Yankees Blog

The Yankees have declined their 2009 options on first baseman Jason Giambi and right-hander Carl Pavano, officially making both players free agents.

This was no surprise that this was going to happen. The only suprise is that it took them this long to cut Pavano. Carl Pavano may go down as one of the biggest Yankee Free Agent busts in the history of the franchise. Pavano was injured all the time, and in 4 years with the Yankees, he only appeared in 26 games and had a 9-8 record with a 5.00 era.

On the other hand, It is kind of sad to see Giambi leave, as he was a very likeable player, and been on the team since 2002. Although he never reached the numbers which he put together for Oakland, he still had quite a few big homers for the Yanks. The 37-year-old Giambi completed his seventh season in New York, batting .247 with 19 doubles, 32 home runs and 96 RBIs in 145 games.

“His option year was so big, number wise,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in Dana Point, Calif., where the annual GM meetings concluded their first official day of business. “We certainly love Jason, he’s been you know a pleasure to have as a Yankee.

“And it doesn’t mean we won’t the opportunity going forward to have him be a Yankee, but the option number was such a large number that this was a no-brainer because of that. He’s in the free-agent market and obviously we have an opportunity to still pursue him. Now 29 other clubs will have the opportunity to pursue him. The option number being as large as it was kind of forced our hand to make this move. It wasn’t a hard decision.”

Posted in Yankee News, Yankee Baseball |

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