Via Jon Heyman, the Yankees have interest in free agent lefty reliever Mike Gonzalez. If you frequent our weekly chats, then you know I’ve been predicting Gonzalez will be the lefty specialist the Yankees waste $4M on next season for about three months now. He’ll step right into Damaso Marte’s vacant “bad lefty reliever” spot on the roster.
In all seriousness, the 33-year-old southpaw is coming off knee surgery and has held left-handed batters to a .241/.293/.350 batting line with 36 strikeouts, eight unintentional walks, and a ~46% ground ball rate in 148 plate appearances over the last two seasons. He missed most of last season with two small tears in his rotator cuff and fraying in his labrum, and was regularly booed off the mound for the Orioles. For what it’s worth, Gonzalez is also a very close friend of Rafael Soriano’s from their time with the Braves. He’s no better bet than any other lefty reliever on the market, though.
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