Yankees decline arbitration to Abreu

[piccione88]

According to John Heyman the Yankees have declined to offer outfielder Bobby Abreu arbitration. This is a suprise, Abreu is coming off of a solid year, posting a line of 296/371/471 over 684 PA.

 

Also in the article, Heyman says that the Yankees declined to offer Petitte, and Mussina who has said he is retired.

[ILuvDaBush]

They must be feeling the pinch of our economy finally. :-)

[RyDogg66]

Id make Abreu target #1 for the offensive fix.

[mothershipconnection]

If I didn't think Hart would bounce back somewhat and we'd be dumping him for half price now, I'd be all about landing Abreu.

[PeaveyFury]

Abreu makes a ton of sense if we decide to move Hart for pitching or trade Cameron (though Hart in center could be scary).

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

SIGN SIGN SIGN!

 

He's LH too isn't he? He'd be a perfect 5 hitter behind Prince, or if we're going with the R/L/R/L, put Abreu 3rd, Braun 4th, and Fielder 5th. His .371 OBP would be mighty nice ahead of our two big boppers. Signing Abreu and resigning Sheets (one year) would make me very optimistic heading into this year.

 

I almost wouldn't care what we get for Hart, maybe somebody (even a platoon player) for 3B?

 

Weeks Hardy Abreu Braun Fielder Cameron/3B/Kendall

 

Sheets, Yo, Parra, Bush, Soup

[trwi7]

He's LH too isn't he? He'd be a perfect 5 hitter behind Prince, or if we're going with the R/L/R/L, put Abreu 3rd, Braun 4th, and Fielder 5th. His .371 OBP would be mighty nice ahead of our two big boppers.

If we did sign him I'm guessing the lineup would go Weeks/Abreu/Braun/Fielder/Hardy 1-5.

[colbyjack]

They must be feeling the pinch of our economy finally.

 

Yeah, no kidding, I'm surprised that they didn't offer any of their players arby. Having crazy amounts of money that allows a team to be confident with such decisions is what allowed them to get so many extra draft picks for so long, but it does appear they are intent on cleaning house to a certain degree.

 

I like Abreu, and I agree he's the perfect type of hitter the Brewers lineup needs. However, his defense is really bad. Any proposal moving Hart to CF and moving Cameron to another team would be significantly weakening the OF defense, and is not a move in the right direction for the Brewers.

[shelmark]

Meet the new Cubs RF...

[paul253]

I agree with Rydogg, I'd make him a top priority. You wanna fix your OBO and your lack of lefthanded hitters problem, he is a step towards solving them both. We arent going to sign Sabathia, and we lose Gagne's $10 million, so why not? Im sure trading Cameron or Hart wont be too difficult...hell if i could get one decent pitching prospect for Cameron after signing Abreu I'd do it in a heartbeat. Sign Abreu, Sheets, and two bullpen arms and, along with a trade of either Hart or Cameron (preferably Cameron) for a starting prospect, and I'd be more than satisfied with the offseason, even if it means a Hall/Lamb platoon at third base.

[JohnBriggs12]

Those players like Abreu who did not get offered arby immediately got more expensive to sign. Abreu will be out of the Brewers reach dollar wise.

 

Now those that did get offered arby like a Ibanez will be in less demand and therefore, likely cheaper.

 

Either way, in draft picks or in money, you are going to pay a big price for decent free agents. In the situation the Brewers are in with likely multiple picks from both Sabathia and Sheets, they can probably afford to give up some picks if it saves them some cash for one arby-offered FA.

 

A little more under the radar and probably a lot cheaper than Abreu, is Garrett Anderson, who was not offered arby by the Angels. He would require some defensive manuevering and I know the OBP guys wouldn't be thrilled, but he fits the bill of a professional lefthanded bat.

[RyDogg66]

To be honest, we have Hart for three more seasons in RF, and he has shown that he isnt ready to sign an extension. To me this is an easy call. Id sign Abreu to a 2 year deal with a mutual option for a third and trade Corey HArt for a pitching prospect. Corey Hart, for all his warts this past season was an all star, is fast, young, cheap, etc. etc. Maybe trade HIM to the Yankees for a pitcher, or the Giants for Johnathon Sanchez. Id rather have Abreu in RF than Hart.

[Invader3K]

Anyone have any idea on what kind of numbers Abreu could get? I suspect he will get a high dollar per year figure, but it might be only a two or three year deal.

[brewjihad]

For what it's worth, Abreu is a pretty terrible defensive right fielder these days by most metrics. Some AL teams might want him as a DH. He'd be a nice bat to add, but it should be considered that he has negative defensive value.

[endaround]

Yeah Abreu isn't a RFer anymore and his bat doesn't work that well at LF. Add in his power delcine (ISOs of .164, .162, and.176 last three seasons) and I fear he has a decent chance of completely falling off a cliff.

[Thurston Fluff]

I think some people are giving up on Hart way to early. He is one year removed from having a better OPS than Abreu had the previous two and very close (ten points) to Abreu's career OPS. Add in the difference in defense and I don't see how he adds much over Hart. He would cost a lot more and the chances of him getting better is far smaller than Hart who is 8 years younger and has just started his major league career.

Granted Hart had a down year this year but it was only his second year as a full time player.

[PeaveyFury]

Keep in mind that it's not so much giving up on Hart as it is being willing to trade him for the rotation arm that we're going to desperately need in 09 if Sheets isn't back.

[sheetskout]

The Yankees must have been SUPER-AFRAID to offer him arbitration. What pick? There was no pick! -Seinfeld

[ILuvDaBush]

What about moving Corey to center provisionally? Double switch him to right and put in Jr. Gwynny to man center? Obviously a trade of Cameron would be necessary, and really, are Cameron's contributions on a 1/$10M worth less than what it would take to sign Abreu? Is it so wrong to imagine Cameron could put up an .875OPS next year, free of the 25-game cloud?

[Thurston Fluff]

Keep in mind that it's not so much giving up on Hart as it is being willing to trade him for the rotation arm that we're going to desperately need in 09 if Sheets isn't back.

 

I understand that but I don't see the outfield depth as so great with cheap talent that it makes any sense at all to trade a viable young player if we have to replace him with a more expensive player. especially when said player that will provide little if any upgrade there. Why not just sign a free agent pitcher with that money and keep the cheaper younger guy we already have? If someone comes asking for Hart in particular and are willing to give us a player we feel is better than he is or fits the team better no problem. I just don't think shopping Hart for pitching with the idea of signing Abreu makes a whole heck of a lot of sense financially or performance wise.

[fondybrewfan]

Is there any kind of estimation at what it would cost to sign Abreu? Abreu has been a pretty good player who has played virtually every games the last 2 years, but he isn't young anymore and I would think he is lookinf for atleast 3+ years. Can we really afford to sign him at his current worth while having a ton of players entering arby shortly? If we do sign him, Cam would be as good as gone because of his salary and that wouldn't exactly help out our defense either.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah Abreu isn't a RFer anymore and his bat doesn't work that well at LF. Add in his power delcine (ISOs of .164, .162, and.176 last three seasons) and I fear he has a decent chance of completely falling off a cliff.

 

At this point, Abreu is horrible in the field. Horrible. This cannot be overstated enough. Plus I think that others are right in that he'll be pricier since he won't cost comp. picks. I think he'd be best used with a team that has a DH spot & needs a one-year boost in OBP. At best he certainly should only be expected to sustain his offensive production. Although that's solid, I think overall he would be about a wash for an NL team.

[RyDogg66]

So pretty much every player than can hit is a DH these days. Dunn, Abreu, Fielder....in house options Salome, Gamel. Whatever happened to guys, I dont know, playing defense? So frustrating not being able to compete with AL clubs for good hitters. It is no wonder the AL has been dominant the past 12 years.

[endaround]

Dunn's actually better than most think, which tells you how bad most LFers really are. PMRs have him at average.

[TooLiveBrew]

Whatever happened to guys, I dont know, playing defense?

 

That's an interesting point, RyDogg. I know people (iirc Ennder) have pointed out that the Moneyball strategy is now to focus on defense. Once the 'marketplace' starts to reward the undervalued trait a bit, I think players might start to concentrate a bit more on defense. With Abreu, his defensive problems now are almost entirely due to aging, but there certainly are players that just don't seem to care about or want to work much on defense.

 

Dunn isn't horrid in LF, but as he ages he certainly will be.