The Masahiro Tanaka signing has taken the Yankees’ outlay to retain and sign free agents beyond a half a billion dollars, so Hal Steinbrenner declared his baseball operation staff must “be creative” in finalizing the roster.
The one glaring need that remains is finding a reliever who can either close if David Robertson cannot handle being Mariano Rivera’s successor or pitch the eighth inning to replace Robertson. In discussing that matter, Steinbrenner did what others in his organization have so far avoided this offseason — the owner declared Robertson the closer.
“We are going to continue to look, but no doubt we have already spent a lot of money this offseason,” Steinbrenner said. “I have a lot of confidence in Robertson and so does [manager] Joe [Girardi]. Robertson is going to be our closer, and I believe he will do a good job. We have done a lot to improve our team and we just have to understand that you cannot be perfect everywhere.”
General manager Brian Cashman wasn’t as firm on the subject during a conference call.
“Obviously, [Robertson’s] the odds-on favorite. We’ll play it out and see how spring training goes,” Cashman said, not ruling out further signings. “The more the merrier.”
Still, Robertson was pleased to learn of Steinbrenner’s comments.
“It’s nice to hear, finally,” Robertson told The Post by phone from Tampa. “Now I know I have the opportunity and it’s up to me to go do the job.”
He insisted the uncertainty surrounding the situation wasn’t all that difficult to deal with and reiterated that he’s ready to make the move.
“I’ll approach the ninth like I did the eighth,” said Robertson, who will receive the Good Guy Award from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Saturday at the New York Hilton. “I’ve been under Mariano’s wing for a while and [know] the situation I’m getting into.”
The best closers available in the free-agent market are Grant Balfour and Fernando Rodney, and there are candidates attempting to return from injury such as Andrew Bailey, Joel Hanrahan and Ryan Madson.
It is possible the Yankees could trade for a relief piece, and they probably would love to move as much of Ichiro Suzuki’s $6.5 million contract as possible as part of a deal. For example, Arizona’s J.J. Putz and San Diego’s Huston Street each makes $7 million this year and both teams have potential closer replacements on the roster, so perhaps something could be worked out in that manner.