The New York Yankees have finally added the righty-hitting outfielder they have been searching for, and it's a familiar face.

Marcus Thames, who came up through the Yankees' system before a 2003 trade sent him to the Texas Rangers, has agreed to a split contract with New York that will pay him $900,000 if he makes the major league roster.

Thames, soon to be 33, made $2.275 million last season in the final year of his contract with the Detroit Tigers.

The agreement comes on the day when New York's deal with outfielder Randy Winn became official, and the two agreements are tied together for more reasons than that.

Winn, who it was reported had agreed to a $2 million one-year deal with New York, actually is only guarantee $1.1 million with another $900,000 possible through incentives. It's a safe bet that those incentives are bases on plate appearances and/or games started that would only come if Winn is a near full time player.

It had been reported for many weeks that the Yankees had $2 million to spend on their final outfield spot (left field). If Winn becomes a full time player, the Yanks spent their $2 million.

If Thames makes the team and platoons left field with Winn, the Yankees spent the same $2 million, but on two players -- $1.1 million for Winn and $900 for Thames.

Such a platoon would accomplish a couple of things:
1) It would allow the Yankees to hold Brett Gardner in reserve as a premium late-inning pinch runner/defensive upgrade.
2) It would take advantage of the very best of both Winn and Thames, at least based on last season.

Winn -- a switch hitter -- performed much better against right-handed pitching in 2009 than he did against lefty pitching, while Thames -- a straight righty hitter -- performed better against lefties than he did against righties.

Winn vs. Righties: .292 avg., .354 obp, .397 slg%, .751 OPS.
Thames vs. Lefties: .257 avg., .347 obp, .457 slg%, .804 OPS.

Just hours after the New York Yankees agreed to terms with outfielder Randy Winn, officially ending Johnny Damon's chances of a return to the Bronx, agent Scott Boras is trying like hell to save some face.

It began earlier today with word that a clearly desperate Boras was trying like hell to engage any team that would pick up the phone to listen on Damon. Specifically, the Tigers and Braves were mentioned.

Now, hours after Boras got nowhere with those teams - at least not anywhere close to where he was hoping to go - Boras is making some public claims about what the Yankees did NOT do for his client during the offseason.

"The Yankees never even made an offer to me regarding Johnny Damon during the entire process," says Boras.

It would appear Mr. Boras and his client are not on the same page. Just last month, Damon himself told reporters that the Yankees had offered a two-year deal for $14 million.

So why the discrepancy???

I'll tell you why. Because Scott Boras screwed up BIG TIME when he, seemingly laughingly, dismissed that offer from New York, and now he's trying like hell to save face (and maybe the loss of a client).

Additionally, as GM Brian Cashman just reminded everybody, don't forget that it was Damon and Boras who very publicly and forcefully stated their completely-out-of-touch-with-reality demands.

"On Dec. 17, Scott's exact words were that 'he would not take a penny less than $13 million a year for two years,' " Cashman said. "We believed him."

And Cashman didn't stop there, throwing even more dirt in the face of Boras.

"Boras told me I wouldn't find a No. 2 hitter for less than $13 million," Cashman continued. "I found one (Nick Johnson) for half that."

Now Boras wants to play the role of victim, crying about the Yankees "never made an offer," and doing so in a way that suggests New York did not want Damon back and was not interested in even trying to bring him back.

It's all a bunch of classic Scott Boras C.Y.A. B.S.

It would seem that Boras and Damon are poor poker players. All the betting has been done. Everybody at the table knows they're bluffing, and they keep trying to re-bluff the same losing hand, as if they're going to convince somebody to pull their chips back.


and yes, I will miss Damon. =/

Tickets for Yankees' 2010 Spring Training home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa go on sale today, Jan. 15 at 10 AM ET on yankees.com. The Yankees will play a 33-game Grapefruit League schedule including 16 home games.

In addition, the Yankees will play a home exhibition game against their minor league stars in their spring training finale on Sat., April 3, in which all fans in attendance will receive a commemorative championship ring. -- New York Yankees

For quite some time now just about every person who has anything to do with covering the New York Yankees has held the same belief about the chances of Johnny Damon returning to the team for the 2010 season.

Slim to none and slim is on its way out of town.

Not so fast, says ESPN's Buster Olney in his Sunday morning baseball column. I'd post the link here but you have to be an "Insider" (that's a cute little term that means you have to pay ESPN money) to read it.

According to Olney, "Some executives with other teams are absolutely convinced that Damon will wind up back with the Yankees."

Olney points out that the Yankees have already made peace with the idea of moving forward without Damon, which would be the source of all the "Damon's as good as gone" reports, by the way.

For that reason, Damon would have to be the one to make contact and, of course, he would have to concede to playing for the dollars the Yankees want to pay him. At last check, that number was about half of the $13 million he made last year.

Whether or not Damon ever gets to that point or makes that call remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Damon has, reportedly, already come to the realization that he is going to have to take a pay cut.

Additionally, it does not appear that the signings of Jason Bay and Matt Holliday have done anything to clarify the market for Damon, which comes as a bit of a surprise. It figured that once the two premier available outfielders signed, Damon would soon follow... Or at least be drawing some interest.

However, Damon appears no closer to signing today than he did two months ago, and there hasn't even been any significant talk tying the veteran to any other teams. Moreover, as we write this, word is starting to leak that the San Francisco Giants have signed (or are on the verge of signing) Aubrey Huff.

The Giants are a team that has been loosely tied to Damon, more along the line of speculation than anything else, but the signing of the lefty-hitting Huff likely removes them from what appears to be a tiny list of potential suitors for Johnny D.

And it's not as if this would be the first time a Scott Boras client went crawling (for lack of a better expression) back to the Yankees after it appeared he was done in New York -- see Alex Rodriguez.

Time will tell, but for the first time in a long time it seems at least possible that the Yankees could get Damon to agree to their number.

After acquiring pitcher Javier Vazquez via a trade that sends Melky Cabrera to Atlanta, the New York Yankees are left with a hole at left field.

Brett Gardner is likely not an option as he is viewed, probably correctly so, as a perfect fourth outfielder and late-inning defensive replacement/pinch runner.

There is already word that this trade does not open the door for Johnny Damon or Matt Holliday. However, Jermaine Dye is still out there. He would come at a lower price than either Damon or, of course, Holliday, and Dye is somebody in whom the Yankees have shown repeated interest over the years.

The bad news for the New York Yankees today didn't stop with John Lackey to the Boston Red Sox and Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Hideki Matsui is gone, and he ain't coming back, agreeing to a 1-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels for (are you ready for this?) $6.5 million.

While it was reported that the Yankees wanted flexibility with the DH spot, it is extremely difficult to understand how they couldn't manage one year for half of Matsui's 2009 salary to bring back the World Series MVP and an extremely productive middle-of-the-lineup hitter.

This is the second season in a row the Angels have somehow managed to sign a very productive former Yankee to a low-dollar, one-year deal. They signed Bobby Abreu for one year and $5.5 million last offseason.

As the A.L. grows far stronger around the Yankees, Brian Cashman and company sit in their plush chairs with their "budget" and their thumbs in their *****, do nothing, and all the tough talk about "being ready to defend" their title rings hollower and hollower by the minute.

This has been an absolute train wreck of a day for the Yankees. You have to hope they have something much more significant in mind than the return of Johnny Damon or the signing of a broken down rag like Ben Sheets.