As the Winter Meetings get underway in Orlando, Florida, the Yankees continue to monitor the status of free agents that they may be able to bring in to fill holes presently on the team. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Yankees are interested in possibly reuniting with Raul Ibanez, whose late season home run heroics helped propel them to the ALCS in 2012. At this point in his career, Ibanez is pretty solidly a DH even though he was used as more than that during his time in New York. Hopefully the massive number of outfielders already on the roster would keep Joe Girardi from considering Ibanez to be among them, but who really knows if that will be the case.
In 124 games with the Mariners last season, Ibanez hit .242/.306/.487 with a 117 wRC+ and 29 home runs. That kind of power would be welcome on a team that just lost their biggest home run threat in Robinson Cano. It will likely take multiple players to replace that kind of power production and Ibanez could be a way to supplement the home run power lost by Cano and Curtis Granderson that wasn't replaced by signing Jacoby Ellsbury.
New York has also checked in on former Mets and Twins pitcher Mike Pelfrey, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Pelfrey put up a 5.19 ERA in 152.2 innings for the Twins last season. He's the owner of a career 4.48 ERA since breaking into the majors with the Mets in 2006. There's not a lot there to be excited about but the Yankees need pitching and may not want to pay the premium price for Matt Garza or Ubaldo Jiminez with the status of Masahiro Tanaka still unknown.
Should the Yankees bring back Ibanez or take a chance on Pelfrey? Should they try to make another big splash instead?
