New York Yankees looking to acquire a designated hitter – MLB News
According to a leading baseball website, New York Yankees are looking to sign a left-hander for the available Designated Hitter (DH) position before the start of the 2011 Spring Training session.
Yankees have already spent a great amount of money to power their pitching and hitting line-ups for 2012 season and there is growing sense they have very little budget to fill the DH slot. Joe Girardi is looking for someone who is physically fit to play DH for the next few years.
The Yankees have been in talks with Raul Ibanez to finalise the deal, which will probably be with a low base contract with some incentives. A few days ago, it appeared as if the Yankees are near to signing a contract with Ibanez. However, as of now, the deal has not been completed.
Ibanez's agent has stated that they are still negotiating with the Yankees' officials and the deal can be finalised in the next few days. In a telephonic interview, Yankees’ Manager Joe Girardi claimed that the team went over the determined budget to acquire Hiroki Kuroda and therefore, they will not be spending much for the DH slot.
Right now, the Yankees are waiting for one of their veterans to drop their price significantly to solve the problem. If the Yankees can sign a DH for less than $1 million, they will have the opportunity to make trades during the season.
Yankees have also shown interest in signing free agent candidates such as Eric Chavez, Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon. Chavez possesses a powerful swing and he can perform third base duties quite effectively as well. However, his fitness has always remained questionable.
Ibanez, on the other hand, has a reputation of being a hard worker and a great team-mate. With 20 home-runs and 31 doubles, he had a decent season last year. However, his ability to perform in pitchers-friendly ballparks has been questioned by many analysts. Yankees have only a couple of weeks to make the decision. Most likely, they will go with the cheapest DH option.
According to sources, the Yankees are not looking to spend more than $2 million for the available DH slot and some officials have stated that the Yankees may not even go beyond $1 million to make the deal.
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