Yankees Discussing Deal With A-Rod

Fat chance.

And... please don't give him a full no trade clause.

If this is true, Boras is losing credibility by the second!

As a Yankee fan, it's a complete shock to me.

I still don't want him back, unless it's for less money and he apologizes. Dropping Boras would go a long way as he could blame everything about the opt-out on him.

Remember, the Yankees' strength in future negotiations is at stake. But I think if they play it up - "ARod dropped his agent, came begging back to us, etc." then that won't hurt them.

Anyway, since the Yankees were reportedly offering a 5 year, $140M extension, that would be 8 years, $221M for ARod. Minus the $21M from Texas gives him 8 years for $200M.

That's the price I'd be happy with.

If it's 10 years, then $235M.

Another factor is that Boras gets 5%. So if ARod does it himself, add on around $10-15M to the value.

Dropping Boras makes up for more than half the $21M ARod would have to "give back" right there.

10 years is too long. I'm fine with 27 million a year if it's about 7 years. He should be good until 38 or so at least, 42 is just too much gambling.

Andrew -

Right, but in 2018 ARod could be worthless as a baseball player. There is no chance he'll be among the best players in the game then.

Nearly EVERY long term deal (say 5+ years) ends up bad at the end of it.

I'm trying to think of some that haven't been bad - that is that the last year or two are equal or lower to what the player would have gotten as a FA on a one or two year deal - and I can't think of any.

I'm sure there must be some, but it's not easy.

Maddux in Atlanta, I guess. Maybe Bernie Williams? Manny might be, but we don't really know yet.

(note I'm not considering pre-FA eligibility contracts.)

Yes I read the article, and I read the excerpt you posted..... so? The Yankees said they were absolutely finished with him if he opted out, and he did. Now they want back in.

Oh, and bobo, you're an idiot. He doesn't owe an apology to anyone.

Seems to me some team could still make a better offer than the Yanks. Instead of trimming $21M to go back to the Yanks, go to the Cubs for a little below market value, in order to bring the Cubs a WS. If he went to Chi and they won the WS, in year 100 of the drought, he would be BELOVED and RICH.

A-Rod's ten-year deal back in 2000 certainly worked out. Maybe he won't be the best player in the game at 42, but he's got a better chance than anyone of still being relatively productive at that age. The man is one of the best players in the history of the game. He doesn't have an alcohol problem, or a weight problem, or a drug problem (that we know of). If Barry Bonds can still put up amazing numbers at the age of 45 even without the help of steroids, why count out Rodriguez?

Eh... apparently Rolen is available.

If St.Louis picks up 6 million or so, the yanks can have a gold glove defender at 3rd for 10 million a year.

I don't buy it. A-Rod is Boras's golden child and he would never leave his agent out of these talks.

Arod owes a few apologies bobo. To baseball for making the announcement during the world series. To the Yankees for not accepting their calls like a professional. No need to apologise to the fans - who have flooded NY radio airwaves with all this crap that he wasn't a true yankee and let him go somewhere else and play if its not the yankees its not baseball mentality. Same Fans who boo'd him during his first mvp campaign - same fans who have yet to call for Wang to be traded for imploding in the playoffs but Arod didn't come thru in the clutch screw him let him walk. Should he negotiated in good faith with the Yankees and then after 10 days opt out? Maybe. But I have a feeling he would have opted out anyways to use Yanks offer to get more with other clubs anyways. Did it cost him anything to opt out - not apenny . Since when should he be concerned with Yankees finances. Torre turmoil - no idea whether posada and Mo were coming back - what the pitching staff was going to be that was all up in the air during his opt out window. Why would he take a deal with the possibility that everything didn't go yankees way and they "rebuilt" for 2 yrs - Who would the fans boo? Arod of course for not carrying the team. He wisely opted out and will get what he deems fair from someone - no apologies need in my opinion.
That said - you're not an idiot Bobo just different point of view than me and just as justified as mine

red sox fans take it easy with youre know it all posts.the red sox are very smart i will say that but they would sign arod and they gave jd drew 14 or 17 million a year and he is an absolute bust,manny's contract doesn't look good now at 20 million a year and he has 2 years to go and dice k when you factor in the posting fee wich you have to is getting paid around 17 million a year wich is almost the highest paid pitcher in baseball and you have the second highest payroll in baseball.all teams have dumb contracts,the yankees have more i agree but they are the richest team in baseball,hands down and they will get a huge break financially for their new stadium and arods contract will be fully paid from the extra attendance that he brings in.they drew over 4 million fans,before arod they didn't come close to 4 million fans.a million extra fans and that's conservative at 30 dollars a ticket is 30 million dollars plus food,memorabilia,parking,etc.....,the contract pays for itself.the extra money mo might get is offset by girardi's lower contract,posada is getting around the same annualy,clemmens 22 million off the books,arods 17 mill gone,pettite's 16 mill gone,menkewitz 4 or 5 mill gone,right now they are sitting at around 139 mill in payroll,the same or lower than boston.that will change but they are getting smarter and i am glad they are learning from the red sox.they have three young potential great pitchers that all teams ask for with 5 more potential good prospects in the minors,all they need is an ace pitcher without trading their studs.they are going to have a real nice pitching staff next year,you'll see.

This is definitely a ploy but I think it could be going one of two ways. The most obvious is Arod/Boras actually creating a semi-realistic market (this is the most likely especially since susoiciously we have never heard 10 275 until now). However, not to be overlooked is the idea that the Yankees realized they really do need Arod. Now how do they save face and get him. I highly doubt that Arod is negotiating without Boras (off topic but quite amusing that boras is one letter away from borat). Anyone else find the idea that the Yankees are going to stop dealing with Boras laughable? They whine about the 20 mil a lot for someone who is building a billion dollar stadium and just overpaid for posada and rivera by about 20 mil. It is interesting that the Yankees are acting like big shots in power on this one but if the offer is true then I find it quite telling that it is actually substantially bigger than the other rumored offer. My guess they phoned in this offer to Boras(not in the room, not negotiating) and devised a plan to revive everyones image except for boras because it does not matter to him if people hate him.

Just a quick correction on a few points made in this post.

A-Rod signed that monster deal 7 years ago. In that time no one has come within $4m-5m of his average salary. I don't buy the line that in 2014 his $30m will be peanuts. While the average contracts have gone up we have seen fewer and fewer mega contracts handed out. GM's are getting smarter about both years and dollars. Well, at least some GM's are ...

Point 2 - Manny's contract has been an albatross. It's all good now because Boston is winning. However, Manny was pushed through waivers several times. The Sox would have traded him for virtually nothing. The guy was a salary dump. The important part of the story is that Manny has always played up to expectations. Even in this best case scenario the Red Sox seriously considered just dumping him. It is SO hard to justify any contract north of $20m - especially when it lasts for 5 or more years.

bjsguess, Manny was pushed through waivers when he only had a few seasons left, all at $17 million per or higher. The Red Sox enjoyed his great production for $13.5m and $15.5m the first two years of the contract. This is a guy with a career .313/.409/.593 line, with 490 HR. The contract was expensive, sure, but they have never had to pay him for crappy production. Even in 2007, his worst year since he was a rookie, he still his .296/.388/.493 with 20 HR in 483 AB. That would be damn fine production for 95% of all ballplayers, and Manny did it at age 35 while losing time to injury.

bobo, about long-term contracts... what about the Red Sox signing Pedro Martinez? He played 7 years for them. He averaged: 17-5, 198 IP, 240 K / 44 BB, 2.52 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, .206 BAA

Admittedly that covered his age 26-32 seasons. But still, it was a terrific signing for the Sox; they paid him $87 million total, or about $12.4 million per year.

tmichalski, it does constitute a new contract - it's a contract that never existed before, that involves money that was never on the table before. That's what a new contract is.

But I think that you're right that A-Rod would have to fire Boras. A-Rod has a contract with Boras that states Boras gets 5% of any new contract A-Rod signs; so long as that contract is valid, it wouldn't matter if Boras actually negotiated the new contract.

"Legally Scott Boras would be entitled to his commission whether or not he had direct involvement in negotations or not as resigning with the yankees would not consitute, technically, a new contract, as he resigning with the same team.

Rodriguez would have to completley refute Boras, Sign with a Different Agent, and Sign with a different team to not be on the hook to Boras for 5%.

The only reason why i know this is because my girlfriend is in school to be an agent right now, and she just had to study some case law on an issue to similar to this.

Sports Agents are exactly the same as Talent Agents and are exactly the same as Employment Agents. "

I'm about 99% sure that someone as sophisticated as Boras would include some kind of nonsolicitation provision in his engagement letter. If he did, then Boras can probably make a claim for his cut, even if ARod does dump him and hire another agent. For a commission that large, it would almost certainly end up in court, and I'm fairly confident that Boras would win, unless the engagement letter was poorly drafted.

Why all the Boras haters? If you were the best player in baseball, you'd want to reap the benefits of superstardom, and that means the absolute best agent.

I absolutely dispise Yankee fans and media for the way they've treated A-Rod. He's no saint, but I hope that they get what they deserve... a really bad 2008.

quote from Hank Steinbrenner..
"THE YANKEES WOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO RE-SIGN THE THIRD BASEMAN AS A FREE AGENT"

good thing Hank Steinbrenner means what he says eh??

i can understand ARod wanting the Yankees into the discussion, its pretty clear he would love the Yankees and their ability to spend alot of money. ARod can "use" the Yankees to drive up the price from other teams. to me thats obviously whats going on.
i dont understand why the Yankees would want back in. the Yankees have said flat out they would not sign ARod back, so if they even get back in attempting to sign him they lose credibility. whos going to believe anything Steinbrenner has to say in the future??

8 yrs is more realistic. a 10 yr contract from age 32 on is down right insane. He is worth 27.5 but over 7 or 8 years.

It always cracks me up when Yankees fans say that just because they never won a title with Arod that the team will be better of without him. Simple logic reality check: If you loose the best player in baseball it does not make your team better.

I completely agree that losing the best player in baseball can be better for the team in the long run but I do not recall ever hearing a Yankees fan suggest that they should take a few steps back so they can be better in a few years. I mean they just got rid of a manager who was one vote short of being second place in the manager of the year vote because he did not win the series recently enough. It seems like there is some yankees cult canvassing the streets handing out pamphlets that proclaim that by losing Arod the yankees will cleanse their souls and the curse will be lifted as they magically transform back into the world series express from a few years back. Yankees seem to measure each season a failure that they do not win the world series. Losing Arod makes next year much more likely to be viewed a failure (not something they would be looking forward to given all the recent turmoil).

" I do not recall ever hearing a Yankees fan suggest that they should take a few steps back so they can be better in a few years."

It's true that Yankees fans do seem to have a "win now or else" mentality. A big part of that is because the TEAM has the same mentality. It wasn't the fans who fired Torre. Posada and (presumably) Rivera weren't re-signed because they'll be helping the Yankees win in 5 years, and those were the team's decision. That doesn't make the team OR the fans right - it's a terribly shortsighted way of approaching the game. That's the main reason that the Red Sox look to be stacked with young talent for years, and the Yankees are reverting to their old methods of signing aging veterans.

And bob, I agree completely that if the Yankees handle the situation right, they will come out ahead, public-perceptionwise. Hell, at this point A-Rod could save a lot of face by firing Boras and taking a significantly reduced contract. It's not going to happen, but he could if he wanted to.

"Maybe the weight of his contract, and his "persona" outweigh his onfield contributions."

Sure, maybe. Those do impact the team's performance, for certain. And maybe also, the OTHER 24 GUYS they fielded during those "with A-Rod" years weren't as good as the following years. Which would you rather have, 1 A-Rod and 8 Juan Pierres, or 9 Miguel Cabreras?

"1. Texas attendance fell when A-Rod played for them. He was not the revenue stream Boras had promised."

Didn't he basically singlehandedly spur the rise of Fox Sports South West or whatever the network is called?

As a Braves fan, I watched "Miggy" quite a bit over the last couple of years, and, tell you what, I'd be real careful about committing to him.

He's out of shape, likes to party, and I've never seen a player "matador" so many ground balls in my life.

His fielding pct has steadily dropped every year he's been the bigs. But of course, he can rake.

Maybe the graveyard atmosphere in Florida contributed to the lazy attitude, and he'll find religion in a more demanding situation.

'"Which would you rather have, 1 A-Rod and 8 Juan Pierres, or 9 Miguel Cabreras?"

That's a totally reasonable question.'

Your numbers are off 1 Arod = 1.5 Miggy Cabrera's.

Hypothetically
Arod gets 10/275
Cabrera gets 11M, 14M, and 8/160 - 3 premium prospects + horrible defense

Not saying Arod should be signed, but it's not that much different than Cabrera and you get to keep your top prospects and get better defense.

Teams would probably be happy to see A-Rod resign with the Yankees. There just aren't that many teams in the market for his services. He is just FLAT OUT not enough of a bottom line player to legitimize the deal he is seeking. Boras, the idiot, put his client in a position where ONLY the Yankees can realistically meet his demands. A-Rod makes too much for free agency.

"Your numbers are off 1 Arod = 1.5 Miggy Cabrera's." ...etc., etc.

Completely, totally missed my point.

"You need to rent Major League, my friend."

Ha! That's exactly what I thought when watching him.

Gah... "Contract talks positive?"

This blows. That's ~30 million on the books for the next 10 years.

And the Yanks lose 2 draft picks. This blows major chunks.

The Boss would never have done this. He would've stuck to his guns and given the big middle finger to ARod after everything that's happened.

"Sterling apparently has a source close to Rodriguez saying that the chance of A-Rod re-signing is 101 on a scale of 1 to 100."

HA!

Its 101 on a scale of 1 to 100 that Sterling wants to continue squealing An A-Bomb for A-rod. Like he knows a god damn thing about anything involved in the contract negotiations.

Man I would suck the Yankees GM because I would never give a 32 year old a 10 year contract.

I would also never pay anyone over 20 million unless there were extenuating circumstances.

Pardon me for trying to be fiscally responsible.

What an asshole. I can't believe he didn't just sign an extension.

Anyone arguing that the Yankees can save face because A-Rod approached them on hands and knees obviously ignored this quote, which echoes what the Yankees insisted all along:

"I can reaffirm that if Alex Rodriguez opts out of his contract, that we will not participate in his free agency," Cashman said after the second day of meetings concluded. "That is accurate and that is definitive."

A-Rod opted out. That makes him a free agent. Discussing a contract with a free agent would qualify under any definition of the word as "participation" in his free agency.

Oh, and just in case you thought Cashman was engaging in a lot of puffery, he reiterated that his ultimatum was "accurate" and "definitive."

The Yankees have already backpedaled on their organizational guarantee, regardless of whether they re-sign A-Rod. They look as foolish as A-Rod, and their attempt to cast discussions as being "on their terms" only exacerbates their foolishness, because it's such a transparent attempt to cover up their hypocrisy.

How can the Yankees not lose face with this deal?

Read those quotes again. They are unequivocal. A-Rod WILL NOT be a Yankee if he opts out. There wasn't some asterisk that mentioned that if he apologies and takes less money that they will resign the guy. How can any agent or any player ever take an ultimatum from Cashman or ownership seriously? They CAVED big time and have set a dangerous precedent for future negotiations.

And it's not like he's crawling back. Yankee fans seem to think they are getting over on A-Rod by EXTENDING his contract an additional 7 years, paying him an additional $3m/year AND losing the subsidy from Texas. That's some shrewd negotiating!

As for money left on the table from a previous offer that's all fluff. The Yanks never put forth an offer. The idea that A-Rod was going to get $35m was put out there by Boras. No team was offering something like that. The Yanks basically fell victim to department store shopping. You take an item, market it up 50% and then have a 30% off sale. Makes people feel good that they bought something "on sales".

The lemmings will believe that A-Rod saw the light and spurned all sorts of money to return to his beloved Yankees. Management thinks they really stuck it to Boras because A-Rod didn't get 10/350. The rest of baseball just shakes it collective head and chalks up another crazy situation presided over by the Evil Empire. Scott Boras continues to laugh all the way to the bank.

Great posts walkoffblast and DunkinDonuts.

Bobo said "As a Yankee fan, it's a complete shock to me."

It really shouldnt be. I think for once people actually underestimated Cashman. I have said it in most previous A-rod posts and now i should say it again- there was no good tactical purpose for Cashman to say he would pursue A-rod, it only drives up his price dramatically. Like it or not, A-rod is going to be in pinstripes next year.

"Besides, 8/241 vs 10/275 ~ well, thats less money annually which means that they saved money in the long run even if they went a year or two over what they initially said."

Wrong again. I found something that is either an extremely interesting coincidence or lends itself to increased validity in this rumor.

If you take the rumored 241 minus the 21 from texas and divide by 8 years you get 27.5 a year on average. The exact number mentioned in the new rumor except for 10 years. So Arod crawled back to the Yankees and they upped their offer two years. He must have been really sorry. I think they will write the contract so it looks like he makes less the next few years even though in guaranteed contracts all that really matters is the total number anyway.

Well this is interesting.

It shows that:
Arod needs the Yankees
The Yankees need Arod

Anyone that thinks differently is in denial.

Cashman called Boras' bluff of 350M and boras loses big time if this deal does actually go down without him.

Rodriguez also did a ton to build Boras's wealth and reputation. Its a mutually beneficial deal.

donuts
bubba crosby is our centerfielder

I,too, feel disgusted.

I have a question out there for anyone who wants to answer this.

If A-Rod has indeed negotiated or is negotiating with the Yankees why haven't we heard that Boras has been fired?

Wouldn't that make prime-time news. I don't know if thats a stupid question or not so forgive me :)

(Let me take this opportunity, again, to say that I love that we're now the most annoying fanbase. It makes me laugh.)

(Sorry for the 18 posts, I'm new...)

ARod doesn't have to "fire" Boras just to negotiate with the Yankees. Boras probably gave him some advice on what terms to seek, and agreed to step out of the spotlight, "for the good of the deal". Once the general terms are set, someone besides Boras can iron out the paperwork (one of his associates.)

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing that if ARod fired Boras and then signed a deal the next day, he'd probably spend more in legal fees than he'd save in commissions. Someone said above that he'd still owe the commission to Boras unless he signed with a new agent.

bjsguess - I think us cubs fans with no sense of prospective will not propose any crazy type trades like we did with Jones - instead I say we incredibly overhype Rich Hill to the point where we won't trade him for Bedard AND Markakis... I think thats seems like a nice change of pace.
I do have a question though - why not just offer arbitration - let Arod accept and then you have a full yr to work out a deal. Neither side looks horrible Yanks brass can claim they didn't thin khe would accept - Arod could use it to prove he wanted to stay. Then whatever he gets in arbitration - mulitple it by 8 and subtract $21 million and theres his new contract

Whoah is this surprising (sarcasm here). Who the hell is going to sign A-rod fo all that money he's asking only the Yankees have the money. If A-Rod drops Boras that'll be funny. I expect a 5 year deal for about 27 million because A-Rod came to the yankees to kiss their ass.