Deadline Rumors: Yankees interested in Twins outfielder John Willingham

We all know about Brian Cashman's goal of upgrading the starting rotation before the upcoming trade deadline on Thursday, but it's pretty clear that the Yankees will also need to add another bat in the lineup in order to truly compete for a playoff spot. The addition of Chase Headley was a start, but now Cashman needs to add at least one more hitter.

There aren't a ton of options out there on the market, but a few that could draw some interest. According to CBS Sports' Jon Heyman, the Yankees are showing interest in Minnesota Twins outfielder John Willingham.

Heyman says that the Yankees prefer Willingham, 35, over some other power outfielders, like Marlon Byrd and Alex Rios, mainly because of his contract situation. The right-handed hitter makes just $7 million this season, and is a free-agent after the year, while  makes $12 million, with a $2 million buyout of a $14 million team option, and Byrd has an $8 million salary next year.

With Carlos Beltran still unable to play the outfield, and Ichiro Suzuki continuing to struggle in the everyday-outfielder role, Willingham would provide the Yankees would a much needed boost of power in both right field and the right side of the plate, which they've lacked since Alfonso Soriano struggled and was eventually released.

Willingham is batting just .215 with 10 homers in only 56 games -- he missed 41 games earlier in the year with a wrist injury, but appears fully healthy now -- while playing most of his games in the spacious Target Field. Power has always been one of his strenghts, hitting 35 homeruns back in 2012, a year after hitting 29 with the Oakland Athletics. Playing in big ball parks has not stopped him, and playing in Yankee Stadium could only help, you'd have to think.

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Yankees 9, Twins 7: Yanks hold on late to take series against Minnesota

After scoring just one run in 11 innings in Saturday, the Yankees' offense broke out once again on Sunday, scoring nine straight runs to open up the game against the Minnesota Twins, but the game tightened up in the final innings, and the Bombers were able to pull away with a 9-7 win, taking three of four games against the Twins at Target Field this week.

The Yankees pounded Twins starter Ricky Nolasco for six runs in the first two innings, including to in the 1st, Brett Gardner opened the game with a walk, Derek Jeter singled, then Mark Teixeira singled to batters later, scoring Gardner to put the Yanks on the board. The next batter, Brian McCann, doubled to deep right-center to drive in Jeter.

Brian Roberts, Ichiro Suzuki and Kelly Johnson kicked off the 2nd inning with back-to-back-to-back singles. Two batters later, Jeter knocked in Roberts on a sac-fly, then Jacoby Ellsbury smacked a three-run homerun to right field, his 5th of the season, to put the Yankees up 6-0.

Nolasco only lasted two innings, being tagged for six runs on seven hits. He walked one and didn't strike out anybody while tossing 42 pitches. Not his day.

Anthony Swarzak was the Yankees' next victim, as he was attacked for three runs in the 4th inning.

Ichiro and Johnson opened with back-to-back singles. Jeter singled two batters later to bring in Ichiro; Ellsbury grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Johnson; after Teixeira singled to move Ellsbury to third base, Ellsbury scored from third base on a Swarzak balk, making it a 9-0 game.

But the Twins didn't gave up, as they scored seven unanswered runs to make this a ballgame once again.

Hiroki Kuroda was pitching well for the Yankees -- he only gave up a hit through the first three innings before the Twins got all four of their runs against him in the 4th on five hits and an error -- an infield single scored the first run; and RBI double by Trevor Plouffe scored the second; then a two-run homerun by Chris Colabello made it a 9-4 game.

Kuroda managed to make it through 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts on 105 pitches. Not a bad outing from him; it could have been better.

The Yankees didn't do anything offensively after jumping out to a 9-0 lead, but the Twins added one run in each inning after the 6th, starting the streak against Adam Warren in the 7th, who was appearing in his 40th game of the season.

Minnesota put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out after Brian Dozier doubled and Eduardo Nunez singled, advancing to second on the throw to third. Chris Parmelee followed Nunez with a run-scoring groundout. Warren didn't have much control, walking the next batter, but struck out Oswaldo Garcia to end the inning.

Plouffe went deep off of Jim Miller in the 8th, hitting a solo homerun into the left-center field bullpen. The David Robertson entered the game in the 9th, looking for his third save of this four-game series. He struck out the first batter, gave up a pair of singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd, struck out Josh Willingham for the second out ahead of Arcia, who singled him a run to pull the Twins within two runs, but bounced back to get Kurt Suzuki to groundout to end the ball game.

Jeter, by the way, singled in his final at-bat of the game in the 9th inning. The hit was the 3,400th of his career.

The Yankees will head off to Cleveland now to start a four-game series against the Indians at Progressive Field. The Yankees announced today that Shane Greene will come up to make the start in the place of Vidal Nuno, who was traded to the D-Backs on Sunday. He and the Yanks will be facing Justin Masterson at 7:05 pm ET.

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Yankees 1, Twins 2 (F/11): Yanks find a new way to lose in extra-innings

Offense had been the theme of the series in the first two games between the Yankees and Twins this weekend, with the Bomber breaking out for 13 runs in their first two contests in Minnesota. However, that was not the case on Saturday, as both teams were locked into a pitcher's duel that ended with the Twins winning, 2-1, in extra-innings on Saturday afternoon.

The game stayed scoreless through the first four innings until the Yankees finally broke through with a run in the 5th. Carlos Beltran walked to open the inning, giving the Yankees their second baserunner of the game, then Ichiro Suzuki, who singled in the 2nd inning to be the first, grounded into a fielder's choice at first base with Beltran being out at second base. After Alfonso Soriano struck out, Ichiro stole second base (replay showed he was out, but the Twins never challenged), moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored on a Francisco Cervelli single, putting the Yankees up 1-0.

The Yankees held that 1-0 lead for a couple of innings until Josh Willingham, who much really like hitting against the Yankees, hit a solo homerun off of David Phelps to open the bottom of the 7th, evening the game at 1-1.

Because of that game-tying homerun, Phelps was no longer in line to take home the win, even though he had pitched, really, really well in his game, giving the Yankees some much needed innings after Chase Whitley only went three innings on Friday. Phelps was charged for just the run on three hits, with two walks and three strikeouts on 107 pitches in seven innings of work.

On the other side of the field, Yohan Pino was impressive for the Twins, too, holding the Yankees to a run on three hits, while also walking two and striking out three. You could say that he pitched well enough to pick up his first big league win, but it wasn't meant to be this afternoon.

Shawn Kelley gave up two hits and struck out four in two innings of work behind Phelps to help get the game to extra innings. Kelley wasn't getting help from his defense in the 7th when Soriano, who finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, dropped two balls hit by the same batter, Brian Dozier, to open the inning. The second fell in for a hit, but nothing came out of it for the Twins.

Derek Jeter put the Yankees in a good position to take the lead in the 10th inning, singling with two outs then stealing second base. But Brian Roberts, the Player of the Game on Friday, grounded out to end the inning.

Matt Thornton opened the 10th inning on the mound for the Bombers, giving up a leadoff single to Sam Fuld, but retired the next three batters to end the inning. In the bottom of the 11th, Chris Coballeo opened with a pinch-hit double off of the very top of the right-field walk -- was almost a homerun -- and moved to third on a ground a batter later. The Yankees then walked Willingham, and Thornton hit Oswaldo Garcia to load the bases with one out. Trevor Plouffe hit a weak ground ball in from of the pitcher's mound. Thornton flipped the ball to the plate for the first out, then Cervelli's throw to first to complete the double play sailed well wide of the base, going down to right field line to score the game-inning run for Minnesota.

That was certainly a disappointing way to lose a baseball games, and it ended the Yankees' short two-game losing streak, and their streak of seven straight unbeaten games at Target Field. They come back to tomorrow with a chance to win the series. Hiroki Kuroda and Ricky Nolasco will be on the mound for their teams.

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Game 86: Going for three straight

After getting the Fourth of July off, Derek Jeter is back in the Yankees' lineup this afternoon as the Bombers look to make it three straight wins over the Minnesota Twins to begin this four-game series at Target Field. The Twins plan to honor Jeter before the game today. Last year, they gave Mariano Rivera rocking chair made out of bats he broke in his career and called it the "Chair of Broken Dreams."

That was a really cool gift -- maybe the best of his farewell tour -- so it'll be interesting to see what Minnesota gives Jeter today.

The Yankees won the battle of the bullpens yesterday, with starter Chase Whitley only going three innings. David Huff was perfect in his three innings of work -- I started thinking about what would happen if the Yankees give Huff a chance to start, then I remembered how that worked out last season -- then Adam Warren, Dellin Betances and David Robertson finished off the final three innings.

With the loss to the Bombers yesterday, the Twins fell to 0-7 in their last seven games against the Yankees at Target Field. It's basically the Yanks' home away from home.

Today's lineup against Minnesota:

SS Derek Jeter
2B Brian Roberts
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
LF Alfonso Soriano
C Francisco Cervelli
3B Zelous Wheeler

* Brian McCann was a late scratch from the lineup today because of some soreness in his foot that also kept him out of Friday's game. Joe Girardi thought that McCann would be good to go, but that was obvisouly not the case. The lineup has been moved a around: Jeter will now lead off rather than Ellsbury, and Roberts will slot in the No. 2 spot, where he hit yesterday.

We saw something happen to McCann during Thursday night's game after reaching first base on a single, but he stayed in the game and everything was fine for the rest of the night. Don't really know the problem other than that it's sore.

Pitching matchup preview:

Maybe David Phelps could give the Yankees some innings today and let the bullpen have a nice easy day off. Phelps will be on the mound for the Bombers this afternoon, and has been pitching well lately, allowing two or fewer runs in three of his last four starts.

Phelps is coming off of a no-decision against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium this past week, when he gave up two runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Rookie right-hander Yohan Pino will be taking the mound for the Twins today, looking for his first career victory after going winless in his first three starts.

Pino allowed four runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings in his last outing against the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

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Yankees 6, Twins 5: Brian Roberts has his best game of the season

A night after snapping a five-game losing streak by scoring seven runs against former Yankee Phil Hughes, and Bombers and Twins took the field on Friday afternoon for their second Fourth of July matchup against each other in as many years.

The Yankees jumped all over Twins starter Kyle Gibson early in the game, scoring six runs in the first two innings. The Yanks, throughout the game, were ripping extra-base hits all around the park. Brett Gardner kicked off the game with a triple to left, then Brian Roberts doubled him home to put the Yankees up 1-0. After Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out, moving Roberts to third base, Mark Teixeira double to deep center field, scoring Robert easily to make it a 2-0 game. Teixeira moved to third on a past ball, then scored on a sac-fly by Carlos Beltran for the third run of the inning.

Brian Dozier put the Twins on the board with a lead off homerun in the bottom half of the 1st inning against Chase Whitley, who also gave up a single and a walk in the inning before get third out.

Francisco Cervelli opened up a three-run 2nd inning for the Yankees with a double into the left field corner. Kelly Johnson grounded out to move Cervelli over to third, then Brendan Ryan hit a sac-fly to bring home Cervelli, extending the Yankees' lead to 4-1. Brett Gardner followed with a walk, moved to third on a ground-rule double by Roberts, who had one helluva game at the plate, batting second in place of Derek Jeter, who got the day off. Roberts doubled three times, with also his fourth triple of the season. It should also be noted that Roberts was wearing high socks today, so maybe he should do that more often.

Ellsbury followed up with single that brought home both runners to put the Yankees up 6-1.

Again in the 2nd inning, Chris Colabello started the frame with a solo blast off of Whitley to put the Twins with four, making it a 6-2 games. Whitley worked around a pair of infield singles in the 2nd but only made through one more inning after giving up two runs in the 3rd.

After Kendrys Morales hit a one-out single to right, Oswaldo Arcia tripled to deep center field, scoring Morales. A batter later, Trevor Plouffe singled to put the Twins down by just two runs.

Whitley was done after 74 pitches in just three innings of work. He's been hit around hard in his past few starts, giving up four runs on eight hits in this one, with his ERA inflating up to 5.14. Even worse, the Yankees have no options to replace him without making a trade -- and don't say Adam Warren.

David Huff took over to start the 4th inning, and he tossed his best outing of the bullpen since joining the Yankees this season for the second time in his career. He pitches three perfect inning, striking out three on just 35 pitches. Warren faced three batters in the 7th, record two outs before giving the ball to Dellin Betances, who finished off the 7th, then pitched the entire 8th inning, giving up a run that brought the Twins within a run, making it a 6-5 game.

David Robertson pitched the 9th inning, striking out the side around a two-out double by Kurt Suzuki to seal the Yankees' second consecutive victory and his 20th save of the season.

The Yankees are back ot being above .500, and will try to go two games over on Saturday afternoon with David Phelps on the mound against Yohan Pino at 2:05 pm ET.

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Game 85: Happy 4th of July, America

For the second year in a row, the Yankees are in Minnesota with an Fourth of July matchup with the Twins.

They're hoping to keep the momentum going this afternoon at 3 pm ET after taking the opening of this four-game series last night with a 7-4 win over their former teammate, Phil Hughes. Zelous Wheeler made his major league debut last night, batting 8th in the lineup and playing third base. He hit s solo homerun in his second big league at-bat and singled later in the game to finish 2-for-4.

Wheeler, however, is not in the lineup this afternoon for some reason, and neither is Brian McCann, who singled last night, and Derek Jeter, who I presume is just getting a day off.

Mark Teixeira was back in the Yankees' lineup last night, a day after getting his knee drained. Teixeira showed no lingering signs of the draining, going 2-for-4.

Today's lineup against Minnesota:

LF Brett Gardner
2B Brian Roberts
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
C Francisco Cervelli
3B Kelly Johnson
SS Brendan Ryan

*  CC Sabathia is on his way to see Dr. James Andrews about his knee. There is still a good chance that surgery will be needed, and the future of his return to a big league mound is more unclear than ever right now.

Pitching matchup preview:

Right-hander Chase Whitley will get the ball for the Yankees today, following up fellow rookie Masahiro Tanaka, who picked up his 12th win of the season last night. Whitley looked good in his first handful of big league starts, but has been roughed up lately, having allowed 13 runs on 19 hits in 7 1/3 innings over his last two starts.

His last start was against the Boston Red Sox, in which he gave up five runs on eight hits, including a three-run homerun to David Ortiz.

"He just made some mistakes that looked like they were in the middle of the plate," Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters after that loss. "He was able to escape the first two innings and minimize the damage with some double-play balls, but then he gave up the big three-run homer."

On the mound for the Twins is right-hander Kyle Gibson, who will be facing the Bombers for the third time in the last two seasons.

Gibson allowed 11 runs (10 earned) over 10 1/3 innings in the first two outings against the Yankees, but has pitching better of late, with a 2.61 ERA and an 0.94 WHIP in his last five starts.

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Yankees 7, Twins 4: Zelous Wheeler goes yard for his first big league hit

Zelous Wheeler waited eight years to make his Major League debut, bouncing around the minor leagues, getting over 2,000 at-bats in the minors before the Yankees called-up on Wednesday night.

In his second big league at-bat, Wheeler hit a 412 foot homerun into the left-center field bullpens, a few batter after Carlos Beltran launched hit 9th homerun of the year, back up Masahiro Tanaka, who in the first time in 18 starts this season failed to record a quality start, as the Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-4, on Thursday night at Target Field.

It was clear from the start that Tanaka was not on the top of his pitching game, coming off of two straight losses -- even though he pitched well in both starts -- as the Twins jumped on the board with a quick run in the first inning.

Brian Dozier opened the inning with a single off of Tanaka, then two batters later, Chris Parmelee hit a one-out double into the right field corner, scoring Dozier to put the Twins up 1-0. Parmelee was tagged out trying to stretch the double into a triple.

Minnesota went up 2-0 in the 3rd inning after Sam Fuld and Dozier reached on singled to kick off the inning, putting runners on 1st and 3rd,

The two runs gave Phil Hughes some room to work with, having beat the Yankees in his first start against them back on June 1 when he tossed eight innings of two-run ball. Hughes retired 11 of the first 12 batters that he faced through four innings, having set down the first six to make it 24 straight Yankee hitters going back to that June start at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees' lineup finally broke through against it's former teammate in the 5th inning. Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit back-to-back singles open the frame, then Beltran cleared the bases and gave Bombers a 3-2 lead with a three-run shot to right field. Both Beltran and McCann are hitting in the .220's, and need to start hitting better, obviously. Two batters later, Wheeler prompted John Sterling to debut "Wheels up for Zelous" for his first big league homerun, making it a 4-2 game.

Minnesota gained a run back on Tanaka in the bottom half of the 6th inning on an RBI groundout by Kendrys Morales, scoring Kurt Suzuki, who doubled then moved to third base on a Parmelee groundout. That cut the Yanks' lead to 4-3.

The Bombers, though, would extend their lead up to four runs in the next half inning with a three-run frame. Ichiro Suzuki drew a one-out walk and Wheeler followed up with a single. The next batter, Brendan Ryan, doubled to score Ichiro and move Wheeler to third, making this a 5-3 game.

Brian Duensing relieved Hughes to end his night. Hughes, and All-Star Game candidate two weeks ago, has been roughed up lately, and was tagged for seven runs on eight hits tonight, with a walk and six strikeouts.

Brett Gardner welcomed Duensing to the game with an RBI single that scored Wheeler and put Ryan on third base with just one out. A batter later, Derek Jeter grounded out, which was enough to score Ryan, giving the Yankees a 7-3 lead.

Tanaka in the 7th inning gave up his fourth run of the game for the very first time in his big league career. Trevor Plouffe doubled with one out, then Edurado Escobar singled home Plouffe to pull the Twins within three runs.

Like I said, this wasn't Tanaka's best game, facing the Twins for the second time in his career. He was charged with four runs on seven hits, with just three strikeouts and no walks on 85 pitches in seven innings of work.

He handed the ball off to Dellin Betances, who shut down the side in the 8th while striking out a pair, during his normal Betances thing. That lead to David Robertson, who issued a two-out walk, but still struck out the side to end the game for his 19th save of the season. Robertson has been really good in his first season as the closer, and as a free-agent at the end of the season, the Yankees need to lock him up.

Back to .500, the Yankees will send Chase Whitley to the mound on Friday afternoon for a special 3 pm start time on Independence Day, going up against right-hander Kyle Gibson. The game will be aired on ESPN.

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Game 84: Time to turn things around

Struggling to score runs and, more importantly, win games, the Yankees made change to their 25-man roster on Thursday, optioning Yangervis Solarte, who has been awful since about mid-May, to Triple-A Scranton, and calling up third baseman Zelous Wheeler, who is in the starting lineup tonight for his big league debut.

The Yankees have lost five straight games and 9 of their last 11 as they open up a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins tonight at Target Field, where the Yankees are 16-3 all-time, and 73-24 against the Twins during the Ron Gardenhire era.

Minnesota, 38-45 and sitting in last place in the AL Central, just lost two of it's three games against the Kansas City Royals this week, and has dropped seven of it's last nine games. The Yankees and Twins met at Yankee Stadium a couple weeks ago, with Minnesota taking two of the three games.

The Yankees are struggling right now, so if there was any team they'd want to be playing right now to help turn things around, it would be the Twins -- hopefully.

Tonight's lineup against Minnesota:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
3B Zelous Wheeler
2B Brendan Ryan

Pitching matchup preview:

Every team needs to have a stopper to help end a losing streak, and with the Yankees having lost five straight, they'll be counting on Masahiro Tanaka, the team's best pitcher this season.

Tanaka enters his start tonight tied with Felix Hernandez for the American League in ERA (2.10), tied with the Tigers' Rick Porcello for the Major League lead in wins (11) and has recorded a quality start in all of his outings.

Tanaka is coming off of his second straight loss, but it has nothing to do with bad pitching. He tossed a complete game against the Boston Red Sox last Saturday, giving up just two runs, both solo homeruns, including one to Mike Napoli with two outs in the 9th to break a 1-1 tie.

On the mound for Minnesota is a guy that the Yankees are very familiar with, right-hander Phil Hughes, who has already faced his former club one this season. Hughes faced the Yankees in the Bronx in June 1, getting the win after tossing eight innings on two-run ball.

Hughes has been impressive with the Twins this season after an awful 2013 campaign, but has hit a wall lately, giving up a combined 10 runs in 12 2/3 innings over his last two starts.

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Kendrys Morales not waiting for the Yankees, signs with Minnesota

With his draft pick compensation finally gone thanks to the passing of the start of the MLB Draft, Kendrys Morales has signed with the Minnesota Twins, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The Yankees had been interested in Morales, according to Heyman in the past, but will hate to find lineup help elsewhere.

The Yankees, like I just said, were interested in him with injury concerns surrounding Mark Teixeira's wrist and Carlos Beltran's elbow.

Heyman said a couple days ago that the Yankees asked Morales and his agent, Scott Boras, to hold off on signing with a team while they evaluate the health of both Teixeira and Beltran, but obvisouly that wasn't happening after Morales had already waited through the first two months of the season to sign.

I thought that Morales would have been a decent signing for the Yankees, but only in the case that Beltran needed surgery and couldn't play. He's not an option anymore, though, so now it's time to start looking at the trade market, I guess.

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David Phelps pitches well, but the Yankees lose to the Twins

By: Adam Israel | Staff Writer

David Phelps took the mound today against the Minnesota Twins at George M. Steinbrenner Field to continue his fight for the number five spot in the rotation. The Twins defeated the Yankees 7-3 on a battle of the bullpens.

Despite the final score, Phelps pitched well, striking out four batters, while allowing two runs, including a home run, over four innings. Phelps curveball was on today as he said in an interview with Jack Curry of YES Network. Two of Phelps four strikeouts came on nasty curveballs. Besides a few blunders in the early innings, Phelps had good command and never lost control of the game.

Phelps gave up a leadoff double to Aaron Hicks in the first inning who later went on to score on a RBI single three batters later. After escaping the first inning only giving up one run, Phelps got throught the second inning fairly easily. Brian Dozier led off the third inning with a home run to left field. 

Manny Banuelos took over in the sixth inning and only lasted one out. Banuelos loaded the bases with no outs. After retiring Hicks, Bauelos gave up a two run double and was immediatey pulled from the game. Fred Lewis came on and allowed two more runs to score. After the four run sixth, the Twins did not score again in the game.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian Roberts led off the bottom of the first inning with back to back doubles off of Twins starting pitcher Kyle Gibson. Mark Teixeira drove in Roberts on a hard single to left field. The Yankees scored their third and final run on an Eduardo Nunez RBI groundout in the first inning that scored Teixeira.

After Gibson left the game after four innings, the Twins bullpen held the Yankees hitters hitless. The Yankees lack of production from their bench proved to contribute to the Yankees loss to the Twins.

Although it was a slow day for the Yankees, there were a few bright spots for the squad.

Teixeira hit the ball hard and reached base two of three times. In addition, he fielded and moved around well, which is a good sign for him.

Also, Dellin Betances continued his stellar spring, taking over for Lewis with the bases loaded and only one out. Betances did not allow a hit and struck out two batters setting down all five Twins he faced.

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YBB American League preview: Minnesota Twins

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

It seems like the Minnesota Twins have not been good since moving to their new, big ballpark, moving from the indoor Metrodome, to the beautiful work of outside baseball.

After making the playoffs in both 2009 and 2010, the Twins have lost at least 96 games three consecutive years in-a-row.

With a record of 66-96, the Twins were not very good this year, so they set out to improve on that during the offseason.

Several key pitching additions should help this pitching challenged team very much. Ricky Nolasco was their biggest signing of the winter, and Phil Hughes could also turn out to be a big signing if he's able to turn things around after ending his Yankee career in a very low note.

The Twins reportedly made string runs after Ervin Santana and Bronson Arroyo, too, but came up short on both pitchers.

Offensively, Joe Mauer has been left as the only real start in the lineup, and will probably be the only position to represent his hometown team during the All-Star Game this summer at Target Field.

The Twins moved Mauer over to first bas from behind the plate during the offseason, and that should prove to be a very smart move that not only benefits Mauer, but also the Twins, who gave him a big long-term contract a few years ago.

Justin Morneau's tenure in Minnesota came to an end over the winter when he signed as a free-agent with the Colorado Rockies.

With Mauer moving over to first base, this move won't be too bad for the Twins, especially since Morneau has not been an all-star first baseman since suffering a concussion a few years ago.

Top prospect Byron Buxton will start the year in the minors. He's the top ranked prospect in baseball by a lot of top sites, and his future arrival to the big league club will be a good addition if he pans out.

The Yankees and Twins will only have a pair of meeting this season; the first coming in late-May when Minnesota comes to the Bronx for a three-game set, and they won't meet against until July when the Yankees stop at Target Field for four games on July 3-6.

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Phil Hughes signs with the Twins on a three-year deal

It's official: The Phil Hughes era in New York is over. Hughes has signed a three-year, $24 million contract with the Minnesota Twins, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports.

Neal says that the deal with be announced by the Twins this week, and Hughes will undergo a physical in the next couple of days, at the earliest.

Minnesota locked up the 27-year-old Hughes on a three-year after a year in which he pitched to a 4.19 ERA in 145 innings last season for the Yankees -- another disappointing season that forced the Yankees to not give him a one-year, $14 million qualifying offer in fear that he would actually accept it.

In seven seasons with the Yankees, Hughes went 56-50 with a 4.54 ERA. His best season came in 2010, when he finished 18-8 with a 4.19 ERA and 146 strikeouts.

Hughes will benefit from the spacious Target Field in Minnesota after pitching in the small, hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium where he's giving up more than 70 homeruns throughout his career.

He'll be joining a rotation that recently added Ricky Nolasco earlier this week on a four-year deal, mixing in with guys like Samuel Deduno, Andrew Albers, Scott Diamond and Liam Hendriks competing for the final two spots.

Hughes was also drawing interest from the Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels.

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Waiver Wire: Justin Morneau Placed On Waivers

Since Mark Teixeira went down for the season because of wrist surgery, the Yankees have been looking for another bat, preferably a first baseman, to provide a reliable backup for Lyle Overbay. The Yankees have used David Adams and even Vernon Wells at first, but acquiring a real first baseman isn't out of the question.

A first base bat the Yankees have had interest in is now on the open market. According the multiple reports, the Minnesota Twins have place left-handed hitting first baseman Justin Morneau on waivers. The 48-hour waiver period expires Wednesday at 1 pm EST.

The Yankees are in a good position to claim the former all-star, as they are currently ahead of the Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland A's, Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox, in that order.

The waiver order is based on the American League standings entering the day, from worst to first. Being ahead of other contending teams, the Yanks have a chance to either claim him, or keep the other contenders from grabbing.

Morneau is currently hitting .262 with 14 home runs and 67 RBIs, and he's still owed $3.67 million for the rest of the season as of Tuesday, entering free-agency this offseason.

Any team that might claim him would be getting him at a good time, as he's been hitting the ball well lately, with six homeruns over his last 12 games, with 52 at-bats in that span. Three of those homeruns came over the weekend while the Twins were playing the White Sox in Minnesota.

"I don't think a hot streak or a cold streak will affect that too much," Morneau said of his trade value. "If there's a team that feels like you can contribute, if they feel like it's worth giving up something, that will happen. If not, I'm happy here."

If the Yankees did claim Morneau, the two teams would still have to work out a trade for the slugger, or the Twins could let Morneau go to the Yankees for only the cost of his salary.

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Yanks Lose In A Very Sloppy First-Half Finale

It's been an up and down first half for the Yankees, from the hot start to the sluggish past month. No player on the Yankees has had a more up and down year than CC Sabathia. After back to back solid starts, CC was looking to finish off the first half of the season in style.

Things just didn't go Sabathia's way as he endured one of the worst starts of his season, giving up eight runs, three earned, on eight hits while walking two and striking out five in only four innings. It was the shortest non-injury or rain shortened outing for CC as a Yankee since lasting only 2 2/3 against the Rays on Oct. 2nd, 2009.

"I have to make better pitches to try to help these guys out," said Sabathia. "They've bailed me out of situations all the time. It's frustrating because you didn't help these guys out."

Sabathia started the game with an easy 1-2-3 first inning, but then Minnesota cracked the code in the second, using four hits, all singles, to tag CC with a pair of runs.

After a Justin Morneau double in the third inning, he advanced to third on a Eduardo Nunez throw that pulled Lyle Overbay off the bag at first, that would have ended the inning. Instead, the next batter, Aaron Hicks, took a changeup from Sabathia and put it into the seat in left to make it a 5-0 game.

Things only got worse for the Yankees, trailing 5-1 after an RBI single by Cano in the top half of the inning, Brian Dozier doubled on a ball that bounced past Ichiro and Vernon Wells in right-center field. After Joe Mauer walked to load the bases, Morneau pitted a ball in between a pack of infielders that would fail to make a play.

"It's unusual," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Our defense has been really good this year. For whatever reason, it wasn't today. We made some mistakes and gave them extra outs, and it cost us."

The Twins scored two more runs in the inning on a missed ball by Overbay, prompting Girardi to take Sabathia out of the game after four inning with his pitch count reaching 93.

"This wasn't [good]. It's just one game, though, and we've got four days to kind of get away from it and kind of revive everything," Overbay said.

Girardi gave the ball to Preston Clairborne, who fired off a solid 1-2-3 fifth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. Adam Warren followed him with two innings of one-run relief, holding the Twins to only four hits.

The Yankees bats didn't do a whole lot to put them into a position to win, managing three runs through the first four innings off of Twins starter Kyle Gibson, who allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits over five inning of work.

Ichiro broke a long Yankee drought in the 7th inning, homering to right field off of Caleb Thielbar. It was the first homerun by a Yankee not named Cano or Overbay since June 26th. His solo shot pulled the Yankee back within four, making it 8-4.

Minnesota added another run in the 8th off Warren, then Girardi went to Boone Logan, who did a good job of setting down Mauer and Morneau to end the inning.

Yet with all the good the Yankees bullpen was doing, they still couldn't pull off anything offensively, losing to the Twins 10-4 in a very sloppy game from the Yankees. There may have only been two errors on the board, but overall it wasn't a good way to head into the All-Star break.

"It was just one of those games where everything we could do wrong, we did wrong, defensively," Wells said. "That was probably one of the uglier games seen in this stadium, for sure."

With Minnesota taking two of the three games in this series, the Twins walked out of the Bronx with a very well series win against the Yankees, who have now lost five of their last eight games.

"Losing is disappointing, no matter how you do it," Wells said. "The way this game played out, with just how ugly it was, it'll be good to quickly forget about."

The Yankees finished the first half of the season at 51-44, trailing the Red Sox in the AL East by 6.5 games, who the Yankees will meet in Boston to start a three-game series on Friday to open up the second half.

"I think everybody in here knows what we're up against and what we need to do to try to make the playoffs and win this division," Sabathia said. "It's just up to us to come out and play consistent and play the way we can play."

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Yanks Look For Final First-Half Win

The bats were quiet on Saturday,touching home plate only once, coming in the first inning, against the Twins and Samuel Deduno. Phil Hughes struck out 10, but come out on the losing end because of a trio homeruns he allowed on the day.

Now on the final day of the first half of the 2013 season, CC Sabathia will take the mound for the Yankees as they look to claim one more victory before setting off for the all-star break.

Today's lineup, 1:05 EST @ Yankee Stadium:

Suzuki 8
Almonte 7
Cano 4
Hafner DH
Wells 9
Overbay 3
Nunez 6
Cruz 5
Stewart 2
Sabathia 1

Pitching Preview:

The last time CC Sabathia took the mound against the Minnesota Twins, he gave up two runs on seven hit, while walking three and striking out nine over seven innings of work to earn the 200th victory of his career.

Sabathia dominated his last start, but was once again a victim of poor run support, taking the loss against the Royals after tossing the complete nine innings while allowing just three runs on seven hits.

The Twins will send out rookie Kyle Gibson to take the mound against the Yankees for the second time this season, after taking the loss on a July 4th meeting in which the Yankees won.

Gibson gave up eight runs on 11 hits and one walk in only 5 1/3 innings pitched back on Independence Day, and he holds a 1-2 record with a 7.27 ERA through first three big league starts.

Yankee Notes:

* Travis Ishikawa elected to become a free-agent in lieu of taking a trip to Triple-A to play with the Scranton/Wilkes-Berre RailRiders. Ishikawa played one game with the Yankees, going 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts against the Royals last Monday.

* When the Yankees resume play for the second half of the season, the begin road trip that starts in Boston for a three-game set on Friday. The Yankees have set their rotation for that series: Friday for Pettitte, Kuroda on Saturday and CC on Sunday.

* Alex Rodriguez will make the trip north to join the Trenton Thunder this week for a three-game series against the Reading Phillies. As for today, he'll be batting 2nd, serving as the DH for the Tampa Yankees in his 8th rehab game.

* American League All-Star Game manager Jim Leyland said that he'll be naming three replacement pitchers on Sunday, meaning that there's still a chance Hiroki Kuroda will be at Citi Field on Tuesday.

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Ten Strikeouts Not Enough For Hughes To Beat The Twins

The Yankees have done nothing but own the Twins this season, coming into Saturday's 5-0 against Minnesota. Looking to extend the streak, Joe Girardi gave the ball to Phil Hughes, who had been pitching pretty well lately.

On Military Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium, the Twins used a trio of homeruns served up by Hughes to come away with a 4-1 victory, their first against the Bombers this season.

Hughes had it going on for him early, picking up five strikeouts through the first two innings. But while he was still throwing the ball well, it was only a few little mistakes that really hurt Hughes.

"I thought it was some of the better stuff that he had all year long," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "His offspeed was really effective. He had the 10 strikeouts. I thought he threw the ball exceptionally well except for a few mistakes."

Robinson Cano gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a single up the middle the ricocheted off the foot of Twins starter Samuel Deduno, finding it's way into center field to score Ichiro from second.

Hughes gave the run back in the second inning when Trevor Plouffe took him deep to left field, his 10th home run of the season, to tie the game at 1-1.

After the Plouffe homerun, Hughes found a rhythm, keeping Minnesota out of the hit column up until the 7th inning when Ryan Doumit made him pay again, taking Hughes deep to right field to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.

With Hughes still pitching in the 8th, Aaron Hicks dropped down a bunt to the third base side, beating it out to begin the inning. After Clay Thomas was called out for base runner interference, Pedro Florimon took a 2-2 pitch from Hughes deep the right to put Minnesota up 4-1.

Hughes matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts, giving up four on five hits, three of which were homeruns, while walking just one on 108 pitches.

"It's been frustrating," Hughes said. "I guess the one thing I can say is, I've felt good with my stuff over the last three or four starts. After the All-Star break, that's something I can continue to build on."

Hughes, known as a fly ball pitcher, has allowed 18 homeruns this season, ranking second on the ballclub behind only CC Sabathia, who has given up 20 long ball this season.

"As a straight fastball, four-seam guy, if I miss up in the zone, a lot of times it's hard-hit fly balls," Hughes said. "That's just part of who I am, so I have to really concentrate on locating and not leaving balls over the middle of the plate."

Although not all of the blame can be put on Hughes as the Yankees bats gave him nothing in support other than the first inning run. The offense managed eight hits, but only Cano's hit in the first came to be important.

"It's just a matter of finding a way to get things going," Lyle Overbay said. "We're definitely not going to hit the home runs, and we can't wait for the three-run homer and all that stuff, but we can do other things. We have that kind of team in here. It's a matter of going out and doing it."

Twins starter Samuel Deduno also had a lot to do with keeping the Yankees' bats quiet throughout the afternoon, giving up just four hits and three walks after permitting the two hits and a run in the first inning.

"He's got some funky movement on his ball," Yankees catcher Austin Romine said. "His ball cuts, and he mixed in his curveball to keep us off balance."

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Yanks Go For 4th Straight Win With Hughes On The Mound

It took much longer to get it done, but the Yankees walked out of Friday's game with a 2-0 win over the Minnesota Twins. Rain was an issue all night long, causing a hour and 13 minute rain delay in the 4th inning, but once play resumed, the Yankees were able to put a pair of runs on the board and held on for the win.

Today's Lineup, 1:05 EST @ Yankee Stadium:

Gardner CF
Suzuki RF
Cano 2B
Wells DH
Overbay 1B
Almonte LF
Cruz SS
Gonzalez 3B
Romine C
Hughes P

Pitching Preview:

Phil Hughes dealt with the weather in his last start, leaving the game after the 4th inning because of a one-hour rain delay. Manager Joe Girardi removed Hughes from the game because he didn't feel comfortable with putting him bringing him back out after the long delay.

Though his outing was cut short, he still allowed two runs in four innings to the Royals. He's already faced the Twins this season, holding them to one run on six hits over seven innings in a July 2nd meeting in Minnesota.

For the second time this season, he'll be facing off against right-hander Samuel Deduno. Deduno took the loss for the second straight outing, Monday at Tampa Bay, allowing five runs on 10 hits, while walking two over six innings.

When facing the Yankees on July 2nd, he pitched well enough to earn the victory, allowing just three runs on five hits over six innings, but the Twins bullpen couldn't hold on for him.

Yankee Notes:

* Alex Rodriguez met with MLB investigators Friday to talk about his involvement with the Miami Biogenesis clinic. He was also suppose to play a rehab game with the Single-A Tampa Yankees on Friday, but it was rained out.

* Travis Hafner is still not in the lineup after taking a ball off his foot while taking batting practice prior to Wednesday's game against the Royals. Hafner is listed as day-to-day.

* Jayson Nix will head to Tampa on Monday to begin the next phase of his rehab. It's unclear if he'll return from the DL after the All-Star break when he becomes eligible to come off.

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Kuroda Takes The Mound In Final First-Half Start

A day after the return of Derek Jeter, the Yankees will welcome the Twins into town for the second meeting against Minnesota this season. These teams faced off in the Twin Cities last week with the Yankees walking out of Target Field with a four-game sweep.

Then with the Royals in town, the Yankees dropped the first two games of the series, but rebounded to take the final two games to send the Royals off with a series tie.

Tonight's Lineup, 7:05 EST @ Yankee Stadium:

Gardner CF
Ichiro RF
Cano 2B
Wells DH
Almonte LF
Overbay 1B
Nunez SS
Cruz 3B
Stewart C

Kuroda P

Pitching Preview:

Hiroki Kuroda will make his first start of the season against the Twins on Tuesday. Kuroda gave a good outing against the Orioles on Sunday, taking the loss while giving up only three hits over seven innings.

Kuroda is 7-6 with a 2.77 ERA on the season, and is 1-1 with a 2.62 ERA in his past five outings.

Scott Diamond will take the ball for the Twins, facing the Yankees for the second time this season. He pitched the series opener with the Yankees at Target Field on July 1, giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits, while walking one and striking out five in 6 2/3 innings of work.

The left-hander Diamond is 5-8 this season with a 5.52 ERA for the Twins this season.

Yankee Notes:

* Brian Cashman announced that Derek Jeter has Grade-1 quad strain, keeping him out at least through the All-Star break, but not ruling out a return to the DL for the Yankees' captain.

"We'll have to give it some time and see how he responds," Cashman said.

Jeter made his season debut on Thursday against the Royals at Yankee Stadium, going 1-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, injuring the quad during the third at-bat. He underwent an MRI after leaving the game, with the results showing the strain.

* Alex Rodriguez will play seven innings for the Tampa Yankees, Friday night. Cashman reported that A-Rod will not return to the Yankees before July 22.

He was scheduled to meet with MLB officials today about the ongoing investigation in the Biogenesis scandal. The details of how the meeting went is unknown.

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Trade Deadline Needs: First Base

Listen, I like Lyle Overbay and everything that he's been doing as a placeholder for the Yankees, but I don't they should stick with him for the rest of the season. The Yankees are almost never buyers for big name players at the deadline, but this year more than ever, they need to be.

Overbay was great through the first month, but he's not an everyday player and as the season continues, it's showing and a move is needed. Someone I think we can all agree on is Justin Morneau, for many reasons.

In my opinion, I think that Morneau would be a perfect in Yankee Stadium. I know that he hasn't been showing the same power he once had, but consider this: he, just like Joe Mauer, has not had the same power since the Twins moved outdoors to their nice big ballpark.

It's not easy to have a 30 homerun season playing at Target Field. Morneau has power, and he showed us some of that on Thursday with a pair a long balls, and I think if you move him into playing with the short porch in right, he'll have a grand time.

From a financial standpoint, I think trading for Morneau is a good fit. Teixeira, hopefully, will be back completely healthy next season. Morneau's contract expires after 2013, and the Yankees would only need to pay for about half of his $15 million for this season.

If you're still not convinced, here's my final selling point: Morneau is having a better season than Overbay. He's batting 50 points higher than Overbay, his on-base percentage is about 50 points higher, he's got 15 more RBI's on three less homeruns, remember the ballpark difference, and Morneau's WAR (0.9) is higher than Overbay's (0.1), for those who pay attention to WAR.

Are there other options at first base? Yes, yes there other options. But I think that Morneau is the best fit for the Yankees. And if you disagree, who you probably do, let me know and I'll be willing to debate.

Please, take to Twitter (@GavinEwbank2013) and let me know this: Yeh or Neh for Justin Morneau. 

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Bats Big Again, Yankees Sweep The Twins

Nothing is more American than baseball. And nothing is more New York Yankees than winning. Searching for their fourth straight win, the Yankees sent David Phelps out to the mound hoping he could give them that win, and he delivered.

Phelps looked nothing like he did in his last outing against the Orioles, when he gave up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings, holding the Twins to only four runs over 6 2/3 innings and was also given much support from the his offense to lead the Yankees to a 9-5 win.

"It was good -- the offense picked it up a lot, which was great to see," Hafner said. "The important thing was getting four wins, which is tough to do. Overall, we played well. Hopefully, now offensively we can keep it going."

The Yankees jumped all over Twins starter Kyle Gibson early in the game, scoring three runs in the 1st inning and two more in the 3rd.

Ichiro doubled off the right field wall to open up the ballgame, then Zoilo Almonte, batting second for the first time, single to right to set up runners on the corners with Robinson Cano up. Cano drove a fly ball to deep left field, giving Ichiro enough to tag and score from third.

Travis Hafner followed with a double to down the left field line, then Vernon Wells, playing in place of Brett Gardner, who was given the day off, didn't disappoint his manager, singling into center field to bring home a pair of runs to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

Wells was at it again in the 3rd inning, doubling into the left-center field gap to plate Hafner. Wells finished 2-for-4 with three RBI's. Luis Cruz singled to left field a couple batter later, picking up his first hit as a Yankee and driving home Lyle Overbay in the process.

Minnesota threatened to score in the first few innings, but didn't get onto the scoreboard until Justin Morneau uncorked his first of two homeruns on the game, a solo shot to right field.

The Yankees answered that homerun in the 6th inning when the managed to put up four more runs on the Twins, including a two-run double by Ichiro, who went 3-for-5 in the game, batting in Gardner's normal leadoff spot, and was a homerun shy of the cycle.

The Twins tried there best to make a late comeback in the 7th inning when they put together a couple base hits and score a pair of runs off of Phelps to knock him out of the game with two outs in the 7th. He finished with four runs on eight hits, while walking none and striking out five.

"I thought his location was better; I thought his curveball was a little bit better," Girardi said of Phelps. "He used his changeup. I thought he was a little bit better with his cutter, too."

Joba Chamberlain was brought in, but gave up a single to the first he he faced and was quickly lifted by Joe Girardi. Boone Logan replaced Joba and he, too, gave up a couple hits and a run.

In another jam in the 8th, Girardi lifted Logan in favor of Shawn Kelley and he quickly struck out the first two hitters he faced, then was able to induce a ground out to end the inning. David Robertson tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning to seal up the Yankees win.

"We were glad to see June go away and July start," Wells said. "The important thing is scoring runs and adding runs on, taking advantage of mistakes. We're getting pitches up in the zone, and we're not missing them. This is obviously a good thing heading back home, where we can obviously do some damage in our park."

Next up, the Yankees will head back home for series against the Orioles starting on Friday at Yankee Stadium. Ivan Nova will be making Hiroki Kuroda's scheduled start and he'll be facing off against Miguel Gonzalez at 7:05 EST from the Bronx.

"We're going home for a long stretch and we're bringing some momentum with us," Phelps said. "It would have been real easy to just take what happened in Baltimore and carry it into here, but we've got a good group of guys and we put it behind us."

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