Yankees Rumors: Yankees Won’t Sign A Big Free Agent Pitcher?

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe has a great Sunday notes column. Yes, it’s certainly Red Sox based, however, he does touch upon some hot topics within baseball. He had an interesting note in yesterday’s column:

"We keep hearing the Yankees won’t dabble in the elite pitcher free agent market, twice burned on CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka. We’ll believe it only when it fails to happen. If they indeed don’t, that may not bode well for the Big Three — Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, and James Shields — who depend on big market teams like the Yankees to drive up the price."

First of all, the original signing of CC Sabathia was perfectly fine, however, the re-signing of him has not been good. At the time though, the Yankees didn’t really have a choice and I don’t think they expected CC to get injured and bottom out like he has.

Secondly have they really been burned by Tanaka? Yes, he was hurt last season and he will probably need Tommy John surgery in the future, but I don’t think you can say they were burned by the signing at all. 

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I agree with Cafardo in that I’ll believe it when I see it. I think the Yankees will go after Lester and Scherzer with the hope of nabbing one of them to help strengthen the rotation. I can’t see them going after Shields, because like Sabathia, he too has thrown a ton of innings and it could be the same result (What’s the definition of insanity again?)

I’d like to hear who they’d go after if they didn’t spend money on a pitcher, but for now, I can’t see them not trying to nab a big fish in the free agent pond.