A-Rod has picked three teams

[Crazysilver03]

I know there is one person that hopes A-Rod voids his option, the Texas Rangers.

They are on the hook for a good chunk of his remaining contract.

[byrdz]

Classic Boras tactic to squeeze more money out of the "undesirable" team. Just so happens those are some of the highest pay rolled teams.

[giantfan]

I'm a little surprised the Giants aren't mentioned.

I dont think anybody is excited by benji molina being your protection.

[wildcard]

Last night during the game, Steinbrenner was quoted as saying that he believes something can be worked out to keep ARod a Yankee. George was not sure about Torre, but he wants to keep ARod.

ARod is not going to move to another team. He will get extend with the Yankees. That sounds pretty clear to me.

[Frobby]

Simple economics dictate that ARod will remain a Yankee. For the next three years, ARod makes $24 mm/year, with the Rangers paying more than $21 mm of the $72 mm he will make. There is only one team who can have that subsidy: the Yankees. If ARod voids his deal, that $21 mm disappears. So let's say the Yankees offer ARod an extension for 5 years at $27 mm per. To ARod, effectively that is 8 years, $207 mm, and that is what another team would have to outbid. But to the Yankees, it only costs them 8 years, $186 mm because of the Rangers' subsidy. I just don't see how anyone can outbid the Yankees, or even come close, under the circumstances. It's just a matter or whether he wants out of NY so badly that he'll take a big pay cut to get out. That doesn't sound like ARod to me.

[YardBirds13]

Simple economics dictate that ARod will remain a Yankee. For the next three years, ARod makes $24 mm/year, with the Rangers paying more than $21 mm of the $72 mm he will make. There is only one team who can have that subsidy: the Yankees. If ARod voids his deal, that $21 mm disappears. So let's say the Yankees offer ARod an extension for 5 years at $27 mm per. To ARod, effectively that is 8 years, $207 mm, and that is what another team would have to outbid. But to the Yankees, it only costs them 8 years, $186 mm because of the Rangers' subsidy. I just don't see how anyone can outbid the Yankees, or even come close, under the circumstances. It's just a matter or whether he wants out of NY so badly that he'll take a big pay cut to get out. That doesn't sound like ARod to me.

I may be wrong here Frobby, but I think that if A-Rod opts out of his current deal (which he has basically guranteed he will do), then even if the Yanks re-sign him, Texas is off the hook for the money they owed NY. Am I not seeing something here?

[Sports Guy]

Simple economics dictate that ARod will remain a Yankee. For the next three years, ARod makes $24 mm/year, with the Rangers paying more than $21 mm of the $72 mm he will make. There is only one team who can have that subsidy: the Yankees. If ARod voids his deal, that $21 mm disappears. So let's say the Yankees offer ARod an extension for 5 years at $27 mm per. To ARod, effectively that is 8 years, $207 mm, and that is what another team would have to outbid. But to the Yankees, it only costs them 8 years, $186 mm because of the Rangers' subsidy. I just don't see how anyone can outbid the Yankees, or even come close, under the circumstances. It's just a matter or whether he wants out of NY so badly that he'll take a big pay cut to get out. That doesn't sound like ARod to me.

Some team can and will come in and offer him 6-8 years for 28-35 million a year....I think the Red Sox will do this if they can unload ManRam.

The Dodgers, Cubs(if Cuban gets the Cubs, they will jump on AROD IMO) and the Angels can do this if they want as well.

[RShack]

I may be wrong here Frobby, but I think that if A-Rod opts out of his current deal (which he has basically guranteed he will do), then even if the Yanks re-sign him, Texas is off the hook for the money they owed NY. Am I not seeing something here?

The trick for the MFY's is to find a way to sweeten the deal without ARod terminating the current contract... ARod hasn't really "guaranteed" anything until he actually opts out...

[Mark Carver]

I may be wrong here Frobby, but I think that if A-Rod opts out of his current deal (which he has basically guranteed he will do), then even if the Yanks re-sign him, Texas is off the hook for the money they owed NY. Am I not seeing something here?

If he signs an extension before he opts out, all he is doing is signing a new contract that goes in effect after his old one expires after 2010.

[Boy Howdy]

I may be wrong here Frobby, but I think that if A-Rod opts out of his current deal (which he has basically guranteed he will do), then even if the Yanks re-sign him, Texas is off the hook for the money they owed NY. Am I not seeing something here?

You are correct.

If you take Yankees GM Brian Cashman at his word from earlier in the year, the Yankees will not makre an effort to re-sign A-Rod if he opts out of his current deal, specifically because it will cost the Yankees the Texas subsidy in addition to whatever new deal they would have to sign him to.

The real issue of interest here concerns A-Rod's level of loyalty to the Yanks. If they really want/need A-Rod, why should A-rod & Boras care if Texas is paying some of the check or not.

The A-Rod/Boras camp may feel so emboldened by his 54-homer year that they opt out and test the market in the belief that the Yankees will ultimately cave in and get involved.

[JTrea81]

It's A-Rod's playoff performance that will dictate his future with the Yankees. Right now in only 10 AB his has a .200 AVG and a .533 OPS with no RBIs or extra base hits. That's not getting it done and if they lose today, I have no doubt A-Rod is going to get some of the blame and that will push him out the door.

[RShack]

The A-Rod/Boras camp may feel so emboldened by his 54-homer year that they opt out and test the market in the belief that the Yankees will ultimately cave in and get involved.

I think they simply realize that the MFY's are benefiting from a huge subsidy (courtesy of the stupid Rangers) and are simply trying to exploit that. From their side of the business, right after a 54-HR year, when the FA market is v. slim, and when the MFY's have tons of other roster issues, this seems like the perfect time to squeeze Steinbrenner by using the opt-out clause as leverage.

In the crazy world we live in, if Boras didn't try to do that, he wouldn't be doing his job. While everybody justifiably talks about the crazy MFY mega-payroll, they've actually been getting ARod on a bargain contract, due to the Rangers subsidy. One way to look at this is that Boras is simply trying to make the MFY's not get ARod (aka "the best baseball player") at a bargain net price to the MFY's.

Not that I care much, because this is a contest between the richest owner vs. the richest player-and-richest-agent... so I'm not exactly rooting for either one... the most I can say is that Steinbrenner has fewer positive attributes to recommend him than ARod does... at least ARod is a great ballplayer... but, he's already on a quarter-billion-dollar contract... too bad there's not some way that they (MLB and the union) can do all this mega-buck contract stuff, just to see who can outwit who, but then take a percentage of the money in excess of 4 whomptillion dollars (or whatever) and use it to fund coaching schools for all the neighborhood-Dad LL coaches, so they'd know how to teach baseball fundamentals properly...

People like to b*tch about taxes, but I think some taxes would be great... like a tax on both sides of the MLB Empire to fund schools that teach LL Dad's how to coach properly... and to fund college for the 99% of those MiL guys who sign right out of high school but who aren't going anywhere... If they cared about their image (which they don't seem to), both sides could agree to a 5% R&D investment, just for the future of baseball...

[Boy Howdy]

The Yankees may have made a mistake by saying publicly early in the season that A-Rod opting out would end his tenure with the Yankees.

There's no good reason -really no reason at all- for A-Rod and Boras to buy that the Yankees couldn't afford him without the Texas money after watching them shell out a pro-rated $28-million deal to a broken down Roger Clemens back in May.

Only two parties benefit if A-Rod does not opt out of his current deal: the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees. If Boras believes a team like the Giants or Dodgers will pay A-Rod $250 million over 8 years (or whatever) to come break Bonds all-time home run record in their ballpark and uniform, how much is he going to demand from the Yankees to ensure that those offers can never be formally entertained?

I tend to think A-Rod/Boras will want even more to avoid opting out than they'd get on the open market. The only way they wouldn't is if they're giving some 'home team' discount to allow more money to remain for others to improve the team. Given their established M.O. - don't count on that.

The Yankees hardballed A-Rod and lost when he had the best season of his life IMO. Who's to say he even wants to stay...whether the Yankees need him or not.

All we know for sure is that A-Rod is going to get even richer this off-season.

(BTW - I doubt Torre getting fired will affect A-Rod, considering Joe humiliated A-Rod by batting him eighth in the 2006 ALDS)

[Frobby]

If he signs an extension before he opts out, all he is doing is signing a new contract that goes in effect after his old one expires after 2010.

Exactly. It is easy for the Yankees to structure this in such a way that his 2008-10 contract remains in effect.

[RShack]

Only two parties benefit if A-Rod does not opt out of his current deal: the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees.

How is it good for the Rangers if he does not opt out? I imagine they're praying for him to opt out...