Yankees Offseason Notes: Yankees say no to Soriano

The Yankees have made it very clear with Scott Boras: They don’t want Rafael Soriano back on a one year-deal. Soriano (who as of today is still a free agent) declined the qualifying offer in October and is now team-less. According to Bob Klapisch, Scott Boras asked if  the Yankees would be willing to let Soriano return. The Yankees quickly declined the request. The fact that Soriano declined the Yankees qualifying offer has really hindered his free agency market since if he signs elsewhere, the Yankees would get a draft pick. The Yankees already have one with Nick Swisher (who has signed with the Cleveland Indians).

It was actually an odd coincidence because this morning I woke up thinking that Soriano was still free agent in January (and I tweeted about it). In return I received a question on whether or not the Yankees would want him back. At the time, I was unaware that the Yankees would have said no, but I did mention that there was no need for Soriano since the Yankees have Mariano Rivera as the closer and if Rivera went down with an  injury, the Yankees have David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain and David Aardsma ready to do the closing job, depending on who was having the better season. Funny how speculation actually ends up being the day’s news.

In Other News:

– Francisco Cervelli continues his tradition of getting injured in the offseason, suffering from whiplash after getting hit on a foul tip in the Venezuelan Winter League. Cervelli had an MRI done in Venezuela which came back clean but since Cervelli is one of the three options along with Austin Romine and Chris Stewart to be the starting catcher for the Yankees, they opted him to fly to Tampa, Florida so the team could do their own MRI. No results from the team’s MRI have come back yet.

– Yahoo! published an article that I had written earlier today about the many questions that were looming around the New York Yankees in 2013, so read it if you’re interested.