Tuesday, December 18, 2012

For Being "All Over" Ichiro, This Deal Sure Is Taking a While

The Yankees continue their aggressive pursuit of Ichiro Suzuki, as more pieces are coming off the board.  Apparently, the hold up on the Ichiro deal is that the Yankees want to pay Ichiro in gold instead of cash, in an attempt to keep Ichiro's contract off the books.  The deal was denied on the level of the commissioner's office.  The Yankees are now reworking the contract to pay Ichiro in shares of Disney and lobster dinners.  It is yet to be determined if the commissioner's office will accept this deal.

In the meantime, the Blue Jays just got a little bit better trading for knuckle-baller and Cy Young winner RA Dickey.  The Blue Jays smell blood in the water as the Yankees and Red Sox are vulnerable.  The Red Sox signed Stephen Drew to play shortstop for a season, and Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima signed with the Athletics a year after he turned down offers by the Yankees to play backup to Jeter. 

Super exciting times in baseball.

5 comments:

Rich Mahogany said...

It's hard to believe that the Blue Jays acquired Dickey, Johnson, Buehrle and Reyes in the same offseason. Rivals the Yankees signing Sabathia, Teixeira and Burnett in the same offseason.

Fernando Alejandro said...

That's two AL East teams going on shopping sprees: Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster, Stephen Drew, and Mike Napoli all going to Boston. Its more like a shopping spree at TJ Maxx rather than Nordtrom's, but a shopping spree nonetheless.

Rich Mahogany said...

The Napoli signing is still not official. Something weird is happening there.

I also find it hard to believe that Drew got $9.5 million. I expect he will continue Boston's tradition of overpaying bad shortstops, going strong since 2005.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Overpaying bad free agents period. Let's not forget these Theo Epstein classics: JD Drew, Matsuzaka, Carl Crawford, Lackey...

Rich Mahogany said...

Cherington found an innovative way to keep the tradition alive by overpaying JD Drew's brother.

The sad thing is JD Drew and Matsuzaka look like brilliant signings compared to Crawford and Lackey. It still bothers me that the Dodgers took Crawford and Beckett off Boston's hands.