Twitter | Mark Feinsand: Former Yankees reliever and current free agent David Robertson gave his second show to scouts and major league coaches on Friday. More than a dozen teams traveled to Winter Haven, Florida, to attend D-Rob’s pitching session. Robertson was told to look good on the hill, according to a tweet from Feinsand, who said Robertson’s pitches were “in the 90-91 mph range”. Robertson last shot in a major league game on April 14, 2019, when he suffered an elbow strain at the end of the season, requiring Tommy John surgery. Last season, Robertson did not appear on the hill due to a setback he experienced during rehabilitation after surgery.
New York Daily News | Kristie Ackert: It’s official. The 14th annual Gardy party will take place in the Bronx during the 2021 baseball season. The Yankees’ longtime veteran and longtime player agreed on Friday to a $ 4 million one-year contract, with an 2022, pending a physical examination. Considering the Yankees’ desire to stay below the luxury tax limit and the team turned down Gardner’s $ 10 million option in November, Gardner’s striped time seemed to be at stake during much of the off-season.
In addition to being the Yankees’ last remaining link to the 2009 World Series championship, Gardner is valued within the organization for his leadership at the club. He also adds a left-handed baton to a mostly right-handed Yankees lineup. In several previous interviews, Gardy mentioned his desire to remain a Yankee throughout his MLB career. Notably, Gardner will have to accept a new role at the bank, as Aaron Boone said during Friday’s press conference that Clint Frazier is scheduled to be the Yankees’ starting leftfield player in 2021.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Several Yankees pitchers, including Zach Britton and Darren O’Day, commented on the team’s new pitch laboratory, which is dubbed a “gas station”. Located in the Yankees player development complex in Tampa, the new state-of-the-art facility has been under construction for some years. The gas station is equipped with the latest equipment to collect pitching data, including high-speed cameras and pitch tracking tools like Rapsodo and Edgertronics.
According Lindsey Adler’s The Athletic, from the outside “the building [housing the Gas Station] it looks like a big blue barn. ”The construction of the pitching laboratory demonstrates how the Yankees have fully embraced technological innovation in the game and in the pitching philosophies of the new school in recent years. The gas station provides Yankee pitchers with access to cutting edge design tools and allows them to get instant feedback in areas such as tunnels or the rotation efficiency of their pitches.
Orlando Sentinel | Hannah Phillips: Former Yankees and Red Sox supporters Johnny Damon was arrested on Friday in Windermere, Florida, on charges of drunk driving and resisting a police officer without violence. According to the arrest report, Damon, 47, was stopped early Friday morning by a Windermere Police Department official who saw Damon’s black Lincoln SUV swerve and hit a curb. A breathalyzer test measured Damon’s blood alcohol level between 0.294 and 0.300 – almost four times Florida’s legal limit of 0.08. The arrest report also included some statements chosen by Damon during the traffic stop and subsequent arrest. After he was asked to take a sobriety test, the two-time World Series champion said he would agree to the test because he is “a big boy”. Then, when he was released from the Orange County Corrections Department, Damon offered his opinion on what it’s like to be behind bars. “The arrest is horrible,” he told reporters.
Damon’s wife, Michelle Mangan-Damon, was also arrested during the incident. She was charged for assaulting a police officer and for resisting arrest with violence.
Damon played for the Yankees from 2006 to 2009.