The only team to ask the Yankees about Hideki Matsui is no longer interested in importing the left fielder to San Francisco. And Andy Pettitte doesn’t believe Johan Santana or Dan Haren must be imported to enable the Yankees to contend.
Shortly after the Giants inked free-agent center fielder Aaron Rowand to a five-year, $60M deal yesterday, GM Brian Sabean said he has all the outfielders he needs.
Last week at the Winter Meetings in Nashville the Giants talked to the Blue Jays about right fielder Alex Rios and the Yankees about Matsui. While the Rios talks didn’t advance because the Blue Jays wanted pitchers Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain, the Yankees and Giants continued to chat despite the Yanks knowing they couldn’t get either righty.
With Johnny Damon set to take over in left and the Yankees turning to Jason Giambi as the DH, Matsui’s playing time next season will be diminished. There were strong signals earlier this week that if asked to waive his full no-trade clause that Matsui would. Now, that’s not needed.
So the Yankees have a backup player who will make $26 million across the next two seasons.
Of course, Damon and Giambi experienced physical problems a year ago, so Matsui could be a valuable insurance policy.
“I assumed that,” Hank Steinbrenner said when informed of Sabean’s words.
Asked if other teams have or will express interest in the 33-year-old Matsui, who is coming off knee surgery, Steinbrenner, “Who knows? This was something specific. They came to us. We weren’t shopping Matsui.”
As for Santana and Haren, Steinbrenner said, “There doesn’t seem to be much right now.”
Talking on a conference call yesterday after his one-year $16 million deal was made official, Pettitte took issue with the belief that the Yankees need a legitimate No. 1 starter.
“There has been a lot of speculation that we need a power pitcher or ace and I disagree with that,” said Pettitte, who didn’t rule out returning for 2009 and the opening of the new Yankee Stadium.
“We have [Chien-Ming] Wang, and he is an absolute stud … and obviously having Joba [Chamberlain] in the rotation, I think that will elevate his game.
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Yankees declined to offer contracts to four players by last night’s midnight deadline for teams to keep unsigned players on their 40-man rosters. Non-tendered were pitchers T.J. Beam, Matt DeSalvo and Darrell Rasner and outfielder Bronson Sardinha. They became free agents.