I do not like to pretend that I have been up on the Major League Baseball free agent market, because, to be perfectly honest, I'm not. But I do know this much: The Yankees offered ace pitcher CC Sabathia $140 million to put on the navy pinstripes almost three weeks ago, and the guy still has not signed. When you get that kind of money thrown in your face and sit on it for that long, you either don't want to oblige the hand that's feeding you or you are completely nuts.
Well, last time I checked, Sabathia is a pretty level-headed guy who is exercising his right to play the free agent market, which seems like a pretty sane thing to do for someone who ended the regular season 11-2 for Milwaukee and single-handedly landed his new team in the playoffs. That rules out crazy, which means this guy is not sold on being a Yankee and therefore means that, despite the outrageous offer from New York, the field of teams vying for the ace is still relatively wide open.
This whole situation should be a breath of fresh air for a league that has made offers to big name free agents from mid-market teams laughable in recent years. The fact that a player like Sabathia has not sold out to the Yankees' first offer is a sign that he's looking for something else and leaves hope in the hearts of the Brewer faithful who would gladly spend the season blindfolded with Bob Uecker buzzing in their ears if they could just keep the star pitcher on their roster.
Just as good, this means that the Yankees take a slap in the face for thinking that the infinitely deep pockets of the Steinbrenner family won't guarantee the Tickle-Me Elmo of this year's MLB holiday shopping season.
Every year, it seems like the Yankees just throw down a contract offer laden with cash and incentives and get the guy they want with practically no competition in terms of financial capability - Mike Mussina, Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez.
I mean, really, the Yankees paid Rodriguez $22 million in 2004, which was just $5.5 million less than the entire payroll in Milwaukee at the time. Just last year, the Marlins did not even have enough money on their 2008 payroll to fulfill what the Yankees were paying one player for one season.
That's ridiculous.
It's refreshing to think that a player like Sabathia is even thinking, Meh, maybe I'll take less pay to enjoy myself somewhere else."" It's a pretty feasible notion. After all, Sabathia is from California, and gosh, wouldn't it be nice to be pitching so close to home for a team like the Angels or the Giants? Both are rumored to have some interest in the lefty and Los Angeles could probably squeeze him into the budget for a salary somewhere near $23 million a year, give or take some change.
Maybe all this speculation is for naught. The bidding on the free agent market is early going right now. As of Sunday afternoon, about two of the 180 or so players on the market had signed with teams. But the hands-down largest offer ever made to a pitcher in MLB history has been sitting idly on the table for a couple of weeks now, and the longer it sits, the more hope there is for the rest of the league that maybe big man doesn't want to sit in the dugout with the other Steinbrenner sellouts.
Wishing that someone would offer you $140 million to do anything, anything at all? Tell Andy about it at avansistine@wisc.edu.
