In an interesting turn of events the Yankees opted to sign Randy Winn to a one-year $2 million deal to compete for one of the corner outfield positions effectively ending any slim chance Johnny Damon had to return to the team.
This deal means the Yankees will now have a payroll of at least $205 million next season despite the proclamation they needed to slice roughly $30 to $35 million off of last year’s payroll that topped $207 million.
The choice of Winn is somewhat interesting given he had the lowest OPS amongst everyday outfielders last season. However, he is only a season removed from being a guy coming off his third .300 season and 4 years and 7 double digit home run seasons. Winn used to be a guy a team could pencil to hit .285 to .300, hit double figures in home runs and steal 20 to 30 bases a year.
He still has some speed, he stole 16 bases last season, but Winn’s home runs dropped to just two and he hit just .262 for the Giants in 2009. At the age of 35 is Winn showing his age, or, did he just have a down season?
Whatever the case may be it should be interesting to see whether Winn has enough left to beat out Brett Gardner or Nick Swisher for one of the corner outfield spots or whether he is simply being brought in to be a defensive replacement late in games. Winn is still a good defensive outfielder and is definitely better than Damon or Swisher when it comes to playing defense.
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Sense of interesting!
It’s amazing what a person can find googling around.. I love your articles, and will subscribe to your RSS. Oh yeh, Yankees FTW in 2010! hehe. Sorry, could not resist.