Sherman Sees Yanks Offering CC $25 Mill A Year For Six
From Joel Sherman -
The Yankees want Sabathia, want him as badly as Eric Mangini wants to beat Bill Belichick tonight. All things being equal, Sabathia wants to go home to California and play in the NL, where he can hit. But as a friend of Sabathia’s said yesterday, “he is mature enough and realistic enough to know that the Yankees might not make it close. And if it is not close – no matter how much he likes the West Coast and likes hitting – he is not going to walk away from $25 million. This is not rocket science. It is about how much more the Yanks will spend than anybody else.”
The Yanks can begin revealing that answer as today turns to Friday at 12:01 a.m. It has not been the Yanks’ history to brandish a theatric offer at one minute past midnight. Nevertheless, sometime tomorrow you can expect the Yankees aggressively will extend a proposal. It might not be their best and final, but Yankee insiders suggest it will be a number that says this to Sabathia: “Anything they can do we can do better – much, much better.”
One Yankee executive said, “we have to separate ourselves.” Translation: They must divest Sabathia of his dreams of the Pacific and the batter’s box by going to a financial region relatively quickly that no other franchise would even consider, especially in this plummeting economy.
That means a bid north of the six years at $137.5 million the Mets bestowed last year on Johan Santana. My gut says six years at $150 million sounds about right to force league-wide surrender before the bidding really even gets started.
Let’s say that Sabathia stays reasonably healthy. The contract that Sherman suggests breaks down to $780,000 per regular season start – or more if he misses some turns over the six year period.
That’s crazy, no?
I’m not sure I like the idea of making the first bid and trying to make it higher than any other teams bid. I think the Yanks should let another team throw a figure out there and then go higher than that. They are basically bidding against themselves again in this situation and unlike the Santana situation, the Mets and Red Sox are probably not in this bidding war, so why go so high right away?
Antone is 100% right. If Sherman’s report is true, making the highest possible offer and then using that as a base of negotiations is about the stupidest thing the Yanks could do.
I am not sure how I feel about adding Sabathia to the team, although I can certainly see the need and agree that if the team needs pitching, it may as well get the best one on the market. But I don’t see the need to destroy the market by 10% right off the bat and then push it upwards from there.
one: i dont see how anyone can really argue against adding one of the top 3 pitchers in the league to the staff for nothing but money.
two: we all know that the yankees were going to be aggressive in their bidding, so does this really surprise anyone?
three: if they’ve acknowledged internally that this is the player they want, and need, the most, then why not make it the first priority to do what you need to do and sign him as quickly as possible?
four: its been made public that Sabathia isnt interested in this dragging out, and wants to get signed ASAP, so at least he knows the Yankees mean business.
five: noone can whine about what the yankees can spend or cant spend, shouldnt spend, whatever. its not our money, its the steinbrenner’s. and we, as fans, should be glad we are in a position to have owners who are willing to spend to get the player they want and the team needs.
six: as far as the actual $$$ and years are concerned, this is just sheer speculation from anonymous sources. people can debate the actual contract when its signed, and he’s a yankee, which isnt yet.
and to answer the actual question:
“That’s crazy, no?”
of course it is… all of these contracts are.
three: if they’ve acknowledged internally that this is the player they want, and need, the most, then why not make it the first priority to do what you need to do and sign him as quickly as possible?
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That would be fine if they only need to sign one player, but this team has more needs than just Sabathia and if they can save a little doe in his contract that might help this season or even down the road. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think the Angels, Dodgers, or Giants and whoever else might jump in on this going to give him what Santana got. The only reason he got that much is because it was a New York team and I don’t see the Mets or Red Sox getting into this too heavily.
“That would be fine if they only need to sign one player, but this team has more needs than just Sabathia and if they can save a little doe in his contract that might help this season or even down the road.”
yeah, i understand what you’re saying, but giving Sabathia this kind of contract is not going to keep them from spending money elsewhere where they feel necessary.
its not like some other organizations, who can sign maybe one big name an offseason… the yankees have stated they have money to spend, we all know they had a ton of cash come off the books, and we know theyre going to spend it.
I still don’t think that means they should spend it wildly just because they can. They should see how the market goes, not set the market. They did the same thing with A-Rod.
SHouldn’t they just take that $150 million and invest it into all three of Burnett, Lowe, and Sheets??? PLease what would you rather want? 6 years of Some fat overweight pitcher or those other three guys signed to short term deals???
It’s a no brainer!
” PLease what would you rather want? 6 years of Some fat overweight pitcher or those other three guys signed to short term deals???
It’s a no brainer!”
you’re right, it is a no brainer.
i’ll take the cy young award winner.
I don’t disagree with this approach at all. When Cashman took over the team in 2005 he looked at the ’08 offseason as the one where contracts would be off the books and he could make a splash. So, tomorrow, when the Yanks make a whopping offer to CC every team will know that bidding against the Yankees is not only dangerous, but useless. That same mentality will pop in their heads when they hear the Yanks are going after Tex, or Burnett (which i hope they avoid). It’s all a statement, and it will be loud and clear. Don’t f*ck with the Yankees and their money.
Yanks acquire Nick Swisher, FYI.
Does Swisher play mostly 1B or CF for the Yanks? I say 1B….
Does Swisher play mostly 1B or CF for the Yanks? I say 1B….
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I’ll say hopefully OF somewhere because I want Tex to play 1B. I hope Swisher can play a decent CF, because that would make his value to us sky-rocket. If he just forces Damon to play DH (and share ABs with Matsui), he doesn’t upgrade the team offensively as much. Basically, I want Swish to take Gardner’s ABs, not Damon’s or Matsui’s.
Swish and Texeria (RP) for Betemit, Marquez and Nunez. Looks like Cash fleeced Kenny Williams, in my opinion.
I’m not so sure it won’t be a combination of Damon/Swisher in CF/LF and maybe some Gardner and Melky mixed in….if they get Teixeira to play 1B. I don’t think Swisher will be the fulltime CF..at least I hope not because he has limited ability out there.
I’m not so sure it won’t be a combination of Damon/Swisher in CF/LF and maybe some Gardner and Melky mixed in….
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Too soon to know that and, frankly, it hardly matters. Now they have a LF/CF in case they get Teixeira and a 1B in case they don’t.
For the price of a utility infielder, a AA reliever and a AAA starter, the Yanks added a valuable piece to their 25-man roster. Swisher had a “bad” 2008 and still put up a 92 OPS+. If he reverts to career norms, that’s a 112 OPS+ player we got back that has multi-position ability.
Very good trade for the Yanks.