Brendan Kuty of the Star-Ledger looks at how much money the Yankees can save based on the outcome of Alex Rodriguez's case. If his full 211 game suspension is upheld, the Yankees would be off of the hook for his $25MM salary in 2014 and roughly $6.8MM in 2015, good for a total of $31.8MM saved over the next two years. Meanwhile, if A-Rod manages to win his appeal, he could recoup those funds and potentially more thanks to the incentives he can get for passing Willie Mays (660), Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755), and Barry Bonds (762) on the all-time home run list. He's in line to get $6MM for each separate milestone. Here are more notes from around the Majors.
- The Pirates acquired first baseman Chris McGuiness from the Rangers because they were seeking a left-handed first bat to platoon with Gaby Sanchez and have a surplus of bullpen arms, tweets Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh shipped reliever Miles Mikolas to Texas in the deal, whom they acquired in late November from San Diego. It's possible the Pirates will use McGuiness more as a depth option than as their starter at first base against righties, however.
- Masahiro Tanaka will be more like Rangers standout Yu Darvish than big league bust Daisuke Matsuzaka, opines Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com.
- The Twins and Blue Jays took different paths towards fixing their rotations this offseason, writes Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Since the season ended, Twins GM Terry Ryan has signed Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes, and Mike Pelfrey with a series of moves that cost $84MM. Anthopoulos, meanwhile, hasn't signed any starters, opting instead to explore trades and bide his time on select free agents.
Am I reading this wrong? Wouldn’t Mays be the most attainable?
yea, he misstype.
yes you are since he 38 he would have to play at least maybe 4 more years and avg about 20 hR to catch araon
“He’s in line to get $6MM for each separate milestone, with Aaron’s being the most attainable.”
Why is Aaron’s the most attainable? Did I have a reading fail?
Hmmm … I’m also not understanding the last bullet point. How are the Blue Jays “fixing” anything? They haven’t signed or traded for anyone of note. They lost Josh Johnson. I guess most people wouldn’t associate standing pat with fixing a problem. Sure they “might” sign someone or make a trade but to date this looks like whole lot of nothing.
Hisashi Iwakuma has better numbers than Yu Darvish.
how much better because looking at the stats, yu a better strike out pitcher and iwakuma has avg better ERAs in two years then yu other then that they are pretty even
Most underrated pitcher in baseball. Blows my mind how all the articles about the Mariners this offseason don’t even mention him as one of their studs.
2012-2013
Darvish fwar: 9.8
Iwakuma fwar: 4.8
Darvish FIP: 3.28
Iwakuma FIP: 3.77
Darvish ERA: 3.34
Iwakuma ERA: 2.84
Darvish IP: 401
Iwakuma IP: 345
Seeing all those upvotes upsets me, Darvish is undoubtedly a better pitcher than Iwakuma and is 5 years younger.
30 out of 30 GM’s would take Darvish over Iwakuma, despite the downvotes.
Iwakuma is underrated no doubt, but look at their home ballparks. No contest.
as a dodger fan if they got tanaka i wouldnt mind if he turn out to be Hideo Nomo like. when he pitch for the dodgers not the nomo outside of LA
Zach Links, you’re not messing with Sasquatch here. We know maths and Mays is the closest to A-Rod.
A-Rod will most likely get a 50 game suspension if anything. He didn’t fail a test. So everything else is just paperwork. Rules go both ways.
Wow, the Alex Rodriguez case is definitely a big deal for the Yanks and their immediate future. I hope after all this is said and done that they have learned a lesson, and stay away from ten years contract s with just about any ballplayer regardless of #’s in their stat sheet. Alex was a bust and as it turn out a big mistake, and they are paying for it right now. Alex has turn out to be on and off the field exactly what a Yankee should not be, the opposite of a Derek Jeter.
Nice minor move by the Pirates in picking up McGuiness. May not have a big impact, but could help the ball club this season.