Jon Morosi of FOXSports.com reports that the Yankees are “interested in free agent Asdrubal Cabrera to play second base but continue to say they have a tight budget.”
The idea of the Yankees having a “tight budget” is amusing, although certainly general manager Brian Cashman has taken a more passive approach to big-ticket items in free agency recently. With that said, a tight budget for the Yankees and a tight budget for most other teams are probably much different things and it seems far-fetched that they wouldn’t have the spending power to land a mediocre free agent like Cabrera.
At age 30 he’s failed to crack a .750 OPS in any of the past three seasons, but did have a solid 2015 as the Rays’ starting shortstop by hitting .265 with 15 homers and a .744 OPS in 143 games. Cabrera is a switch-hitter with some pop who can play shortstop or second base and last offseason his price tag was a one-year, $7.5 million deal.
