Done Deals?

After a lot of speculation recently, it appears the Yankees are on the verge of completing a number of things. The first, and most important of these deals is the Randy Johnson to Arizona affair. Dan Benton over at MVN's Off the Facade is reporting that the Yankees will announce before week's end that they have sent Big Unit to the D'Backs in exchange for Brandon Medders, Dustin Nippert, and Micah Owings. I was hoping for Ross Ohlendorf, but if Nippert can straighten his recent problems out, he is a potential monster.

I recently detailed the prospects involved in the bulk of the speculation swirling around. The addition of Nippert and Owings give us the following AAA ready talent:

Phil Hughes
Humberto Sanchez
Dustin Nippert
Micah Owings
Tyler Clippard
Darrell Rasner
Jeff Karstens
Steve White

That rotation may be better than a number of Major League staffs. Do the Royals put out thatcaliber rotation now? Tampa Bay? Pittsburgh? The problem now is an overabundance of pitching at the AAA level. At this point, you may see one of these players win a Major League job out of Spring Training unless Clemens decides to come back to start the year. It also opens the possibility that Cashman can package a few of the players here for a top flight Major League pitcher. Johan Santana has been bandied about, but he's not going anywhere this year. The Twins won the Central last season, and will try to do so again this year. Zambrano? Matt Cain?

The addition of Brandon Medders has also fostered speculation that Kyle Farnsworth will be sent packing. I don't know that this is true, but it certainly makes for good rumor mill grist. Medders turns 27 this month. He has a 151 ERA+ in 102 Major League innings. In that time he's posted a not very outstanding 2.00 K/BB ratio, and only registers a 6.88 K/9 rate. His minor league numbers were a lot nicer, and probably have given him that "potential" label to this point in his career. At 27 years old, as a reliever, it has to happen soon or it will never happen at all. We'll see. I wouldn't get rid of Farnsy just yet.

When this deal goes down, I'll talk about it a bit more and speculate on what it means for 2007 and beyond.

The other news of the day is the word that the Yankees are closer to a deal with Doug Mientkiewicz to play 1st. Since that's been the official word for weeks now, I assume that should the Yankees get any closer to Doug Mientkiewicz they may have to buy him dinner. I hate the idea of playing his backup catcheresque hitting everyday just to get a league average glove at first. I know it's likely that they are toying with the idea of playing Josh Phelps against lefties, and Mientkiewicz against righties. Whatever. If it happens, it happens. What about Andy Phillips? Does he end up in a package with the pitchers at AAA? Does he get bumped from the Big League roster. If I were Andy Phillips right now, I'd be looking for a new address ASAP.

There's no word recently about Mark Loretta as our utility infielder. If the Yankees can make that deal, I'd be ecstatic. He's got a career .299/.363/.402 batting line with a 101 OPS+ to his name. I know he wants a starting gig somewhere, but the Yankees could really use him and get him plenty of at bats. Being an everyday player is the most important thing to a guy with his level of accomplishment, so I can see some difficulty in adding him as a bench player, but as a Yankee fan I think our bench would suddenly be a great deal more solid with Loretta. At this point in his career, it's hard to plug him in everday at his declining ability. As a bench player he has top flight value.