Rafael Soriano might be willing to join the Yankees in a setup role, but general manager Brian Cashman won’t sacrifice the first-round draft pick the team would have to give up in order to sign the Type-A free agent.
“I would have given up the draft pick for Cliff Lee, but not for anyone else,” Cashman said yesterday.
The Yankees have not brought in any high-profile players and now it seems they likely will not as they continue to wait on Andy Pettitte’s retirement decision. Soriano, who saved 45 games for the Rays last year, would serve in an eighth-inning role in The Bronx, but Cashman made it clear he isn’t going to mortgage future drafts to bring him in.
“We’re very protective of our draft picks, and we have been for years,” Cashman said. “There was one year with [Mark Teixeira] and CC [Sabathia], but the way you build an organization is through the draft and our assessment was that Cliff Lee was the only player we were willing to give a No. 1 for. It’s a year-by-year assessment, and I’m going to hold on to that pick.”