George King (I'm still refusing to call him George A. King III) had a bunch of news items spaced out over two articles today.
In the first piece, CC Sabathia is expected in town tomorrow, will take his physical Tuesday and could be formally introduced as early as Wednesday. According to A.J. Burnett's agent, there has been no date set for his physical.
Later, King writes that Kei Igawa's salary has been the latest hold up in the long rumored Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera trade. Igawa makes $4 million per year, so they don't want to spend that after saving Cameron's $10-million salary. The Yankees have told the Brewers that no pitchers on their 40-man roster are available, so that's why they're settled on the enigmatic lefty. The Brewers asked for Phil Coke, Mark Melancon and Jose Veras, but the Yankees quickly shot that down. King says both sides expect to get the deal done eventually.
I hope they don't.
Now, his second article - Yankee-related news regarding Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez.
According to several baseball officials, the Yankees New York Yankees remain in the Mark Teixeira hunt. But the same connected voices insist if the Yankees don't land the switch-hitting first baseman, they will turn their money toward controversial slugger Manny Ramirez.Imagine getting Teixeira or Ramirez after already signing Sabathia and Burnett? Teixeira has already received an eight-year, $160 million offer from the Angels, so he probably won't get an offer from the Yankees, but according to King, the Yankees "are likely" to offer Ramirez three years at $20 million per.
"If they can't get Teixeira, they are right there on Manny," an official with knowledge of the Yankees' plan said yesterday.
That would be $59.5 million tied up in free agents, and we're not even talking about Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. But the Yankees were given a lot of money to spend. No matter what, it still sounds like a lot, and it's fascinating to see how much the organizational philosophy has changed after a down year.
2 comments:
The organizational philosophy hasn't really changed. Last year was an aberration. The Yankees will always spend on free agents. Sometimes it works out (Jimmy Key, David Wells, Mike Mussina, El Duque). Sometimes it doesn't (hurts too much to write the name Kevin Brown).
This is true. When you have a lot of money to spend, there's a greater margin for error. I guess that's how we essentially survived the Pavano situation.
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