Melky Demoted-Sexson Released

The Melk Man has left the building, presumably riding out on the back of The Big Sexy like an excited young boy taking his first pony ride. Melky Cabrera has been demoted to Scranton-Wilkes Barre, replaced on the roster by Brett Gardner. In a corresponding move, Richie Sexson has been released and replaced on the roster by utility infielder and 32-year-old career minor leaguer Cody Ransom.

Glad to see Gardner get another shot with the big club. He’s an unbelievable threat on the bases and he grinds out long at-bats. Granted, speed and grinding didn’t help Gardner do better than a .153/.227/.169 line in his first stint, but the message is clear: ineptitude to the level of Melky’s will not stand, even if it was allowed to for three months too long. A real pessimist could argue that this is making a change for the sake of making a change and that it doesn’t change anything for the Yankees 2008 playoff hopes, and that pessimist would be hard to argue with because they’re mostly right. But addition by subtraction is a real concept, and perhaps both these moves are meant to do a little wake-up work for all parties directly affected:

Melky Cabrera: Pretty obvious, but it can affect him a lot of ways. He can’t take for granted that he’s a part of the team anymore, either this year or for next year, meaning it’s crystal clear that he’s going to have to earn whatever future he’s going to have with the Yankees. It’s a shame that he will undoubtedly be a September call-up when rosters expand, which is what makes this move too little too late. Instead of letting him stew in the minors and recalibrate and maybe figure out how to hit again via an extended stay, he’s really getting a 2-week excommunication to western Pennsylvania. In the bigger picture, though, it means that Austin Jackson’s chances of cracking the big league team in 2009 have increased exponentially, and it’s open season for who plays CF for the Yankees on Opening Day 2009.

Robinson Cano: It takes away his number one buddy, and it means he’ll have to fly solo if he’s going to head out to Manhattan clubs to get ripped and pick up ladies dying to hang out with one or more of the New York Yankees. Also, Cody Ransom’s call-up shows that maybe his virtually unwavering playing time isn’t going to be guaranteed if he continues to play lazy, uninspired baseball. A start at 2nd for Ransom against a left handed starter would be an eyebrow-raiser, for sure.

Brett Gardner: A chance to redeem his putrid offensive performance upon his first go-round with the Yankees. He has notoriously been a slow starter when he’s advanced a level through the minors, and the jump from AAA to MLB is arguably the hardest a professional player makes. It will be interesting to see if he adjusts to big league pitching the 2nd time around, if he’s more aggressive early in counts when he gets fat pitches, or if he sticks to always running a 2-strike count and too often being called out on strikes.

Johnny Damon: He will be expected to play more CF than he has in the last 2 years. His arm is still terrible so teams will still run on him when they have the chance, but his legs have been healthy all year. Hopefully he can still track down balls when he has to, and hopefully an extra level of exertion on his body by playing center won't negatively effect his sterling performance at the plate so far this year.

Wilson Betemit: Inexplicably, he backs his way into a bigger role on the team. Since I doubt Gardner will be seeing a starter’s amount of playing time, the lineup will frequently feature Johnny Damon in CF, Nady in LF and Betemit or Giambi as DH. Joel Sherman of the Post broke the news of these roster moves, and in his write-up he brings up the potential increase in his P.T. To me, this is a boneheaded move if it occurs; granted, tonight’s lineup does not feature Betemit (Gardner is in CF and Damon is the DH), but I don’t see that lasting, especially if Brett continues to struggle at the major league level.

Cody Ransom: He’s a 32 year old guy whose never played in the bigs before; to him, this is the chance of a lifetime. Hopefully he can get himself a couple of hits and play some good D when he’s on the field, and maybe catch another organization’s attention, maybe parlaying a big league roster spot for 2009.

Richie Sexson: Well, not a good couple of years for The Big Sexy. I’m sure some team will take a flier on him for Spring Training 2009, but he has suffered a precipitous fall from one of the league’s biggest power threats and a decent 1B option. He didn’t do a terrible job with the Yankees, but he also didn’t seem to be taking any different of an approach at the plate—meaning still a lot of swings and misses, and not much production.