For the Yankees, there was only one move that would make this off season anything short of disappointing; signing CC Sabathia. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Yankees and Brian Cashman have accomplished that goal.
Sabathia is not going to play on the West Coast. He is not going to play in the National League. CC Sabathia is going to be a Yankee, The Post has learned exclusively.After three straight days of face-to-face meetings between GM Brian Cashman and Sabathia, the big lefty decided he wants to spend the next six years of his career as a Yankee. The decision came late last night after Cashman flew to see Sabathia at his home in San Francisco. By the time the meeting was concluded, Sabathia had informed the Yankees that he had made his decision to call New York his baseball home, the Post has learned.
While it was reported that the Red Sox had met with and potentially offered Sabathia a contract, it is safe to assume that they never offered the $140 million plus that was on the table from the Yankees signifying only a passing interest in that level of investment on their part.
With Sabathia joining a rotation with Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees are still looking to be aggressive in their pursuit of either A.J. Burnett and/or Derek Lowe who are both rumored to be looking for four plus years and $15 million per year.
It will be interesting to see if this signing, as has been believed it could, will jump start a quiet Winter Meetings in Las Vegas thus far.
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Good job getting this out there…
This was probably inevitable. I’m sure the Sox don’t think this way, but I’m hoping they’ll be more aggressive going after Teix now.
The last I read was the Braves were close to landing Burnett.
The Yankees are Lannisters. No matter.
Dammit. Like Bob said, this was probably inevitable, but I had hopes of making a more serious move on Sabathia. At least to drive up his price a little. He was the only big FA I liked. Now we have to go for Sheets, Penny or Kawakami.
Theo, give me a catcher. A high quality catcher, and not just some band-aid. I want something to be excited about.
Report from Rosenthal of 7yrs $161M.
CAUTION!!! SARCASM!!! CAUTION!!! SARCASM!!!
My guess is Cashman was worried the Yankee rotation would be overmatched by Lars Anderson without the big lefty.
Now that the Yanks have landed CC and have offers out on other pitchers, I’m sure if they wanted Teixiera,they would not allow anyone to outbid them……assuming the Sox don’t land Teixeira, why not go after SS Michael Young of Texas, who is being made available…..a career .300 hitter, fits the Sox mold of not having a high strike out ratio, hits at the top part of the order, plays all the time, just won a gold glove…..he does have a 80 million contract over the next 5 years but that would be at least half of what they would have payed for Teix…..that being said, the Sox may not have to
give up the farm to get him and may be able to include Lugo in the deal….an additional bonus would be that would eliminate the logjam in the infield, had they acquired Teixiera.
No offense Vic,
The reason Texas would make Young available would be to reap 2-4 quality players in return. A team would have to give up a package of young talent for him. They aren’t moving him to dump salary. They certainly wouldn’t take Lugo in the deal. Lugo can’t hit, can’t field, and has a questionable attitude. He has ZERO trade value. Not only would the Sox have to thin the farm, but on top of Young’s salary, if Lugo WAS in the deal, the Sox would have to pay most of his salary. I would also think along with a top pitching prospect they would ask for Lowrie to replace Young before Lugo. There’s no way they would want both.
Bad idea, Young may have jsut won a gold glove, but the consensus is that he’s no longer an even adequate fielder. He was the worst gold glove selection since Derek Jeter. He doesn’t bring much to the lineup that the sox don’t already have. No way the Rangers are going to take Lugo for him in any case. Basically Lowrie can be Young without the hype or the dollars so might as well stick with him.
Sign Teix
Geez! Just did the math on 5/80 for Young. Is he really getting 16M a year??? Maybe it would be a PARTIAL salary dump. Still going to cost at least 2 quality prospects. They still wouldn’t take Lugo.
Just read the Yanks may be closing on Lowe for 4/66M. With all the ground balls from Lowe and Wang I wonder how many errors Jeter will have next year. Maybe they should move him to 1B now and get a real SS.
Thank god. NY can have him, because there’s no way I’d want to give 7/161 to a player with his body and the mileage on his arm.
He may end up being a hall of famer, but the Yankees just as easily might be paying 5/100 to the DL. I’d rather have Teix, thank you.
Also, I wonder how the struggling taxpayer in NY feels about his tax money going directly to Sabathia because of the new publicly financed stadium?
If Joe Biden can tell Americans paying taxes is “being patriotic”, why can’t Steinbrenner tell New Yorkers paying taxes is “showing Yankee Pride”?
Here’s hoping to a quick Teix signing.
Regarding Young, no thanks. The Rangers have discussed moving him to third as his range and overrated reputation is Jeter-esque…somehow people voting for the gold gloves are the only one’s who do not see it, then again not surprising considering Palmeiro won a GG playing 20 games in the field. While I want no part of Young, my understanding was that he had a 20 mil bonus and his contract is actually 5/60 mil…I would still pass and go with Lowrie.
Its too bad the Dodgers signed Blake…I liked that as a potential landing spot for Lowell if Teix is signed…they like ex-Redsox, needed a third baseman and he seems like a Torre kind of guy (old).
Absolutely, Sean O. I have a feeling the Yankees and Sabathia will both regret this, and I hope so.
Anybody see the article on John Smoltz? He’s impressed Bobby Cox in a thowing session. He’ll probably retire a Brave but the article hinted he may be willing to try on a different uniform. I would rather overpay him on a 1yr deal than than get tied up with any other FA pitcher on the market. The guy can flat out pitch and a short contract would fit Boston perfectly.
Well, the difference is, the Yankees already had a perfectly fine stadium in the Bronx. But, if we’re not the ones blowing up innocent brown people, who else is gonna do it?
I’d love to see Smoltz join the Sox but I think it is a little posturing to get as good a deal as possible out of the Braves. Nobody is likely to give him 12/13 mil given his questionable health (torn labrums aren’t the death sentence they once were but he is 43) and even a team like the Braves can probably finagle 8-10 mil to get him signed if he appears healthy.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-braves-smoltz
He mentions here not knowing whether he would return as a starter or a closer and his strong preference to pitch for Atlanta. He also mentions he is not worried about a contract until he proves to himself he can pitch (very un-schill like of him).
“Posted by Peter Gammons
John Smoltz wants to come back for another season. He is throwing and thinks he will be ready early next season. The Red Sox have been given his medicals and videos. The feeling is that Boston might be a good fit.”
So they replaced Mussina. Now they gotta replace Pettite.
………..WILD SPECULATION FOLLOWS…………
Just read Texas is asking Detroit about Sheffield. Could they be looking to swap Young, who the Tigers might like at 3B BECAUSE MAYBE…
Texas is in such desparate need of pitching and they like Bucholtz so much that the Sox have agreed to do Bucholtz for Salty if they’ll take a discounted Lugo in the deal???
Just getting crazy with the cheez whiz on this one.
Question on the Yankees
If they manage to also sign Lowe and Burnett, who’s the odd man out in their rotation?
Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Lowe
Joba Chamberlain/Phil Hughes
Have they lost confidence in Hughes? Or do they plan to make him their #5 starter and put Joba back in the bullpen as a shut down set-up man to Rivera?
That’s not putting a band-aide on their pitching staff. That’s a massive tourniquet!
Anybody still comfortable with hoping Papi and Lowell can return to their 07′ form? Anybody still comfortable with the status quo?
Yankees just guaranteed five years to AJ Burnett.
Please, please be true.
5 to Burnett? If I were a Yankee fan I would be ticked off at paying to tear down Babe’s house and then watching the next generation of Steinbrenners throw nearly $40M per year at two pitchers with questionable durability . . . for 5 and 7 year.
B., I am very comfortable with the status quo. Why would anyone think Papi, Mike, JD, Jed and Josh Becket won’t come back healthy. Injury followed by rehab followed by recovery is the norm, not the exception. Our SP, RP, Lineup, Bench, and depth are already scary.
a. If not Teix, we will get pop for the lineup from somewhere.
b. For our purposes, I would put Sheets or Penny on a one or two year, as they work their ways back into a long term deal, Against AJ or CC, the difference is minimal. On the other hand, Masterson/ Buchholz would do an equivalent job.
c. Theo will resolve the catching situation.
CC and AJ make the Yankees much stronger, but still not strong enough to beat the Rays.
Yet again the Yankees take the biggest risk in the hopes of reaping the biggest reward. Hasn’t worked out so well for them the last few years. We’ll see now. It definently makes the AL East a bit tougher. But it was already gonna be insane. So it doesn’t change much. If we do manage to get to the playoffs. The Yanks still don’t scare me much, even with Sabathia.
Teix is still an interesting gamble. I still don’t think it’s a must (and I am slightly suspicious that we are only in it to make sure the Yanks don’t get him as well) and would not be surprised at all if he goes out to LA. Pitching and catching are still the priorities in my mind. But we’ll see.
At least we’ve got one thing to thank the Yanks for. Breaking the league-wide free agency stalling and jump starting the Winter Meetings. Outta be interesting now.
I have mixed feelings about the deal. I’m not too thrilled for right now because I think him and a healthy Wang could dominate. But then I think five years down the road when he’s 500 pounds and can’t pitch 10 games. Burnett sounds the same way. The Yankees are setting themselves up for failures like Pavano all over again. Will they ever learn?