New York Yankees Part of Free Agent Confusion

The blogosphere is having a bit of an issue today.

First, it was reported that as part of the CBA, the New York Yankees were at the maximum number of type A or B free agents they could sign. This meant that they had no chance of signing Manny Ramirez, Juan Cruz, Ben Sheets, Adam Dunn, or Oliver Perez.

What about the San Francisco Giants, who signed five type-A/B free agents in Jeremy Affeldt (B), Bob Howry (A), Randy Johnson (B), Edgar Renteria (A), and Juan Uribe (B)? This brought up the question, is it a maximum of three type A free agents and three type B free agents?

MLB Trade Rumors passed along Nick Cafardo’s article that said teams could sign up to nine ranked free agents. This means that the Yankees still have free range to sign any of the free agents people have linked them to.

Then, the Journal News’ Peter Abraham took this story one step further when he caught up with Brian Cashman. Cashman confirmed that the number three was exaggerated. He didn’t provide an exact number, but said it was a larger number that the team wasn’t concerned with because they wouldn’t be reaching it anyways.

This means that greedy Yankee fans can still dream. There is still a chance—not a real one—of the team signing Manny and Dunn. For the crazy, they can still dream of a roster with Joba Chamberlain in the pen, and Ben Sheets in the rotation.