Forever Yankees

The Yankees made Jorge Posada the highest paid catcher in the game, keeping him for 4 more years and likely a Yankee for his career. There really wasn't another choice for the Yankees to make--no other great catcher was on the market, Posada had a career year at age 36 showing he can still play, and there isn't a catcher waiting in the wing. The one concern in this is, how much longer Posada can actually catch? But the answer to that is, he can become a part-time and then full-time DH sometime in the next couple of years as long as the Yankees don't continue to have older players competing for the DH spot.

Posada has come a long way and will be rejoined by his catching mentor Joe Girardi this year. On the field he seems to handle pitchers well and communicates well in times of trouble. He can still hit, has a good batting eye, and in many ways is an unsung hero on the Yankees especially during the dyntasy years.

Not a Yankee yet for the rest of his career, but I expect him to sign soon is Mariano Rivera. Rivera is showing signs of cracking after this past year, but still has success closing out games. And it may be likely that he has a shot at passing Trevor Hoffman's save record. After all he has done he'll be back for at least three more years, it's almost expected that "Enter Sandman" be played as the Yankee closer comes into the game at Yankee stadium and not elsewhere (I know about the Wagner thing). Like Posada, he is a Yankee great and would be hard to let go.

Sometime this weekend I will comment on the new Fake-Rod outlined contract to stay a Yankee as well as baseball's best friend, Barry Bonds, being indicted.