Yankees recently inquired about Ervin Santana

The Yankees were one of several teams that recently inquired about free-agent starter Ervin Santana, says Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500. Ken Rosenthal also says that Santana is finally progressing towards a deal, but another report stated that talks still have a long way to go.

According to Wolfson, the Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians are the other teams that have recently checked in with the right-hander.

However, the Dodgers might be out of the running for him after signing Paul Maholm this past weekend.

The Yankees had requested to see Santana's medical records last month, but that was as far as they have reportedly gone with in. Up to this point, Brian Cashman has said the Yankees are done making any more major moves, and seem ready to go into spring training with the current group of pitchers that have.

While Santana would be an upgrade over the current fifth starter candidates, I have not been one to push the Yankees to make this move. Yes he can be a good pitcher, but I think that you have to be cautious when looking at a pitcher that gives up as many homeruns as he does -- don't forget about Phil Hughes.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer for Yanks Beat Blog, and you can follow him on Twitter (below).

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