Yankees Rumors: Victorino, Quentin, Span, Venable, Crisp

With word of Brett Gardner’s third setback, Ken Davidoff of The New York Post offers several outfielders the New York Yankees could possibly target this summer, including Carlos Quentin, Will Venable and Mark Kotsay of the San Diego Padres, Coco Crisp of the Oakland Athletics, Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies, Denard Span of the Minnesota Twins, Vernon Wells of the Los Angeles Angels, Chris Young of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Bryan LaHair and Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs, and Michael Cuddyer of the Colorado Rockies.

Gardner isn’t going to be rejoining the Yankees in the near future, and with his most recent setback there’s a chance that he could be done for the season.

New York has been using Raul Ibanez and Andruw Jones to fill in for Gardner, but the Yankees are worried about wearing the veteran duo out down the stretch.

For this reason, Davidoff believes the Yankees could target an outfielder this summer. While he lists the players mentioned above, he admits not all are realistic fits, mostly due to the money they are owed.

To conclude, Davidoff provides the Yankees three most likely options. They are, in order, acquiring Victorino, standing pat and sticking with Ibanez and Jones, and acquiring Venable.

Davidoff figures the Phillies asking price for Victorino will drop between now and July 31, and he notes that Venable is intriguing because he could contribute next year as well, perhaps bridging the gap between Nick Swisher’s "likely departure and the hoped arrival of outfield prospects Tyler Austin and Mason Williams."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Which outfielder, if any, should the Yankees target this summer?

_____________________________________________________________________________