In addition to the Jesus Montero trade for Michael Pineda, the Yankees signed Hiroki Kuroda.
A person familiar with the deal tells The Associated Press that free agent right-hander Hiroki Kuroda has agreed to a $10 million, one-year contract with the New York Yankees.
Kuroda showed great control in his four seasons with the Dodgers. Although Dodger Stadium tends to favor pitchers, the batting lines against him were nearly identical home and road, which may bode well for him pitching in Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees rotation now looks like CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Kuroda, Freddy Garcia and either Phil Hughes or A.J. Burnett. My guess is the next deal will move A.J. to another team, accompanied by most of his salary.
Update: Sorry, I left out Ivan Nova from the rotation. I suppose if Phil and Ivan both have good spring, Garcia might take a long relief role.
Nova would be the fourth starter.
How do they move Burnett’s salary to another team, given his performance over the last couple of years?
I think David meant they would send his salary along with him. That is, they’d send the money too.
James » Yes, that is what I meant.
Hughes to the BP and they dump AJ and eat most of his contract.
Giving 500 AB to weak hitting backup IF’ers so A-Rod and Jeter can DH makes no sense, so maybe they sign someone like Carlos Pena to get some AB’s and give Teixeira some more AB at DH.