YankeesRedSox.com

It's official, Damaso Marte will be back for quite awhile.  The press release doesn't mention money, but the reports I have read elsewhere say $4 million a year.  That seems like too much to pay in my mind and I don't love this singing  I don't know why the Yankees didn't just exercise their option and pay him $6 million this year and free themselves of him after 2009.  Or, let him walk and get the two draft picks he would have garnered as a Type A free agent.  Marte will be solid in the pen in '09, but I worry about 2010 and 2011.  On the plus side, they have a solid lefty in the pen for next year.

I suspect this move is being done so the Yankees didn't let Tabata walk out the door for only Xavier Nady.  Tabata might be a star, but I doubt he would have become one in the Yankees' organization and that trade was a not one I would spend time regretting.  It was the right move at the time, the Yankees didn't know that Joba would go on the shelf two weeks later. 

The bullpen is now pretty set.  Marte and Rivera will be joined by Bruney and Veras.  Barring a surprise move, the last couple of spots will come from some combination of Robertson, Ramriez, Coke, Giese, Aceves and Rasner. 

Less than 36 hours until the free agent window opens, fasten your seatbelts.