Middle relief market-maker Joaquin Benoit reacts about former pen-mate Soriano

1/23/11, Boston Herald, "Last season, reliever Joaquin Benoit joined (Rafael) Soriano at the back of baseball’s best bullpen in Tampa, and he was

• flabbergasted to hear (Yankee GM Brian) Cashman’s comments.

“Wow,” Benoit said Thursday night at the Boston Baseball Writers’ Dinner. “I still don’t know what to say to that. That’s a really weird comment to make about a guy who had the type of year he had. Who wouldn’t want him? I figured he was going to be the closer somewhere, not setting up for the Yankees."...

“If (Cashman) says that, he has the power to say it. Now it’s in Soriano’s hands to make him eat his words.”

All Yankees parties involved insisted in the days after Cashman’s bombshell that there was no rift between front office and ownership, and certainly Cashman is no stranger to having a Steinbrenner second-guess his moves....

When Benoit signed a three-year, $18 million deal with the Tigers to open the offseason, it sent tremors through the game. It also ended up

• setting the market for middle relievers, a point of pride for Benoit.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I got a lot of phone calls from a lot of guys. I got phone calls saying that because I signed so early, it helped everyone else. I got a great deal. It wasn’t what I was expecting. At my age, it’s something I wasn’t even looking for after the (shoulder) surgery. I was just looking for a chance.”" ...

• 1/23/11, "Dissension in Yankees Ranks?" Boston Herald, John Tomase

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