The 36-year-old Damon is apparently thinking that he would like a three- or four-year deal and the Yankees supposedly only want to give him a two-year deal. The 2010 salary is still being finalized for the Yanks but it is believed that the team's priorities are to bring back Damon and Andy Pettitte(notes).

The Daily News reports that Damon told friends earlier this year that he would accept a shorter deal from the Yanks but then his annual salary would have to go up.

However, an exec on the team has apparently told the New York Post that Swisher isn't going anywhere and the Yankees are very happy with having him out in right field.

So now Swisher can just go ahead and relax and get that tattoo he was planning to get this winter to honor his departed grandfather that will match the one that he has on his chest in honor of his grandmother. The pair basically raised him after his folks got divorced.

Halladay only has one year left on his contract but the Blue Jays let it be known the other day that whatever team is interested in Halladay and makes the best offer will get a time window to try and get Halladay signed to an extension. And the Yankees are, of course, one of a small bunch of teams that can offer Halladay massive bucks over a long term.

It is believed that the Blue Jays would like a package of players from the Yankees that would include Phil Hughes(notes) or Joba Chamberlain(notes). Toronto's last GM, J.P. Ricciardi tried to get the Yanks to trade him both of these guys for Halladay and that went nowhere.

There's a rumor floating around that the team (along with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) is waiting to throw more than $100 million at outfielder Matt Holliday(notes), who hit .313 with 24 home runs and 109 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals this past season. But GM Tony Reagins is saying that no such thing is true. "Our focus is not on him right now."

It is extremely doubtful that Reagins will get Figgins or Lackey to sign anything before Friday. Both are highly coveted on the free-agent market and would likely get paid to play more elsewhere. "They have earned the right to see what their value is," Reagins said.

Lackey supposedly wants to sign a deal worth more than $100 million and has interest from the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, and New York Yankees. Figgins is likely to sign a deal for half of that and his suitors supposedly include the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs.

Anaheim loses exclusive negotiating rights to Lackey this Friday and, according to the Sporting News, the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, and Boston Red Sox have all apparently started checking their wallets to see what they've got in there to flash at the 31-year-old. All three of those clubs have supposedly talked to Lackey's agent already. The New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners are expected to get into the fray pretty soon as well.

The main concern for most teams is Lackey's stamina. In the past two years, he's made 24 and 27 starts and had different arm injuries both years. The 6'6", 245-pounder went 11-8 this year with a 3.43 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 176.1 innings.

The Globe reports that a Japanese sports Web site is saying that the Red Sox would love to have free-agent Matsui come to their team. According to the Japanese site, Nikkan Sports, the Red Sox are ready to offer a multi-year deal to the 35-year-old designated hitter.

Matsui has made about $13 million a year for each of the last four, but he is apparently ready to lower his price for his next deal to $8 million annually. Couldn't be cheaper, right?

There is plenty of doubt in Boston that this story has any truth to it, but it's always fun when a Yankees or Red Sox player switches sides.

Rumor has it that Boras is comparing Damon to Derek Jeter(notes), according to the New York Post, and wants his client to get a three- or four-year deal for more than the $13 million per year he just made with the team for the last four years.

The Yankees are apparently not ready to shell out that kind of dough for Damon so he may be headed out of the South Bronx for good pretty soon.

There are really only three highly valuable free agents this off-season -- Jason Bay(notes), Matt Holliday(notes), and John Lackey(notes) - and the Yankees aren't expected to go after any of them, according to the New York Post.

It looks like the Yankees are closing up the wallet a little and letting a whole lot of money flow in right now instead of out.

The team may be at the point of no return on expenditures, anyway. The Yanks will spend $100 million next season Alex Rodriguez(notes), Sabathia, Teixeira and Derek Jeter(notes) alone and have another $70 million already committed to 13 other players from Kei Igawa(notes) to Juan Miranda(notes).

Holliday's agent, Scott Boras, apparently wants him to be paid around the same as Teixeira (eight years, $181 million), Lackey is expected to get around $100 million for five years, and Bay could get around $90 million for five years.

General manager Brian Cashman has apparently been saying that he'd like the team to get younger and more athletic and more versatile (and you'd hope cheaper), so paying Matsui a load of dough to DH doesn't seem to fit that mold. Damon is at least out in the field.

Catcher Jorge Posada(notes) will turn 39 next season so he may want to DH some. Alex Rodriguez(notes) may be getting some hip surgery this off-season so this team isn't getting any younger. Though they sure looked like a bunch of 6-year-olds bouncing up and down after the last out last night.

So Yankees fans may want to spend a little extra time cheering for the Series MVP Matsui when he floats by during the parade. Word has it he could be moving to the Great Northwest to play for the Seattle Mariners.

And the Phils have him for the relatively cheap price of $9 million next year. But there have apparently been discussions within the organization of trying to get a long-term extension done this off-season, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Clearly, it's on our minds, but we haven't made a decision if we will yet," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before Game 6.

While Lee was incredible in the postseason and pretty dang good in the regular season since joining the Phils, going 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA, one never knows what will happen so there are some in the organization who apparently want to wait and be sure Lee doesn't turn into the next Cole Hamels(notes), who was the MVP of last year's NLCS and World Series and then a disappointment during the regular season this year and even bigger one in the postseason.

Lee will likely want some kind of similar deal to the one his best friend and former teammate with the Cleveland Indians, CC Sabathia(notes), got last off-season from the New York Yankees: seven years for $161 million.

There is apparently some belief that this indicates that Mattingly and his current employer, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are formalizing some kind of plan for hitting coach Mattingly to take over for Joe Torre when Torre finally decides to call it quits.

Meanwhile, the Nats apparently want to name a new manager within the week. Interim manager Jim Riggleman is a possibility as well as former Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin.

Whatever happens, the coaches have all been promised jobs within the organization for next year.

Sports Illustrated has it that the two sides are planning to meet up soon enough but GM Frank Wren tells MLB.com that no such plans exist.

Other teams supposedly willing to throw a boatload of cash at the 21-year-old lefty Chapman to get him are the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners. New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals. In short, everybody wants him.

Last night, Victorino let it be known that his team isn't cheating and that Bowa has no idea what he's talking about, according to the New York Post. "I guess he knows something that I don't know about, obviously," Victorino said. "You know, everybody makes excuses. Everybody is going to find a reason. For Bowa to come out and say something like that if he doesn't know what he's talking about, if he doesn't have cold, hard facts, he shouldn't say something like that.

The New York Mets actually had the sneaking suspicion that the team was stealing signs back in 2007 and even using a video camera in center field to do so. The Mets went so far as to ask the league to investigate, which ended up going nowhere.

Plus, if the team was cheating and stealing signs, they sure aren't doing a good job of using the info. As Victorino points out, it didn't exactly help them win Games 3 or 4.

Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels(notes) apparently doesn't seem to think so. He's reportedly already saying that he can't wait for the whole thing to be over. Hamels has had a tough year being an average pitcher after a stellar 2008 that left him as the MVP of both the National League Championship Series and the World Series. And his postseason has been absolutely lousy, unless you count the birth of his first child, which happened just after his Game 2 NLDS start.

Folks in Philly are apparently unhappy with the comments of Hamels, especially since he could be the guy who starts a seventh game if the Phils make it that far, according to the Kansas City Star. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel simply sees this as a case of a young guy who hasn't dealt with real adversity before.

Oh, and take heart, Phillies fans, those Yankees and Tigers won those Series with the last two games on the road.