According to the New York Post, Sabathia has agreed to sign with the New York Yankees. Cashman's abrupt trip to California last night would have been hard to explain otherwise. Although it may seem premature since the Yankees have not announced anything, the Post tends to be very well connected, and the article was by Joel Sherman who is a veteran writer. I don't think he would throw it out there unless he had some confirmation.
This is of course big news for the Yankees since this was the piece that needed to fall into place. You can now expect the other free agents to go quicker. Cashman has met with several free agent pitchers including Ben Sheets, Oliver Perez, Derek Lowe, AJ Burnett, and of course Andy Pettitte. It is rumored that Sheets has been offered a 2 year, $26 million contract by the Yankees, and it has been said that the Yankees are willing to go 5 years with Burnett, a huge mistake in my opinion. They are also said to be willing to go 4 years with Lowe. Assuming the Yankees bring back Pettitte, they realistically just need to bring one more pitcher into the fold. However, if they land Sheets, I would feel more comfortable if they brought in someone else. I think Lowe should be the target at this point, because Burnett is a frequent flier on DL airlines. Lowe at his best is not better than Burnett at his best, but I am way more confident that Lowe will pitch the length of his contract with minor problems where I expect Burnett to pull a Pavano, who is the current CEO of DL airlines.
Update 10:36am - Fox news is reporting that the deal agreed to was for 7 years and $160 million.
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6 comments:
ESPN is reporting it too so I'm betting this is a done deal.
Now that you have Sabathia along with Wang and Joba. I say bring back Pettitte and sign Sheets. If Sheets gets hurt, which is likely, you can use Hughes, Kennedy, or Aceves as the 5th starter or even all 3 of them.
I wouldn't mess around with Burnett or Lowe. If you can get Lowe for 3 years then I would do it, but anything more than that is too many years. Burnett is too risky because he's always hurt.
Oh yeah...I think they need another bat in the OF..I think we will see another trade before the seasons starts too. I would love to see them sign Manny to DH. I'm assuming Teixeira is out of the picture now, but who knows maybe they will go after him too.
Right before I signed online, I said to myself that these winter meetings are going to be uneventful, since CC and Burnett aren't going to sign. It was a pleasant surprise.
I think you're right Antone, having Hughes, Kennedy and Aceves in the fold helps if Sheets or anyone else for that matter goes down with an injury. They'll also be there to cover the innings Chamberlain cannot.
Bucky, I'm happy things are starting to move too. It would have been incredibly lame if they left the winter meetings still waiting on Sabathia to make a decision. But at 7 years and $160 million (the newly reported deal) that's a decision that's pretty much made for you.
I think his agent should thank his lucky stars that the yankees didnt pull that offer, and instead increased it. Because if that offer was pulled, I think he would have been lowballed and had to accept a significantly lower contract. So congrats, yankees, for possibly saving an agents career.
Oh stop crying dear Fred, your team still have Youk the Troll.
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