Goodbye Johnny Damon, and good luck

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UPDATED: It’s hard to say which is more surprising—that Johnny Damon’s days with the Yankees are over, or that New York general manager Brian Cashman says he has to adhere to a budget. Either way, it’s all but certain Damon will not be batting behind of Derek Jeter come April.

Goodbye, Johnny, you will be missed.

Yes, the signs that Damon’s days in New York were numbered have been growing for months. Still, I held out hope that Johnny and the Yankees would come to an agreement. (Full disclosure: this avid Yankees fan wasn’t a big fan of the Damon signing in 2006, but he won me over long ago.) That ended yesterday, when ESPN reported that Cashman signed free agent outfielder Randy Winn to a one-year deal. The 35-year-old switch-hitter, All-Star with Tampa in 2002,  hit .262 in 149 games last season for San Francisco. So it will be Winn, not Damon, who will split left field with Brett Gardner.

Cashman set the stage the night before in an interview with MLB.com.

“I’m not having any discussions on him,” Cashman told MLB website.  “His abilities exceed my physical ability to keep my finances afloat.”

The key phrase: “keep my finances afloat.” Cashman’s declaration followed Damon’s obituary by Bill Madden in Saturday’s New York Daily News. Madden, as plugged in as anyone on the Yankees beat, pronounced talks between Damon and Cashman officially dead. The cause of death:  Damon’s agent Scott Boras.

Here’s Madden’s take:

Tell us your bottom line for what you’re willing to play for,” the Yankees said, “and if it’s in the realm of where our budget needs to be we can go to ownership and see if something can be worked out.” Instead of giving them a number, Boras came back with more of his patented “mystery team” hogwash, claiming he had a couple of other offers they were still considering.

Damon gave his version to the Newark Star-Ledger in a text message, telling the newspaper that discussions with the Yankees stalled after the team signed Nick Johnson, who will replace Damon in the lineup and hit second behind Jeter.

“Never started again,” Damon said of the negotiations. “They have their budget.”

Turns out “Yankees budget” is not an oxymoron.  Boras opened at two years for $26 million, in line with the $13 million Damon earned last season. The Yankees countered with two years, $14 million. Boras reportedly dropped to two years, $20 million after the Johnson deal, and it became a game of chicken. Sadly for Damon fans, the Yankees never blinked. Boras is the best in the business, but this isn’t the first time he’s misread the market. Nor the last time one his clients leaves a team and city when he wanted to stay.

It’s too bad for both Damon and the Yankees. Even at 36, Damon is still a productive player. Yes, he’s become something of an adventure in left field—that’s what the DH slot is for—but Damon’s a clutch hitter with surprising power who knows how to take advantage of the right center field wind tunnel in the new Stadium. He also knows how to work the count, reaches base often, and many of the 24 home runs he hit last season came a key moments.

The injury prone Johnson is a solid contact hitter, but with much less power. And he’s a plow horse who’ll clog up the running game. The top of the Yankees lineup will definitely be less interesting and most likely less effective.

For the record, here’s the kind of play Yankees fans won’t see next season:

Damon was also the go-to guy for the New York media, an important role on the most intensively covered team in baseball. Damon enjoys the give and take with reporters, makes himself available win or lose, and knows how to use the media to relieve pressure on a team that’s expected to win every game. C.C. Sabbathia and A.J. Burnett were big in that department last season, but they’re pitchers who play ever fifth day. Damon’s departure puts more pressure on Alex Rodriguez to be the face–and the voice—of the Yankees. That’s not Alex’s forte, and it’ll be interesting to see if newly-acquired Curtis Granderson can fill Damon’s void. Granderson was great with the Detroit media, but he’s in the majors now.

No one know the media scrutiny better than Cashman, who’s received generally good reviews for his efforts this offseason. He’s added Granderson, Johnson, and pitcher Javier Vazquez to a team that won 103 games and the World Series a year ago. Until letting go of Damon, he did it without affecting the team’s core.

The Damon decision hardly means the Yankees are slashing payroll. The Yankees payroll should come in right around the $200 million and change they paid out last season. New York also wrote a check to MLB for an estimated $130 million in revenue sharing this year, by far the highest in baseball, and paid $26.9 million in luxury taxes, up from $23.9 million last year and their biggest bill since paying nearly $34 million for 2005.

You might not agree with who the Yankees sign and who they let go, but it’s tough to criticize how much they invest in players salaries. We’re not talking about the Florida Marlins here. Management may also be sensitive to the renewed “payroll disparity” drum beat coming from the commissioner’s office. Negotiations are soon to begin on the collective bargaining agreement that expires in 2011, and the Yankees are looking to reduce their revenue sharing and luxury tax bills, not increase them.

“I’ll always try to get the budget pushed, but you’re not always successful,” Cashman told MLB.com. “The Steinbrenner family has been extremely generous for adding talent, but you can’t do everything.”

In this case, that meant saying goodbye to Johnny Damon. The Yankees should do just fine this season—Vegas oddsmakers have made New York the clear favorites to win another World Series. It just won’t feel quite the same.