Yanks backing away from Cameron for ‘baseball’ reasons

Perhaps Brian Cashman listened to Joe this morning. As per Tyler Kepner, the Yankees appear to be putting the potential Mike Cameron trade on hold for “baseball reasons.”

Kepner reports:

In talking to some people involved today, I get the feeling the Yankees are backing away from a potential Melky Cabrera-for-Mike Cameron trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, at least for now. There’s a deal the teams could make, and while I’m not sure of the particulars, at this point the Yankees’ main question is baseball-related, not financial.

We know they do not value Cameron at $10 million, which is why they wanted the Brewers to include some money — or take on Kei Igawa — to make the deal happen. Now that a fair deal seems to be in place, the question is whether it makes baseball sense…

Cameron turns 36 next month. Teams that win tend to have players in their primes, not in decline. In Game 4 of the World Series this season, neither lineup included any player born before 1975. The Yankees have four starters already in Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.

There’s really no reason for the Yanks to acquire Cameron right now. They have bigger fish to fry, and while most reporters seem skeptical that the Yanks are going to be heavily involved with Mark Teixeira or Manny Ramirez, they’re not competing with anyone for Cameron. They can, in other words, afford to wait.

In the end, if Cameron doesn’t end up as the Yanks’ $10 million center fielder next season, no one will be too disappointed. While he brings a known quantity to the table and represents an upgrade over Melky Cabrera or Brett Gardner, he’s not necessarily worth it right now. As Ed Price put it, give it a few weeks, and we’ll see where Cameron is then.