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Monday, July 31, 2006
By BOB KLAPISCH
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Pen in hand, ready to write another big, fat check to a 30-something star, the
Yankees did it again. They bought themselves another championship at the ex-
pense of their future.
Right?
Not exactly.
The deal for Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle represents a slick combination that
upgrades the 2006 and 2007 teams without stripping the farm system. For that,
general manager Brian Cashman emerged as the short-term victor on Sunday over
Pat Gillick, his Phillies' counterpart. In Abreu, the Yankees now have the mus-
cle they need to keep up with the Red Sox (and White Sox and Twins in the wild-
card race) and in Lidle they are adding a semi-trustworthy fifth starter who's
at least better than Sidney Ponson and Shawn Chacon.
The key to this deal was Cashman's refusal to surrender prospects Phil Hughes,
a Class AA right-hander, and Jose Tabata, a Class A outfielder, as well as
holding onto Scott Proctor and Melky Cabrera. Cashman called it "an agonizing
process" but nevertheless choreographed the best late-season add-on since David
Justice carried the Yankees to the World Series in 2000.
Even more impressive is that Abreu didn't force the Yankees to pick up his 2008
option -- a savings of $14 million after he gets his $2 million buyout. That
means the Yankees will be free of Abreu as he reaches his 34th birthday, and is
most likely to have begun declining. The final coup is that the Phillies, not
the Yankees, were the ones who coughed up $1.5 million for Abreu to waive his
no-trade clause.
How did this swap become so one-sided? The Phillies actually had little room to
maneuver, given Abreu's strong preference to play for the Yankees. That forced
Gillick to cave into Cashman's demands in what turned out to be a pure salary
dump. And once again, it was the Yankees who were ready to take on another
massive contract en route to the postseason.
But unlike the payroll-padding of past years, the difference is that the
Bombers have some $35 million coming off the books this winter, including Gary
Sheffield's $13 million. In essence, they're swapping Sheffield for Abreu next
year, gaining a player who's five years younger with a better on-base percent-
age. The risk, of course, is that Abreu is unproven in the postseason (he has
just three career at-bats in October) and more recently stopped hitting home
runs in the Phillies' launching pad of a ballpark.
While it's true Abreu has a keen eye for strikes -- he has 91 walks this year
-- there's no guarantee he'll be anything other than a competent No. 6 hitter,
where his ability to get on base is less of a factor than in the heart of the
order.
Still, Abreu will be more productive than Bernie Williams and Aaron Guiel, and
his addition brings Cabrera one step closer to his most useful station in the
Yankee universe, as the fourth outfielder.
Lidle, meanwhile, is a control/finesse pitcher who relies heavily on his split-
ter for groundouts. That's usually a recipe for disaster in the American League
, especially for a pitcher migrating from the National League. But the Yankees
are comforted by the fact that Lidle has AL experience (Devil Rays, A's and
Blue Jays from 1999-2003) and had his best year in 2001 in Oakland, going 13-6
with a 3.59 ERA.
Interestingly, Cashman said he insisted on getting Lidle, who will be a free
agent after this season. The Yankees' need for an additional starter has never
been greater, given the five-game series in Fenway in two weeks, not to mention
Randy Johnson's stunningly bad performance against Tampa Bay on Saturday.
Although the Unit insists his historically balky back is fine, there's every
reason to believe the left-hander pitched in pain for most of the afternoon,
when he allowed six runs in 31/3 innings, failing to strike out anyone.
The Phillies could've done better than simply throwing Lidle into the deal with
the Yankees (the Red Sox had expressed strong interest), but Gillick obviously
wanted to wash his hands of predecessor Ed Wade's imbalanced and overpriced
contracts.
Gillick is betting everything on the long-term payout of C.J. Henry, the
Yankees' Class A Charleston shortstop and a former first-round draft pick whom
the Bombers chose instead of St. John's right-hander Craig Hansen, now with the
Red Sox.
To a lesser extent, the Phillies are counting on Matt Smith, who pitched at
Class AAA Columbus and spent time on the Yankees' major league roster, too. The
Yankees insist they had high hopes for Henry, but they were privately dis-
appointed at how poorly he was hitting in a low-A league – just .237. Only 20,
Henry obviously still has time to blossom, but some baseball people were saying
Sunday the Yankees' decision to trade him was a wise one.
Similarly, giving up the left-handed Smith, a 27-year-old career minor-leaguer,
hardly upsets the team's blueprint for the future.
In every respect, it appears the Yankees are slam-dunk winners today. Abreu has
star power, a winning personality and a stated willingness to play in New York.
The Yankees have climbed to No. 2 in the American League in runs without Matsui
, Sheffield and Robinson Cano. By adding Abreu, and projecting the return of
all three injured players, the Bombers almost certainly will become the offens-
ive machine they dreamed about this spring.
What that means once they get to October is anyone's guess, but in the meantime
the Yankees' path to the postseason just got a little shorter.
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