Saturday, December 7, 2013

BREAKING: Yankees to sign Carlos Beltran

Just hours after learning that Robinson Cano left to sign with the Seattle Mariners, the Yankees go out and sign another outfielder in Carlos Beltran. The 37 year old is a power hitting switch-hitter whose swing is tailor made for Yankee Stadium. The initial shock of the Yankees front office must have been very strong to have made the Beltran deal hours after learning of Cano leaving for the Mariners. They considered the Cano money as a reserved sum that would have been set aside for Robbie had he decided to stay with the Yankees. However, with $25 million a year freed up, the Yankees figured that they better start signing free agents, and they used Cano's money to sign Carlos Beltran.

Beltran is a power hitter that will thrive in Yankee Stadium. It was Beltran's lifelong dream to play for the New York Yankees and now it is somewhere that he can possibly finish a border-line Hall of Fame career.

However, with Beltran's Bronx welcome comes a problem in the outfield. Jacoby Ellsbury will be playing center field and Carlos Beltran will play right. This means that either Alfonso Soriano or Brett Gardner will play left field with Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki on the bench. Brett Gardner will likely be used as trade-bait for another team needing a player of Gardner's caliber. He can provide a team with stellar defense and speed on the bases with 30 doubles and 10 home runs a year. This is what a possible lineup will look like in 2014 with a healthy offense:

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter SS
Carlos Beltran RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Alfonso Soriano DH
Kelly Johnson 2B
3B ?????
Brett Gardner LF

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