For Rodriguez and Yankees, It’s All but Over

New York Times

“We have put it in writing and sent it to the Yankees,” Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, said in a telephone interview.

That quote makes it seem that A-Rod’s departure from the Yankees is inevitable, and there is certainly no rush in NY today to get the lukewarm superstar to reconsider, but unless I misunderstand the Yankees and A-Rod have 10 days to figure things out. And, maybe, that letter lets Boras talk to other teams while also talking to the Yankees without forcing the Yankees to renounce the $20M the Rangers would owe them if A-Rod stayed under contract.

I haven’t see the mechanics of this addressed so far, but the “All but Over” construction in the hed seems to support this. Boras is a master of finding leverage and his problem here is that unless the Red Sox jump in right away it’s hard to generate much leverage to get the Yankees to bump up their offer.

On the other hand, the booming baseball economy could lead to a perennial also ran making an offer the maritally challenged A-Rod (Selena Roberts suggests elsewhere in today’s Times that Cynthia Rodriguez is behind the whole thing) can’t turn down.

I think the Texas money in the Yankees’ pocket makes it highly unlikely that A-Rod is going to find a good reason to go elsewhere, but the economics in the game are so crazy maybe he will. It certainly didn’t seem possible when the Rangers paid to dump him, did it?

1 thought on “For Rodriguez and Yankees, It’s All but Over”

  1. A-Rod appears on the official MLB free agent list today, so maybe I was dreaming that Boras had discovered a loophole. If that’s the case, there are only two logical explanations:

    A-Rod didn’t care about the money and wanted out of NY.

    He’s got a huge offer to peremptorily blow off the Yanks from someone else who feared the Yankees bumping up their offer thanks to the subsidy from the Rangers.

    Some see the Rangers themselves in the latter scenario, and it is true that they gain $7M per year with A-Rod opting out. But does it make sense for them to use that money to then overpay for him again? Sounds crazy to me.

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