Sergio Mitre will make $850k in 2010; Chad Gaudin will make $2.95mm. The duo currently lines up as the number 7 and 8 starters on the Yankee depth chart, following our Lord Baby Joba and Phil Phranchise Hughes. Mitre is a year removed from Tommy John surgery, so his arm strength should be at a much higher level than it was in ’09. Gaudin came to New York in August and pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 42 innings. His peripherals, however, indicate that he could be in for a drop back to his career norms (4.50 ERA). A 1.45 WHIP (in NY) is ugly, and with some time, now, in the AL, hitters will know how to approach him when they meet next season.
I’ve heard just as much about the Yanks’ $200mm payroll limit as I have about Haiti in the past week. The only difference is that people are doing something for Haiti (Donate if you can. Both MLB and the Yanks have pitched in, so follow their footsteps) whereas nothing is being done to free up money for a possible left field acquisition. The Yanks would do well to free themselves of an overpriced mop-up man, aka Gaudin/Mitre. Mitre’s making south of $1mm, so he isn’t exactly hogging payroll space, but Gaudin isn’t worth $3mm for the Yanks. When I say he isn’t worth $3mm, I’m talking about the marginal benefit he adds over other options for the 7th starter/mop-up role (Mitre, George Kontos, Alf Aceves, Jason Hirsh, Kei Igawa). There’s no reason to pay him $3mm when any of those guys can do the same thing at a similar level for a lesser price (Igawa’s salary is a sunk cost…no chance of shedding it). Other teams could use Gaudin though, and his $3mm price tag is stomach-able for most teams in search of a number 4/5 starter. The Cardinals, Mets, Mariners, Dodgers, and Cardinals could all come calling for Gaudin to add depth and insurance to the back-end of their rotations. The Yanks might even get a B/C level prospect or a low-cost 2nd-string type in return for Chad in addition to the salary relief. an extra $3mm sould, apparently, give them $5mm to spend on left field or to leave room for possible midseason acquisitions.
In baseball, money’s obviously a big part of the game. Some players deserve their salaries because they are that much more valuable than the next best option, but Gaudin isn’t that much better than the next best option; hell, he might not even be better than the guys who could take his spot. So send him on his way. He played as well as the Yanks could’ve hoped once he donned the pinstripes, but his Yankee tenure should be over before Spring Training. Right now, he’s just a bad investment; a small scale Carlos Silva.
