Unfortunately Chad Jennings already spoke to someone with the Yankees, and apparently there have still been no internal discussions about moving Joba back to the rotation. There is literally no reason to keep him in the ‘pen now. As literally every single person on my Twitter feed has noted, the silver lining to this move could (and should) be the rightful move of Joba Chamberlain back to the rotation. The money’s bad, but the greater problem is that Brian Cashman still hasn’t done anything about the gaping hole also known as the Yankees’ fourth and fifth starters. To focus on the positives for a moment, the Yankees’ 8th-9th inning endgame should be quite treacherous for opponents to deal with, although that’s also assuming they’re able to deliver Soriano and Mariano Rivera a lead - no sure thing with the uncertainty in the rotation.Īnd that’s probably the aspect of this deal that I find most critical.

Soriano has been one of the 15 best relievers in the game during the last three seasons, so this isn’t exactly Kyle Farnsworth redux (although it is eerily similar to Steve Karsay, another injury-prone pitcher who happened to be the fifth-best reliever in baseball by fWAR over the three seasons preceding his signing with the Yankees in 2002), but it’s still a pretty ugly deal.

Ovet at It’s About the Money, Stupid, Jason likes Soriano but isn’t wild about losing a draft pick to the Rays. Though I realize I’ll sleep that much easier during the 2011 season. But knowing what we know now, about relievers in general and Soriano specifically, I’m not too excited over this deal. If he stays healthy and locks down the eighth inning before sliding into the closer’s role for the final year of the deal, it might end up working out. It cost them a lot of money relative to his potential contribution, and it cost them the chance to draft a young player. …In Soriano the Yankees get an excellent reliever who can help lockdown the endgame. What bothers me is what this means for the 20 teams. The Yanks might win a few games that they otherwise would have lost, and we will all be a little less irritable the next mornings. This will lead to a greater enjoyment of the 2011 season. The Yankees had plenty of money to spend, and they certainly upgraded the back end of the bullpen. In terms of the 2011 team, there are no complaints. There has to be another shoe yet to drop for this move to make sense. Further, as good as Soriano is, he’s only going to give you somewhere between 60 and 75 innings, and as bad as some of the relievers looked in the 2010 postseason, those innings aren’t going to be so much better than what the holdovers would have delivered that the extra outs really justify the move. Still, the Yankees had good bullpen resources and a lot of additional options for the pen in whichever of their 900 starting prospects they choose to demote from the rotation and groom for middle relief.

Despite this, the worst-case scenario is that they have a very qualified eighth-inning pitcher who can close on the off chance that Mariano Rivera needs to rest/is injured/suddenly pitches his age.

Soriano has a checkered injury history, and there is a better-than-average chance that somewhere in the course of his deal the Yankees will pay him to soak up the post-surgical sun. Steve Goldman at the Pinstriped Bible writes: Some thoughts on the Rafael Soriano signing…

Pinstriped bible