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Randy Winn, 35, has signed a contract with the New York Yankees.  The signing of Winn at $2 million could be the biggest sign to date that a reunion of Johnny Damon and the Yankees is not in the cards.

Of course until Damon does sign elsewhere there will always be those rumors.

Winn finished his fifth year in San Fransisco with a .262/.318./353 line with a career low 2 home runs. He is still known as a good defensive outfielder and can offer some team speed with steal totals of 16, 25 and 15 over the last three seasons.

Not known for his power Winn has been able to hit and walk his way on base to be a productive member of a ball club. In 12 big league seasons he has a career .344 OBP including .353 and .363 in 2007 and 2008 while with the Giants.

In New York he figures to share the left field job with Brent Gardner likely seeing the majority of his playing time against right handed pitching.

The combination of Garnder and Winn likely would bat at the bottom of the order.

Brian Cashman and the Yankees held firm with Damon and agent Scott Boras insisting they would only sign the outfielder to a deal worth $2 million.

For what it’s worth the Oakland A’s are still believed to be interested in Damon at a lesser salary. Boras and David O’Brien have done a good job of keeping the option of Atlanta in the press and the Detroit Tigers have reemerged as a possible destination over the last week.

If the Yankees are indeed out of the running for Damon then his anticipated contract for 2010 drops dramatically. The Yankees were the one team that was believed to be able to pay $4-5 million for Damon. It’s possible that Damon may end up signing for the same amount as Winn has. That would have been unbelievable

at the start of this winter.

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On and off again this winter we have heard that Johnny Damon and the New York Yankees haven’t been talking about bringing the outfielder back. Damon had been wanting a three year deal from the Yankees worth in excess of $10 million annually.

The 36-year-old had a tremendous 2009 season, finishing with a .282/.365/.489 batting line, 24 home runs, 82 RBI and 107 runs scored in 550 at-bats.

With Hideki Matsui signed by the Angels and Melky Cabrera traded to the Braves the Yankees currently have Brent Garnder listed atop the depth chart in left field. Gardner finished last year hitting .270/.345/.379 with 3 homers, 23 RBI, and 48 runs scored while stealing 26 bases last year.

That alone has many believing that despite Damon, his agent Scott Boras and the Yankees not talking that something will eventually get done to bring him back to the Bronx.

Brian Cashman and the Yankees front office either have little interest in bringing back Damon or they have played their cards excellently to avoid paying him a huge contract. With the number of teams interested in Damon dwindling his value has also went down. Leaving some to suspect that the Yankees will now swoop in and sign him.

It’s been back and forth between Mark Bowman of MLB.com and David O’Brien of the AJC to whether the Braves are seriously looking at Damon. Damon to Atlanta would be great for the Braves as it would allow them to put him in left field which would allow Jason Heyward to stay in the minors and get needed at-bats he’s missed since his latest string of injuries.

Last winter Bobby Abreu signed a $5 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. It may take that to happen for the Braves to have a real shot at him. Though some believe the Braves may only be able to sign Damon should he fall in the range of $1-2 million, a number no one can truly see him falling to. For example Colby Lewis recently got $5 million over 2 years and he spent the last two years in Japan after no success in the majors. There’s simply no way Damon gets paid less then Colby Lewis.

The Detroit Tigers were linked to Damon in the last few days but management denied they were even considering him. Considering the Tigers are financially stressed and have been looking for at-bats for Ryan Raburn it’s easy to see why these two aren’t a pair.

There’s always the chance he could join the New York Mets but Boras and the Mets are at odds over Carlos Beltran’s recent surgery.

One thing is for sure. We haven’t heard the end of this one.

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If the report of Ken Davidoff of Newsday is to be believed then the Bronx Bombers are in the mist of finalizing a one year deal worth $5.5 million with former first-baseman Nick Johnson.

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