The 2009 world champions have a handful of decisions to make and, as usual, should be active over the course of the coming months.
Given that everything the Yankees do can have an effect on the Red Sox, here are the top 10 offseason chores for New York/
1. Re-sign Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera
A shortstop going on 37 and coming off the worst year of his career may not be appealing to some, but the Yankees will bring back the free agent Jeter because, well, how could they not? Perhaps the back end of whatever contract he gets will see him play another position, but this is the shortstop in the Bronx, and an expensive one at that, for the foreseeable future. Finding a number in terms of years and dollars on which both sides can agree is in some ways a mere formality, but in many ways the key to the offseason.
As far as the 40-year-old Rivera is concerned, the performance has not suffered one bit. In fact, he improved in some categories this season, lowering his WHIP to a miniscule 0.83. Rivera’s innings pitched have fallen each of the last six years but he is deserving of another three or so.
2. Re-sign Joe Girardi
Even after the flameout against the Rangers the Yankees are 16-8 in the postseason under Girardi. He has his detractors, but anyone will in New York and Girardi appears unfazed by it all. A long-term extension is in order, and perhaps a Chalupa.
3. Determine Andy Pettitte’s future
Like Rivera, until the Yankees see a severe drop-off in performance there is no need to turn their back on one of their all-time greats. Pettitte had a groin injury which took away two months of his season but he was in the midst of one of his best campaigns ever when it happened and performed extremely well in two postseason starts. As has been the case for a handful of years now, Pettitte will decide between family in Texas and continuing to play in New York. If the money is right he may keep playing, and the Yankees can ill afford to lose depth to an already lean starting rotation.
4. Go hard after Cliff Lee
We know they have the money but the Yankees may have as much a need for another quality starter as any contender out there. The drop-off after CC Sabathia was severely steep in the second half of the season and Lee’s performance in the postseason has to have New York brass drooling.
If Pettitte leaves and A.J. Burnett fails to rebound then Phil Hughes, who struggled after the All-Star break and in the playoffs, is your No. 2 starter — not exactly the best-case scenario for a $200-million team.
5. Fix the catching corps
Jorge Posada is another Yankees legend but a marginal catcher and he’ll be 39 next year. The number of games he has played at designated hitter bumped up to a career-high 28 this season and that number could double in 2011. But it’s not as if the backup is the answer. Francisco Cervelli can hit for average but has no power and was among the worst defensive catchers in the American League (along with Posada) with a league high-tying 13 errors in only 90 games, and a success rate of just 14 percent when throwing out runners. Posada nailed only 15 percent of would-be base stealers. Essentially, the tandem was a liability at times.
The Yanks will likely go into the year with these two as their primary backstops, but improvement in some areas would help them deal with such a scenario.
6. Retain Kerry Wood
A setup man making $11 million may sound asinine but the Yanks have an option to pay Wood that much and keep him next year. Given how he performed in front of Rivera and how difficult it has been for teams to retain quality bullpen help in recent years, it may be worth it. Wood was 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA in 24 games with New York. If the club lets him walk it better have a backup plan.
7. Find a role for Joba Chamberlain
That backup plan might include Chamberlain, who has performed in every role on the pitching staff the past two years with the exception of closer. But the way in which he pitched while setting up Rivera early in the year left something to be desired.
Still, Chamberlain remains young (25) and actually improved in several categories this year, lowering his ratios of hits, home runs and walks per nine innings and posting the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career. If he keeps making such progress he would be a dynamic middle reliever, but is that where he is best suited?
8. Decide on a DH
Nick Johnson was brought into the fold last offseason with the hope that if he was a full-time DH he would avoid the injury bug that has plagued him throughout his career. It didn’t matter. Johnson was done roughly a month into the season and the Yanks spent the remainder of the year rotating players (12 in all) in the DH spot.
Johnson will likely take up his $5.5 million option and the club will hold its breath once more. But they should be prepared for his inevitable DL stint.
9. Hope and pray on A.J.
Regardless of whether they win the Cliff Lee sweepstakes or not, the Yankees are stuck with A.J. Burnett for another $16.5 million, a princely sum for a guy who was all over the place in 2010. Although Burnett’s first season in New York was not completely out of this world, seeing him come close to that form (13-9, 4.04 ERA) would make the club feel a whole lot better about its rotation.
10. Lean on Alfredo
A forgotten member of the pitching staff and a veritable unknown to many, Alfredo Aceves had quietly developed into Joe Girardi’s all-everything man. He could spot start (3.42 ERA in five career starts), perform mop-up duty or long relief (always a key commodity when you have an offense that can erase almost any deficit) and even act as the bridge to Rivera when the rest of the bullpen was taxed.
The Yankees are 36-23 in games in which Aceves has appeared in his career and he is 13-1 over the past two seasons. Many of those were “vulture” wins, but Aceves seemed to specialize in picking them up. He missed most of the season with a back injury and it represented a small but important hole in the bullpen.
