Yankees sign outfielder Randy Winn

San Francisco Giants Photo DayRandy 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.

John Boarman
John Boarmanhttp://www.tireball.com
Founder and Owner of Tireball Sports.

Recent News

3,411FansLike
1,105FollowersFollow