WHY THERE MAY ONLY BE ROOM FOR ONE

It's really impossible to gauge what's going to happen here now that it appears AJ Burnett is a Pittsburgh Pirate, assuming he passes his physical, he should though. But what happens next will be interesting because it has to do with adding a bat and rumors are swirling.
Everyone knows Eric Chavez has been waiting in the wings for the Yankees to unload AJ Burnett and then turn around quickly and sign Chavez, a great defensive to Alex Rodriguez as well as a nice bat at the plate. Then, of course we read about the Yankees interest in 39 year old Raul Ibanez. This guy has the numbers that are made for Yankee Stadium, plus he can play the outfield and is a great bench addition. But what the hell's really going to happen? No one knows...even if they say they do... no one really knows.

The news is moving fast and furious and let's face it... it's called "rumor" for a reason. For instance, Joel Sherman of the New York Post has a Tweet HERE that suggested the Yankees would sign both Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez with the money left over from the Burnett deal. For the record, I said that too... HERE. It's easy to conclude, you don't have to make too many phone calls to figure that one out.Then today, Sherman had a change of heart, now suggesting the Yankees may sign 1 but not the other. Read HERE. Let's be honest, I'm telling you this, not to annoy you, but to state a simple point, NO ONE KNOWS. Would you rather have confirmed information when a deal happens or just have rumor after rumor happen and then, in the end, something else totally different happens anyway? You know what I mean? I don't like confusion, I like confirmation.

Let me state what I think is and should happen. The Yankees should, once the Pirates-Burnett deal is official Tuesday (Read HERE), turn around and nail down Eric Chavez for $1 million. You really can't go higher on that price tag considering that while Chavez was good for us in 2011
( 42-160, .260 AVG, 7 2B, 26 RBIs ), he was also hurt a lot of the season. That hurts his contract and I can bet you even Eric Chavez knows that.

Then the Yankees should reach our to Ibanez, if that's who they want, and tell him that at 39 years old on the downside of his career, $1 million should be his contract number, AND, if certain incentives are met, they'll, throw a few more dollars at him based on that. That's it... that's all I would do.
Now back to what I said a moment ago. "... once the Pirates-Burnett deal is official Tuesday..." That's right,I said Tuesday. The world thought the deal would be done today, Sunday, but according to Wally Matthews of ESPN, it won't happen today. Why? well, according to Matthews:

"The Yankees and Pirates are in full agreement on the terms of the A.J. Burnett deal, but they still need the approval of Big Brother Bud Selig before Burnett officially becomes a Buc. That approval was not given Friday night -- the deal was finalized too late in the day for that -- and a source deeply involved in the negotiations told me last night that the official Selig Stamp of Approval would probably not come before Monday afternoon or perhaps Tuesday.

The reason is the Commissioner's office, which must approve all deals in which large amounts of cash are involved, will wait until Burnett passes his Pirates physical, which he will take Sunday morning at their training camp in Bradenton. The results generally take a day or so to come in."

It actually makes sense. So yes, when it's official, I believe my plan to sign Chavez and Ibanez makes sense. How can I be so sure? I believe it's simple thinking and to be honest, I'm not going to sit here and lie to my readers because a "source" may or may not have told me that.

So yeah,once this is done, the Yankees can sit back and smile knowing they saved some money, they made their team and we can all move forward. Agreed? Otherwise, all this guessing crap needs to stop. Yankee fans want the sure thing, not the hurry up and wait.

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