MLB News and Rumors

Ibanez returns for another go
As if Jason Bay and Kendrys Morales weren’t enough, now the Mariners have gone out and signed Raul Ibanez. The 40-year-old returns to Seattle for his third stint with the M’s, and first since 2008.
What does Ibanez bring to the table?
Just like with Bay, Seattle is hoping Ibanez will bring some much needed power to its lineup.
Ibanez’s second stint with the Mariners—2004-2008—was an era in which Seattle was spending on free agents that “should have been something,” but weren’t. Ibanez was one of the few that “was.”
Over those five seasons Ibanez hit .291/.354/.477 with 113 home runs and 489 RBI. He was one of the few Mariners of that era that could actually hit at Safeco.
So in theory he should be even better now that the fences are moving in.
But Ibanez is still a 40-year-old, and hasn’t hit higher than .245 over his last two seasons. In that same time he’s seen his walk rate drop about 3.0 percent.
But he’s kept his power numbers up, averaging 22 home

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Raul Ibanez struck again.

The New York Yankees’ sudden slugger hit another tying homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. This one has come off Detroit closer Jose Valverde on Saturday night to lift New York into a 4-4 tie in the opener of the American League championship series.

Three batters after Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-run shot of Valverde to cut the Yankees’ deficit in half, Ibanez connected for his second tying homer of this postseason and sent the game into extra innings.

Ibanez started his powerful week against Baltimore Orioles closer Jim Johnson in the ninth inning on Wednesday to send Game 3 of the division series to extra innings. Then he won it with a homer in the 12th inning.

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How’s this for a pair of playoff moments? The Yankees trailed the Orioles 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth in Wednesday’s ALDS game three. Baltimore’s closer Jim Johnson was on the mound looking to finish the Yankees off and give the Orioles a 2-1 series lead, but Raul Ibanez had other ideas. Yankees manager Joe Girardi sent Ibanez up to pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez, and Ibanez smashed the second pitch he saw from Johnson over the right field fence to the tie game up at two. But Ibanez wasn’t done yet. He led the 12th inning off against Brian Matusz, and Ibanez smashed the first pitch he saw from Matusz deep to right and out of the park, giving the Yankees a 3-2 walkoff win and a 2-1 lead in the series. Whenever something good happens in Yankee Stadium, you can go ahead and blame the ghosts of Yankee history, which apparently haven’t been brought down along with the old Yankee Stadium. [follow]

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Your browser does not support iframes.Alex Rodriguez could have been embarrassed and pouted after being replaced in the bottom of the 9th inning during Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday, but the Yankees DH was leading the cheers after pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez delivered an improbable game-tying home run in his place.Rodriguez had been struggling during the series, going 1-for-9 with five strikeouts in the first two games against Baltimore, and 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on Wednesday. Despite calls for him to be dropped in the batting order, manager Joe Girardi kept the struggling slugger in the third spot. But with one out and the Yankees trailing 2-1 in the 9th inning, Girardi opted to pinch-hit for A-Rod with Ibanez. Ibanez, who was 1-for-3 in the series, crushed a home run off Orioles closer Jim Johnson to tie the game at two and send it to extra innings. The clutch home run will no doubt put Ibanez in a heralded class of Yankees postseason heroes. The bold move by Girardi paid off…

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Raul Ibanez hit his first home run with the Yankees, Freddy Garcia pitched into the fifth inning and New York beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 in 10 innings Saturday.

Ibanez had two hits to raise his average to .075. He hit a two-run shot off Tigers starter Max Scherzer in the seventh inning.

Garcia, vying for the fifth spot in the Yankees rotation, was making his first since bruising his hand 10 days ago. He went 4 1-3 innings and allowed one hit and two walks. He struck out four.

D.J. Mitchell got the win but allowed two runs in the ninth, one on a homer by Audy Ciriaco.

Dewayne Wise hit a two-run double in the 10th.

Scherzer went seven innings and allowed three hits and two runs for the Tigers, striking out eight.

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Now that A.J. Burnett has been shipped off to western Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to pay $ 13 million of the $ 33 million owed to him over the next two seasons, the New York Yankees are “closing in on adding Raul Ibanez as the left-handed hitting option for their designated hitter role,” according to MLB.com.

“The preference would be to find someone from the left side that can do some damage against right-handed pitching, but … in the event we have injuries that hit in-season, that my manager could put out for defense,” Yankees GM Briand Cashman said on Sunday, the site reports.

The Yankees will also likely re-sign 34-year-old Eric Chavez to serve as a backup corner infielder.

Chavez batted .263 with two homers and 26 RBIs in 58 games for New York last year. The 390-year-old Ibanez was the starting left fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies last year, batting .245 with 20 homers and 84 RBIs in 144 total games.

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Now that the A.J. Burnett deal is official the Yankees have turned their attention toward Raul Ibanez. According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, they have the framework done for a $ 1 million deal plus incentives in place for a while now, but have held off until they could be sure they weren’t getting a DH back for Burnett.
Sherman also reported that Eric Chavez has made it clear he wants to return and the team wants him back. Talk is that they are discussing a deal worth around $ 1 million plus incentives. Any Chavez deal will probably take place after Ibanez, or another DH is in the mix.
Yesterday Sherman tweeted that the Yankees were only budgeting enough for one of the two, Ibanez and Chavez, and that they wouldn’t necessarily sign both. He also tweeted that the Yankees execs plan on meeting again to discuss signing both.
As far as Johnny Damon, it appears that he will not be coming back to the Bronx. Damon told Sherman and George King of the NY Post, “We both…

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Now that the Yankees and Pirates have agreed to a deal that will send A.J. Burnett to Pittsburgh the Yankees are ready to move on to adding a left handed hitting DH and a backup third baseman.
There are a few options on the table at this point, but the Yankees prefer Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui are also in the mix as is the right handed hitting Vladimir Guerrero, who has let it be known that he wants the Yankees DH job, might also be in the mix as well.
The Yankees said they prefer a DH who can occasionally play in the field, but this very well could come down to money. They saved $ 13 million by sending Burnett to Pittsburgh, but that doesn’t mean they’ll spend all of it. GM Brian Cashman needed permission to add payroll to sign Hiroki Kuroda and now that they’ve saved some on the Burnett deal they may just pocket a chunk of the extra cash.
Related StoriesFebruary 8, 2012 — Rumor: Yankees s…

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