It's a sad day for us Yankees fans. The Yankees have decided not to pick up Nick Johnson's option. I'll give you each a minute to overcome your sorrow over this crushing news...
OK, now seriously, has any Yankee in the last 10 years been more useless than Nick Johnson? What was Brian Cashman thinking? I really need somebody to explain that to me. They let both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui walk away as free agents so that they could "spread the DH at-bats around," then go out and sign a left-handed first baseman, who just happens to be injury prone! Am I the only person who remembers Nick Johnson sucking the first time he was a Yankee? What, did Cashman think all that time on the DL in Florida and Washington made him any less useless? (Quick career rundown: 2002-missed two months with a stress fracture in his hand; 2003-actually healthy for an entire season; 2004-missed first two months with back injury, season ended when hit by a bad hop in the face; 2005-06-actually healthy; 2007-missed entire season with broken leg; 2008-broken wrist; 2009-actually healthy; 2010-wrist again) From my count, there are only two people in this world who think Nick Johnson is actually a serviceable Major League first baseman: Nick Johnson and Brian Cashman.
Now, there was one good thing about Nick Johnson. For whatever reason, I need to have a guy on the team that I just don't like that I can blame everything on. After Kyle Farnsworth finally got traded, I had to stretch to find that guy (last year it was Mark Melancon), but Nick Johnson was an easy call. Now I need to find somebody else to hate next season (Ivan Nova is an early candidate). And the running joke I had going with my Mets-fan brother-in-law was which will happen first: Johnson goes on the DL or Carlos Beltran goes off. I upped the ante by saying he'd be out for the season by Mother's Day, and I was right about both! Nick, I'll miss you as much as I miss your "brother" Rob, who, coincidentally, was made the starting quarterback at exactly the same time the Bills started to suck (11 years and counting with no playoffs).
Coincidentally enough, when the Yankees got rid of him the first time, they traded him to the Expos for Javy Vazquez. We all remember how well that turned out (not bad at the start, made the All-Star team, Johnny Damon grand slam in Game 7 of the ALCS). So well that he was traded to the Diamondbacks after one year for Randy Johnson. So of course, he was brought back, too. And things didn't go much better this time. I don't really get keeping him off the postseason roster, but carrying the equally useless Dustin Moseley, Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre, but that's a discussion for another day. There's at least hope for Javy, but it looks like he's destined to be a pitcher in the realm of Kenny Rogers and Carl Pavano.
The Yankees also declined the options on Kerry Wood, who was probably going to command too much money and wants to be a closer, and Lance Berkman, who at first was slightly less useless than Johnson, but ended up being necessary after Tex got hurt in the playoffs and wasn't actually that bad. And I might be the only person who's happy Joe Girardi re-signed, but he's handled the crucible wonderfully and the two years he didn't win the World Series weren't really because of anything he did.
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