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Report: Yankees ‘Quietly Running Background Check’ on Josh Hamilton

This offseason has been rather un-Yankee-like. That doesn’t mean the Bronx Bombers should be ruled out of anything, though

While the Yankees have been relatively quiet thus far, even losing out on guys like Jeff Keppinger, New York is apparently still doing its due diligence on perhaps the biggest fish in free agency. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Yankees are quietly running a background check on Josh Hamilton.

Nightengale also notes that general manager Brian Cashman isn’t the one doing the check, and that seems to be right in line with a report that surfaced Thursday stating that Cashman lacked the authority to make any sort of deals at the winter meetings.

Considering the massive contract that Hamilton is said to be seeking, the Yankees seem like a long shot to land the five-time All-Star at this point. They’ve made it clear that they’d like to be under baseball’s $189 million luxury tax threshold by 2014, and inking Hamilton to a deal would certainly go against such plans.

That being said, this is still the Yankees we’re talking about.

The #Yankees, but not GM Brian Cashman, quietly running background check on Josh Hamilton, rival GM says

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 7, 2012