Bryan Hoch reports that A-Rod and the Yankees have agreed to the outline of a 10 year/$275 million dollar contract. They are ironing out the nuts and bolts with Boras, including an incentive for becoming the game's all-time home run leader.

It looks like A-Rod is on the way back. Back after he opted out, I wrote this:


Various reports have indicated that A-Rod came back to us and is making sacrifices. Hank Steinbrenner said that he was willing to make sacrifices to remain a Yankee. The question is: what sacrifices?

The deal that the Yankees are working out with A-Rod is pegged to be for ten years, in the $270 to $280 million dollar range (with incentives that could push it over $300 million). That's an average annual salary of $27 to $28 million dollars a year. It'll be the biggest contract in baseball history. At some point in the deal, he'll have the highest one year salary of all-time. This is a sacrifice? To me, it sounds like it may be the best deal available to him. In other words, he went where the money was.

The offer that the Yankees gave him before opting out was said to be for five years, in the $140 to $150 million dollar range. Let's say it was five years, $30 million per. With the 3 years on his deal already, that would have been an eight year, $231 million dollar deal. Hank Steinbrenner had called it the start of a negotiation. So, for the sake of discussion, let's go with the Yankees adding two more years and keeping them at $30 million per. That would make the extension for seven years and $210 million, bumping the total contract up to ten years, $291 million. Minus the $21 million from Texas and you have a cost of $270 million for the Yankees (before the luxury tax and all that loveliness).

So, if he signs a deal for ten years, $280 million - assuming we were willing to go to that $291 million dollar figure I just gave - he's making $11 million less. But, we're still paying $10 million more, with the loss of the Texas money. Where's the sacrifice? Dan Graziano writes that Scott Boras comes out of this as a winner. Though, my initial reaction is no... how can you say he's a loser in this if he got his client the biggest contract in baseball history. Maybe accidentally, maybe not, but he did it and A-Rod is going to get the deal. Is it that implausible to say that they made a bluff offer on us to see if we'd jump to $350 million and then when we didn't, they came back and made us pay more than we might have, anyway? I just don't see the sacrifice here.

Dan Graziano reports that the Yankees are looking at Mike Lowell as a possible first baseman. Why would we be doing that? I mean, how much better can he be than a platoon of Shelley Duncan and Doug Mientkiewicz?

Mike Lowell has a career line of .280 (AVG)/.344 (OBA)/.468 (SLG). Mientkiewicz's is .271/.358/.407. Duncan's (in only 34 games) is .257/.329/.554. And, from what I understand (though I haven't looked into it specifically), a platoon of Dougie and Shelley is going to be better defensively. Plus, they'll come much, much cheaper with much less committment. There's no reason for us to get locked into Mike Lowell just to play first base. I'd much rather rock with Minky/Shelley or some combination thereof (or someone else...) and then see where we are next season, when Mark Teixeira could be a free agent.

In all of the news yesterday, it was reported that, according to a source, the Yankees wouldn't deal with Boras.

A player's union attorney told Ken Rosenthal that that would be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement. Then that attorney told Ken Davidoff that the union was assured that Boras would participate in the process. And then we have a quote from Hank Steinbrenner, care of ESPN:

Eric Wedge was named the American League Manager of the Year. He received 116 points (19 first place votes, 6 second, 3 third). Second was Mike Scioscia with 62 (4, 11, 9), third was Joe Torre with61 (5, 8, 12) and fourth was Terry Francona with 13 (0, 3, 4).

Bryan Hoch reports that Godzilla had arthroscopic on his right knee on Wednesday. It was performed by Dr. James Adre- I mean, Dr. Scott Rodeo at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

He'll begin rehab tomorrow and is expected to be ready to start Spring Training.

Wow. What a turn of events today, huh?

First, we get the Daily News article saying that something MIGHT be in the works.

Then, A-Rod essentially blogs that he probably went about this whole free agency thing the wrong way... (ya think!?)


Finally, we have a piece from the Star Ledger that shows that this has indeed happened and that the ownership has softened their A-Rod stance.


Jeez, at this rate, he'll be using his MVP press conference to announce he's signed a new deal with the Yanks.

Hat tip to Steve L. on the Star Ledger article.

Seriously. This is annoying. The Yankees recently improved their offer to Rivera to $45 million for three years. I mean, wow. $15 million a year for a reliever? Who happens to be 38? He also happens to be the best reliever of all-time...but still, a $15 mill average blows Billy Wagner's $10.75 million a year away.

In my mind (and probably 99.9% of the civilized world's), no relief pitcher (no, not even Mariano) is really worth that amount. However, the Yanks have opened up the checkbook for Jorge and with this offer, they've done the same with Mo. They have made a fantastic offer for an aging HoFer, and one that I really doubt any other team will beat.

So why hasn't Mo signed on the dotted line yet? I honestly don't know. The Yankees have treated him VERY well, both as a player and financially. Anyone who disagrees must not be okay with $84.5 million dollars...because that's what Mo has been paid for his career. The current offer would put Mariano at a just about $130 million earned in his Yankee career, which should blow away any other reliever.

So where are we at this point? Well, if he keeps hemming and hawing, I really wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees said, hey, this is the offer. It will be on the table for this much amount of time. After that, feel free to test out the other teams and see if their offers come close.

And if everything goes down like that...I really do believe that the Yankees wouldn't face a huge fan backlash because management did their best to keep Mariano. I really believe the sentiment would be, hey, we love you man, but if you're not happy with $15 million annually, well...you have been great but you are being unreasonable and we wish you the best.

The Daily News has the story...and it would be a doozy if it's true. The story starts out saying that the Yankees are indeed willing to bring A-Rod back...IF he signs a below-market contract (to make up for the loss of the Rangers $21 million subsidy). On top of that, the Yankees want no part of Scott Boras as part of the negotiation...which would be a major coup for the team. They apparently don't even want him in the room! THE super-agent getting tossed out of the biggest deal of his life? Because he made a mess of the player's image? Man, THAT would be some story...and it certainly could have a big impact on who works with Boras in the future.


Huh...this is all just talk right now...and of course, this could certainly be a smokescreen to make A-Rod's other suitors think that the Yankees (and their considerable wallet) are now players in the negotations. Still, who knows at this point? Maybe he does care about his legacy...if nothing else, it is making the off-season more interesting, right?

From Lisa Kennelly:


Cliff Corcoran has a nice analysis of the third base prospects, deciding that he'd take Lowell at a contract of 4 years, $40 million dollars.

Via Dave and Aziz.