“The sh#$’s chess, it ain’t checkers.”  Its all part of a plan.  Matsui decided he couldn’t wait.  The Yankees wanted to see where the Damon discussion went before the agreed with Matsui.  Would they have brought him back for $1M more than they are paying Johnson, most likely, but Matsui was on a different schedule and wanted a deal done now.  My guess is the Yankees know how bad those knees are and were content to let Matsui go.  Johnson is an onbase percentage machine (career .402 OBP) and absolutely eats up pitches.  He will let Tex and A-Rod see everything a pitcher has to offer.  Totally works on the top of the order. 

As for Damon, as Mike noted, the Yankees apparently offered 2 for $14 (a little low) and then didn’t respond to a 2 for $20 offer.  I think that is all press to make the Yanks look bad.  Word on the street (according to Michael Kay’s radio show on Friday) was that Damon told the Yankees offer me $13M per year or don’t offer anything.  If the Yankees are going to pay that, they might as well go after Holliday (which still may be the Ninja move).  Right now the Lineup projects like this:

  1. Jeter (ss)
  2. Johnson (DH)
  3. Teixeira (1B)
  4. Rodriguez (3B)
  5. Granderson (CF)
  6. Posada (c)
  7. Cano (2B)
  8. Swisher (RF)
  9. Cabrera (LF)

That’s pretty potent, even without Damon.  The move they need is to fill out the rotation with a high reward project like Justin Duscherer (who I prefer over NL import project Ben Sheets).