Our WFAN Baseball Insiders have you covered every day during spring training, as Sweeny Murti and Ed Coleman will be delivering daily podcasts with the latest from Yankees and Mets camp – but it’s nice to have some backup!
Luckily for us, Jon Heyman is one of our RADIO.COM Sports MLB insiders, and he hopped on Moose & Maggie Thursday to talk NY baseball. A lot of the talk was Mets-related, but there were a few pinstriped nuggets, so we’re breaking out the quotebook with three hits from Heyman!
Heyman on Miguel Andujar: “He’s a terrific hitter, and a lot of teams should be interested in him. I would, and I’d give him another shot at third base. I believe the Yankees tried to trade Andujar in the offseason, and perhaps a trade could be made still. Certainly, he is a talented hitter who will find a place somewhere – and if you have a universal DH as soon as next year, it may be easier to find a spot.”
Heyman on Brett Gardner’s future: “Brian Cashman has always been a fan and he’s a true Yankee, the last one left from the 2009 title team, and they’d love to bring him back – but it’s about the money. They want to stay under the luxury tax threshold, and say what you want about that, but it seems to be a focus for them. It looks like with Justin Wilson, they have a creative deal where he might have a second year player option to keep his AAV down to squeeze in more room for this year. I’m sure Gardy would take less to stay with the Yankees, but he made $8 million last year; I don’t know if he’d take half that, but could he get more elsewhere? I’m not sure about that, either, and being a loyal Yankee hurts in negotiations.”
Heyman on a possible Judge or Torres extension, vis-à-vis Tatis: “Judge has to prove he can stay healthy, and Torres. The reason they haven’t done it is because those guys are year-to-year, so an extension affects the luxury tax beyond this year. San Diego was so far below the threshold, they were able to do Tatis. He’s still making $1 million this year, but his AAV went up to $24 million and change, and they could still afford that. The Yankees don’t have that luxury if they want to be under that $210 million threshold.”
Listen to Heyman’s entire segment with Moose & Maggie below!
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