been there.”
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The Cano sweepstakes will go a long way in determining how the Yankees will handle their payroll structure. And although he isn’t quite duplicating the success he displayed down the stretch last season, when his bat helped the Yankees stave off the Orioles and get into the postseason, Cano has been hot lately.
In his past five games, he has nine hits — including three doubles — in 20 at-bats.
Still, that doesn’t quite match his production over his final nine games of 2012, when he went 24-for-39 (.615), with 11 runs, 14 RBIs, three homers and a 1.654 OPS.
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Hiroki Kuroda will start Tuesday against the Rays and while CC Sabathia’s second-half woes have contributed heavily to the Yankees’ recent struggles, Kuroda hasn’t been much better.
After being the victim of poor run support for much of the season, Kuroda simply hasn’t been good over the last month.
On Aug. 8, he pitched eight scoreless innings against the Angels to improve to 11-7 and lower his ERA to 2.33.
Since then, the right-hander is 0-5 with a 6.37 ERA and has not pitched more than 6¹/₃ innings in any of those seven outings.