Are the Yankees in decline? Chris Dickerson might have something to say about that

Today, the Yankees finally put the whipping mule known as Chris Dickerson out of its misery.

His only crime, as Mike A at River Ave eulogized, was to be a left-handed outfielder on a team laden - some might say top-heavy - with left-handed outfielders. He was dropped so the Yankees could sign Russ Canzler off the scrap heap. Canzler, jettisoned by the Cleveland Indians, bats right. That's how it works.

C-Dick spent last year exiled to the New York State Thruway, eating Sbaro's microwave pizza and holding his pee between the Geneva and Syracuse exits. He hit over .300, earned a September coffee break and played well with the Yankees - 2 home runs, 5 RBIs, 3 stolen bases, in 14 at bats - not that anybody cared.

This happened around the time that Curtis Granderson was turning into a blind version of Dave King Kong Kingman, chasing the elusive 200 whiff barrier, and prompting the Yankees to eye the season-long-injured Brett Gardner as a Grandish replacement. Good grief, Dickerson could have played in a bikini;  the Yankees wouldn't have noticed. Whatever he did - it just didn't matter. If it were a fight, you'd say the fix was in. Dickerson simply never had a chance.

Well, maybe he'll get one now. He's 30. He won't get many more. We have a few days to trade him. We won't get much. And who knows: Maybe the Yankee brain trust will be proven right. Maybe Chris Dickerson is just another AAAA Purgatory hitter - one who rules in Scranton but can't cut it in The Show. Or... well... maybe he'll make some team very happy, and make us once again look like an organization obsessed with how much a player is paid, rather than what he does on the field.  We are, after all, the team that spent virtually all of 2012 waiting for Andruw Jones to hit.

Good luck, Chris. It wasn't your fault. You just grew up favoring the wrong hand.