If you're a baseball team chasing free-agency talent, the last thing you want are the Yankees and Red Sox chasing that same free-agency talent.
They have piles and piles of money and they make it difficult and/or insanely expensive to add important pieces to a roster.
So it's good news for the Giants that the Yankees are reportedly unlikely to chase after free-agent-to-be Carlos Beltran.
Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News writes Friday that, according to a "baseball executive familiar with the Yankees thinking," New York isn't likely to chase after Beltran and instead pick up Nick Swisher's option.
" 'That’s the clue,' the executive said. If the Yankees pick up Swisher’s option, they 'won’t be in on Beltran,' " McCarron writes.
Swisher's got a $10.25 million option in 2012, which is relatively decent value for a guy who hit .260/.374/.449 with 23 homers and 85 RBI, even if he'll be turning 31 soon.
And yes, the fact that it's a single year of paying Swisher, rather than paying Beltran multiple millions for multiple years starting at the age of 34 certainly contributes to the value of Swish's contract.
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Of course, it's not a lock that that the Yankees won't chase after Beltran -- Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York wrote Thursday that the Yankees are interested in the free agent.
"He's on our list,'' a team official told Matthews. "But we have to make a decision on Swisher first.''
In other words, the Giants need to hope that the Yankees pick up Swisher's option ASAP if they have any intention of re-signing Beltran for something that doesn't resemble "absurdly over market value."
