Via Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York:
It doesn’t appear that there has been any movement in Johnny Damon returning to the Yankees, but his agent, Scott Boras, said that Damon is still interested in coming back.
“As Johnny has said, he is more than willing to return to New York,” Boras said.
It sounds like Johnny Damon wants to come back to the Bronx, or he at least wants their money, but the Yankees aren’t interested in him. Or at least they’re not interested in him yet.
What that means is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in Damon. He’s more or less a DH who can play outfield, but the problem is that there are a lot of available DHs on the market. So he’s trying to drum up interest in himself.
The thing is that the Yankees don’t need a left-handed hitting DH who can occasionally play outfield. They need an Andrew Jones or Scott Hairston type—a right-handed hitting outfielder who can spell Brett Gardner or Curtis Granderson against tough lefties.
So Damon is desperate for a job, but he’s not what the Yankees are looking for. Realistically, the way this reunion is likely to happen is if the Yankees miss out on free agents like Jones and Hairston and have to turn to Damon as a last resort.
Or maybe if Damon wants to be a Yankee so badly that he reaches out to them with a very cheap option. We are talking $1 million or less here for them to really consider it, and looking back at the money grab Damon made last year, this isn’t likely.
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