This year's crop of free-agent pitchers is a particularly weak one. But, one starter who is expected to be shopped hard to the Yankees is righthander Kyle Lohse, who took the loss in last night's NLCS Game 7 for the St. Louis Cardinals. Lohse, who has had two excellent years in St. Louis -- 14-8, 3.39 in 2011 and 16-3, 2.86 in 2012, is a Scott Boras client and Boras is expected to give the Yankees the hard sell on him over the winter, especially since the Yankees have concerns about CC Sabathia's elbow, don't expect Michael Pineda back until next June and have both Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda heading into free agency. Plus, they have doubts about Ivan Nova.

Since the Yankees have already expressed their reservations about Zack Greinke's fitness to perform in New York considering his history of anxiety-related emotional problems, Boras will present Lohse as the best-available option on the free-agent market for starting pitchers. In four postseason starts this year, Lohse went 2-1 with a 3.98 ERA, a number skewed by his Game 7 performance, in which he was charged with five runs in just two innings.