Bronx, N.Y., December 2, 2007 — Heard any good Yankee rumors lately? Just kidding. If you’re breathing and linked to the rest of the planet in the most rudimentary fashion, you know New York (and baseball) is abuzz with the Yanks’ attempts to trade for Minnesota southpaw Johan Santana. And if you have a 24/7 hookup? Well, forget the cold. Back away, step outside and clear your head.

OK. Feel better now? Whether you are happy or sad about a Santana trade, what seems clear is that once it is [probably] completed, New York will have one less center fielder on its roster. How are the Yanks to respond to that shortage?

Things were brewing for Major League Baseball and their fans to have a big brouhaha over center field as the 2007 campaign wound down. Ichiro Suzuki was reportedly unhappy in Seattle, and Atlanta was making noises that they had seen enough of perennial gold glove winner Andruw Jones. If that wasn’t enough, Minnesota’s coming fiscal crisis was two-headed: Center fielder Torii Hunter had been with the team several years longer than Santana, and though Johan’s free agency is impending next year, Torii’s time was now. In addition, helping to lead Philadelphia to its first division title in 14 years was free-agent Aaron Rowand, a transplanted American Leaguer enjoying his finest season in center field at exactly the right time.

But that was weeks ago, ages (or no time at all) in postseason baseball time. Suzuki signed an extension with Seattle before the season ended. And Hunter agreed to a big-bucks, five-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim about one week ago. One hears barely a whimper about Jones, who seems to be dismayed that his own club made no offer at all. Andruw prepped for his unwanted sojourn into free agency in the exact opposite manner of Rowand, by having the worst year of his career.

This seems to put Rowand in the driver’s seat. Not only is he the best (and perhaps only) quality center fielder out there, he faces the prospect of having the Yankees join in the bidding, always a good thing for players selling their wares on the public market. Word is he wants five, even six years, at more money than the Phillies will apparently offer to retain him. The Yanks face the prospect of paying mega bucks over mega years to keep five players (so far) from the 2007 squad, not to mention the money it will take to entitle them to Santana’s services in the coming years.

The club’s best alternative seems to be to resort to their 2006 solution, Johnny Damon, who struggled with his health and playing level in much of 2007. Johnny broke a bone smacking his foot against Kansas City’s center field wall in 2006. Giving it time to recover in the off season put him behind in his conditioning, and he wasn’t playing like his old self until well into the season a year ago. Melky Cabrera flourished replacing him, but he is an asset the Yanks cannot afford to keep with Johan lurking.

Damon doesn’t have a lingering injury now, and could return to center field. Veterans Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu would be stretched covering Yankee Stadium’s expanse with Johnny in the upcoming year, but Shelley Duncan can spell them when he’s not at first. Bronson Sardinha and Brett Gardner can be promoted to the big club for spot duty too, with Jose Tabata and Austin Jackson prepping for future campaigns down below.

Rowand at big bucks, for plenty of years, or Damon as the centerpiece of a veteran outfield? But there is a third way, and a good one: Andruw Jones. Yes, he had a bad year. A .222 ba and .311 obp, are you kidding? This is a player superagent Scott Boras is trying to get big bucks over multiple seasons? The problem is those two elements do not fit into a coherent strategy. It’s big year first, then big contract. Boras knows better than most the timing is all wrong. It is exactly Jones’s diminished value that makes him a “player,” so to speak, in the Yankee future.

The Yanks and Andruw may have a fit because the Yanks need a center fielder, and Jones needs something to change how he is viewed. Andruw’s shot to get the kind of money he wants at the years he wants is to prove himself over the short term in some high-profile, high-pressure spot. The Yankees have that spot.

So does Jones want to sign a middling contract in a medium market with a team hoping 2007 was a fluke? Or does he want to play on the biggest stage and prove that he still has game? The Yanks should throw significant money at Jones on a one- or two-year deal. Good money, backed by incentive cash too. No reason to humiliate him, the win/win is that he rise to the occasion in the Babe’s house. Andruw repeated as the 2007 NL gold glove winner, but most report witnessing diminished range. His reputation as a big-time player hasn’t been this low since he leaped to stardom on the strength of two home runs in his first World Series game 11 years ago. He became a star in the Bronx; he could do so again.

The Yankees, for their part, risk little. And it is a time-tested strategy. They are signing the best player, trading for the best pitcher, have re-signed the best closer. That is three “bests,” not 25. The team acquired an immature Ruben Sierra to carry them to a Wild Card in 1995, then unloaded him for Cecil Fielder and won rings the next year. They received huge boosts in their 13-year playoff run from the likes of Darryl Strawberry, Chili Davis, Tim Raines, David Justice, Glenallen Hill, Robin Ventura, and Aaron Boone. All of them were good players. None were at their peak in their Yankee years. It’s worth the gamble that Jones can reclaim his stroke in the Bronx. Even if he can’t, he’ll be patrolling their big center field.

Championships are won up the middle, in medias res, as the Romans would have said it. Johnny Damon could complement the play of Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Robbie Cano, Johan Santana, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera in the quest for number 27. But Andruw Jones could too.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!