| Welcome to the Bird's Nest. If your a Cardinal's fan that wants to talk baseball, here's the place. If your a Cubs fan, go away! |
| Yanks make huge offer to C.C. | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 15 2008, 12:28 PM (248 Views) | |
| RedbirdFan18 | Nov 15 2008, 12:28 PM Post #1 |
![]()
Owner
|
Via Mlb.com NEW YORK -- The Yankees made a record-breaking six-year, $140 million offer to free-agent starter CC Sabathia on Friday as the first part of their plan to overhaul their starting rotation, Hal Steinbrenner, one of the team's co-chairmen, confirmed. And offers to pitchers A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe won't be far behind. Reached at his office in the Yanks' Tampa Bay Spring Training complex, Steinbrenner was asked by the Associated Press if an offer was made to Sabathia. "Yes," Steinbrenner said. "And we're prepared to make offers to Burnett and Lowe." Steinbrenner said he felt the Yankees will be successful in the free-agent market. "I'm starting to become very optimistic," Steinbrenner said. "I think it's going to be mutually beneficial to us and for these particular players that we're after for them to join the Yankees." Sabathia's lead agent, Greg Genske, did not immediately return a phone message seeking confirmation. The offer is the largest potential contract in history for a pitcher, topping the six-year, $137.5 million deal signed earlier this year by Johan Santana after he was obtained by the Mets in a trade with the Twins. Considering the timing of the offer, the Yankees took the first opportunity they could to begin luring one of the game's top left-handed pitchers to New York. Major League teams could not discuss contract details with other clubs' free agents until midnight on Friday, and the Yankees reportedly made their first offer to Sabathia the same day. Despite Sabathia's stated preference to remain in the National League and to pitch in his home state of California, the Yankees are banking on the hope that they might lure him to New York with a richer contract than any other team can afford. "New York deserves a champion, and that's part of our mission statement," Yanks general manager Brian Cashman said recently. "Our ownership has always been fantastic in giving us the resources we need to fix what's broken. They'll be there again for us." It helps, of course, that when Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano all filed for free agency earlier this month, it gave the Yankees nearly $90 million of payroll flexibility that they didn't have last season. They plugged a hole at first base when they traded for Nick Swisher on Thursday, and so the Yankees could potentially spend the bulk of their extra cash on starting pitchers -- namely Sabathia, Lowe, Burnett or some combination of the three. Yet even the richest contract offer in history for a starting pitcher might not be enough to lure Sabathia to the Yankees, considering that the Angels, Dodgers and Brewers, among others, have all expressed interest in the game's premier free-agent starter. One season after winning the American League Cy Young Award in Cleveland, Sabathia produced a 17-10 record in 35 starts split between the Indians and Brewers. After joining the Brewers in a midseason trade, Sabathia finished 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA, striking out more than five times as many batters as he walked and throwing seven complete games, three of them shutouts. |
![]() |
|
| kingstoncards | Nov 17 2008, 08:37 PM Post #2 |
|
Head Moderator
|
Yanks will spend a lot this year but they can't sign everyone. They have a lot of holes. Posada is no longer an everyday catcher, they need a quality backup (not Jose Molina). Matsui is now a DH not an everyday OF. Same could be said of Johnny Damon but you only need one DH so he's stuck in LF. Melky Cabrera has a quality arm but not a gold glove and a light bat. Robby Cano took the money and stunk this year. If he rebounds he could win a batting title, if not.........and I don't see Nick Swisher as the answer at first. Mariano is still great. Jaba will be great. Jeters lost range. A-Rod.....can he win? I don't think a couple or 3 high priced pitchers will fix that team. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · The Hot Stove · Next Topic » |







9:48 AM Jul 11