Put Mo on a rocket to Alpha Centauri and back, let CC get a too-long contract elsewhere, punt next season (while trying out the Bs et al), and invest in Hamels or whoever in a year.

What if CC just doesn’t want to see how Jeter, Tex and Arod perform in the next few years?

Anyone listen to any of the Lou Reed Metallica collaboration?

I think CC will probably get 6/150.  Hopefully not guaranteed; the last year should be an option with a difficult but reachable vesting clause.  I think CC will end up being more like Moose than other long term contracts.  That is, maybe not dominant for the whole period, but when we look back at it, we’ll feel the contract was well worth it.

Anyone listen to any of the Lou Reed Metallica collaboration?

No; tell me, tell me!

Given that we now know that CC is just another full of shit athlete, they probably could’ve gotten him by just offering him more, instead of giving him the opt-out.

I guess you can’t really get mad since he has every right to opt out, and there’s a 99% chance he comes back, but it’s still shady- business wise and ethically- if the opt-out truly was put in the contract in case he wasn’t happy and was only supposed to be used if that’s the case.

ARod: Prima donna, cold to his teammates, vain. Highest paid position player so overpaid, doesn’t perform well in the playoffs. Opts out. Jerk!

Sabathia: Great clubhouse guy, great teammate, humble. Highest paid pitcher but not overpaid, doesn’t perform well in the playoffs. Opts out. Hey, it’s his right!

The MSM 1000 robot that writes all the ESPN articles is going to have to work overtime on this one.

[2] Right, but he’s willing to inflict his 43 year old, 43M/yr self on some poor saps in the future ?

How much would it cost to sign Wilson AND Oswalt?

Don’t feel bad. Ryan Dempster just exercised his $14 million player option for one year. So, yeah, you could root for the Cubs.

A win for sabremetrics?  Or a win for all of baseball?

[4 & 5] Well, why is it bad for the Yankees to exercise options on Cano that pay him less than he should be?  Why is it okay for the Rays to have Longoria at a fraction of his value?  Because the athelete signed the contract and shouldn’t expect to get special treatment just because they’re so good?  So same thing here; the Yankees shouldn’t expect CC to treat them special just because they’re the Yankees, or just because he likes NYC.

About the most I can expect CC will give them is, if someone offers 6/156 and the Yankees tell him they won’t go above 6/150, he still takes the Yankees’s offer.  To me that shows he’s still dedicated to the Yankees, and also smart.  This is probably his last chance to get - and deserve (more or less) - a contract of this magnatitude.  Might as well take it.  I’ll be mad at him if he takes less to go somewhere else.  And I’ll be mad if he takes only a little more to go somewhere else.  But not mad if he gets a larger contract in the Bronx.

11 because the amount of money is so ginormous.  Is CC’s family going to live better on 28 per rather then 25 per? Is it simply ego?  Weaver is willing to struggle with 17 per because he’s happy where he is. If he were making 2 mil per and opted out it’d be different.

because the amount of money is so ginormous.  Is CC’s family going to live better on 28 per rather then 25 per?

Neverunderstood this logic. This assumes Sabathia takes all his money and spends it.

Think of it this way; With $25M, he can send 10 great grandchildren to college. With $28M, maybe he can send 12 great grandchildren to college. Or maybe he can send 20 great great grandchildren to college. 

The desire for increased compensation does not mean he just wants the 2012 Bentley instead of the 2011.

Swisher option picked up a day before Indians decline Grady Sizemore’s option. Why not just put a Red Sox uniform on him right now?

[11] Seems ginourmous.  But also, I mean, it’s not just the extra few million.  It could be as much as 50 million.  Because if CC doesn’t opt out, in 4 years maybe the best he can do contract-wise is like Garcia is doing now - 1 year deals for a small guaranteed portion and some incentives.  Which of course is the reason the Yankees *don’t* want to sign him to a big deal now, but a very good reason for CC to use his power at this point.  Also…what arbitrary number of millions does it flip from OK to not okay?  CC is doing what any of us would do - he’s using leverage he has to get a better deal for himself.  I’ve done it before.  Less actual $$‘s of course but gotten a larger % increase out of it.

[12] Not to mention, CC is very active in charity work so maybe he feels more comfortable sending the 12 grandchildren to school, AND building a school in an underprivileged neighborhood.

[14] Is that good or bad for the Yankees?

At these performance levels, the money isn’t about what you can buy; it’s about the stature it represents.  It’s ridiculous to me, but it is what it is.  I used to work for a company where the CEO sometimes pulled in over $100 million a year, and he was in his mid 70’s at the time.  The number is the game, not what can actually be done with it.

I’m very curious to know what the Yankees offered CC before he decided to opt out.  I’d also love it if they didn’t budge from it.  He’s been amazing, but whatever they offered him, it was some mix of extension and pay increase…if someone else wants to pay him more for longer, then let them.  The Yanks just got three of his very best years.  Thank him, and let him go.  Go balls to the wall for Darvish, and make a serious offer for Wilson.

Someone mentioned this earlier, but it would be interesting to see how we would project with Wilson, Oswalt, Nova, Hughes and Garcia vs Sabathia, Nova, Hughes, Garcia and Burnett.I

Pendleton makes over 4 billion and he doesn’t even play for the Yankees.

Bye CC

Lowe to Cleveland.  He’s as bad as Burnett but owed a little less.

Also, Garcia officially a type B.

My issue with CC is not that he wanted an opt-out, I would not begrudge him that at all. He had the Yankees over the barrel and negotiated a great deal for himself. I certainly have no problem with that. Good for him. My issue is that he repeatedly stated that he would only opt out if he was not happy playing in New York. That is above and beyond the PR BS that athletes typically tell the media. That is a very specific statement that he did not have to say at all. But he said it repeatedly during the 2009 and the 2010 seasons. And then stopped saying it in the 2010 offseason, since he knew he was definitely going to opt out after the 2011 season.

It irritates me to see a guy go out of his way to mislead people. Again, I have no problem with him opting out - I have a problem with the guy intentionally misleading people for two seasons (when he did not have to say ANYthing) and then doing the opposite.

On the other hand, if he does, in fact, sign elsewhere, I suppose he could say that he actually WAS unhappy here. But I find it hard to believe that actually happens. Instead, it will be that he will stick around in the place where he would only opt out if he were unhappy (where he repeatedly told us he WAS happy).

21 Lowe’s last year, AJ has two pending

Brian- I’m not recalling so many examples of him saying he wouldnt opt out. I do recall the interview - I think with Kim Jones - at the Knicks game.  I remember thinking she was saying he wasnt opting out but he wasn’t saying it so much - in that interview at least.

The only thing I really fault CC for is saying he WOULDN’T opt out and then (apparently) changing his mind and not explaining why he thinks it’s justifiable for him to go back on his earlier statement.  To me, it just looks like he’s pretending he never said he wouldn’t opt out.  I’d like him to give some kind of explanation, even if it’s just, “I changed my mind after putting up three really good years and realizing that my market value going forward is more than 4/$92 million.” 

Maybe he does intend to address this, in which case there isn’t much I can take issue with.  Whatever the Yankees’ pre-opt-out offer was, if it wasn’t enough to make CC accept it on the spot (or if he thought it wasn’t their very best offer), then it really made no sense for him NOT to opt out at this point.  If he let’s the deadline pass without opting out, he has no leverage in seeking an extension and a raise.

I tend to think CC would prefer to stay in NY and that there isn’t another team that’s very likely to outbid the Yankees, so I guess I won’t panic just yet.

[21] yeah that’s what I meant by ‘less’ - total money owed to the player.

Sorry, j, you are correct, I should have been clearer. You’re right that he did not specifically say, “I am not opting out.” He said repeatedly that he would only opt out if he were unhappy in New York and then in separate statements, repeatedly said how happy he was in New York.

Then in the 2010 offseason, he did an about face with questions about the opt out, and did the traditional “we’ll see”/“it is not something I’m thinking about right now” sort of answers that every athlete gives. And I remember us talking about it here, that when we saw the change in his answers that we all knew, “Yeah, he is opting out.”

And again, if I were in his shoes, I’d opt out, too. I just wouldn’t mislead people the first two years.

[18] I just looked at the CAIRO from the other day, and just using the numbers there - so not readjusting for depth or anything - the Yankees would be -1.2 wins worse with the Wilson/Oswalt rotation than the CC/AJ rotation.  And that’s almost all CC.

“Sabathia is taking his assimilation seriously. Even though he and his family will keep their home in Vallejo, Calif., the star pitcher intends to live in Bergen year-round. And just to erase any doubt about his commitment to the Yankees, Sabathia intends to honor all seven years of his pact, despite an opt-out clause will allow him to leave as a free agent after just three seasons.

“Nah, I’m staying. I’m not going anywhere,” Sabathia says with an easy laugh. He’s bought into New York’s hurry-up sensibility, which is ironic considering Sabathia might be the easiest-going player in the Yankee clubhouse. He has the remarkable gift of inner calm; you never know if Sabathia is pitching well (or not), because his personality is as flat and unwavering as the Plains states. Walk into the Yankee clubhouse any time, any day, and Sabathia is usually at his locker, chatting amiably with reporters or teammates.”

http://www.northjersey.com/bergen/Strike_Zone_Yankees_ace_CC_Sabathia_moves_to_Alpine.html

“After sailing to his 17th win of the season and delivering another superb outing in yesterday’s 10-0 rain-delayed romp over the Mariners, the Yankees ace told The Post that he won’t “even consider” becoming a free agent after 2011, even though that provision exists in his seven-year, $161 million mega-contract.
“I’m here,” Sabathia said. “Hundred percent.”
“I think you know I’ve built a house here, right?” he said. “My kids go to school here. We live here year round. So I’m not going anywhere.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/it_win_win_for_st_place_yanks_zFtoZ8snrLfdIQYsIIShsI#ixzz0xSOZyn4O

Yeah, so it is even worse than I remembered. Thanks, yankz.

So yeah, that’s BS on Sabathia’s part. Again, no one expects you to commit to that stuff!! If you commit to that stuff voluntarily, you are going to look like a jerk when you go back on it. Which is what CC did.

Now we find out what CC’s price is to go back on stuff he explicitly stated on multiple occasions.

[30] Again, if he’s just looking for a better deal and using the only leverage he has, the statement and his current actions aren’t contradictory.  Ask Robinson Cano about getting a new deal if you don’t have leverage.

It is only a contradiction if he leaves; and even then if he leaves b/c someone makes him a stupid offer - e.g. more than ARod’s last contract - IDK if I can fault him.

Um, “the Yankees ace told The Post that he won’t “even consider” becoming a free agent after 2011”

What definition of contradiction are you using?

I don’t really think I take any of this to reflect on CC’s character as a person.  Basically, he’s making business decisions that he’s obligated to make on behalf of his family and others who depend on him financially.  And it’s not as if we’d be more comfortable if he said from the beginning, “I’ll probably opt out.”  That would have made the opt-out a distracting topic from Day 1.

Within the world of Yankee-fandom, though, I can see where if he opts out and leaves, fans would justified in feeling jilted and booing him.

[30, 31, 32] Yeah, that’s pretty unambigious, I think. Although, I’m also wary of snippet quotes that appear in articles. You get so much better of a sense of what the guy was really saying if you can listen to the interview uninterrupted.

That said, is there room for those statements and his opting out to not contradict? Well, he didn’t say “I’m not opting out.” He said things like ‘I’m staying here’ and ‘I love it here.’

I think about that in terms of my job. I love it here and I am staying here.. unless I have the ability to renegotiate my contract to reflect market value and they don’t want to pay me market value.

I guess I can easily see how a rational person can be on either side of the fence here.

Honestly, if the Yankees offer Sabathia a reasonable extension, and he doesn’t take it - meaning he takes the same contract elsewhere or a slightly larger contract elsewhere, then I’ll think he’s a bum.  If some team offers him 10/$250M (picking some pie in the sky numbers) that would be a differnet story.

I think Yankz totally nailed CC for his BS and hypocrisy.  He seems to be every bit as much a function of PR as most other players.  Swisher I think on the other hand might except a little less to play here,

Why on earth would anyone pay any attention to what a professional athlete says about his contract, or anything else?

[34] T_0: I need a clause in my contract allowing me to opt out if my family is unhappy in NY.

T_1: I’m not going anywhere.

T_2: We’re happy.

T_3: I don’t think the FO’s offer of a contract extension is as good a deal as I can get from them or another team, so I’m opting out.

The above strikes me as being deceptive and mercenary as it stands.  He’s certainly within his rights, though.  But if he signs with the Angels or RS and suffers an extremely minor but career-ending injury the next day I won’t lose any sleep.  Whereas I still root for e.g. Matsui to do well.

[35] Look at which part is quoted in what you’re referencing.  If CC had stated, “I won’t even consider becoming a free agent”, that would have been quoted.  Instead they mashed together a quote of his with some text of their own, to get the narrative they wanted.  I don’t know what CC ACTUALLY said, or what the actual question was.  It could have been, “will you leave the Yankees in 3 years?”, and answering “wouldn’t even consider” is still okay.  J looks like he’s covering this fairly well above, too…

[39] Right on.  I recall CC’s professions of undying love for the pinstripes; even at the time I was skeptical, because I’m jaded from doing hard time in prison.

[38]  Yeah, I would echo that interpretation.  Based on those quotes, it doesn’t look like CC explicitly said he wouldn’t opt out, only that he wouldn’t leave.  In fact, in CC’s mind, he may love playing for the Yankees so much he HAS to opt out in order to make sure he gets a new 7-year deal that will keep him in pinstripes for the rest of his career.  IOW, he’s serious about not wanting to leave, and he sees opting out, and the inevitable extension, as the means to ensuring that end.

Top 10 reasons he goes to the Townies #1 free beer and fried chicken.

#2 CC has been reading the biography of John Adams.

John Adams on New Yorkers 1774:

“At their entertainments there is no conversation that is agreeable; there is no modesty, no attention to one another. They talk very loud, very fast and altogether. If they ask you a question, before you can utter three words of your answer they will break out upon you again and talk away.”

[43] I’m just thinking that when he opts out and if he signs with another team and says “I really didn’t *want* to leave, but they didn’t offer me what I was worth, so I was *forced* to leave.”

Was he really forced? Obviously, no.  But people go nuts if a player leaves money on the table. It rarely happens, I think.

[40] Where was T_3?  Sounds like you’re putting words in his mouth.  I don’t think CC’s made any comment on the contract deal has he?  From what I’ve read most people seem to think if he’s come this far he might as well opt out and see what kind of offers he gets before going back to the Yankees.

I almost hope this goes back to Bernie Williams when he negotiated his first FA deal with Yankees.  IIRC, it was he got a good offer from the Red Sox, and then personally took it to The Boss.  They then negotiated a slightly lower deal, because Bernie WANTED to stay with the Yankees, but still wanted to get what he thought he was worth.  Something like THAT I think would be very consistent with CC saying he loves playing for the Yankees, but still using the power he has.

But again, if he goes to a different team for slightly more money, yeah, I’ll be mad.

“in CC’s mind, he may love playing for the Yankees so much he HAS to opt out in order to make sure he gets a new 7-year deal that will keep him in pinstripes for the rest of his career.”

Then he instructs his agent to tell Cashman that a fair 7-year deal gets it done.  Heck, say the contract needs a running automatic one-year extension at the AAV if his ERA is under 4 the last 3 years.  Or CAIRO has him at over 2 WAJ.

It would be nice, though, for a player to recognize the PR hit and factor that in. Surely you don’t want to go through the rest of your life with an entire city’s worth of people hating your guts.

2 WAJ.

J is far enough from R on the keyboard that I’ve decided this wasn’t a typo and I’m not wondering what it stands for. Hmmm…

Why on earth would a player take less money to play for the Yankees?  I could maybe see someone taking a little less money to play for a small market team they had some connection to, but (a) the Yankees have far more money to spend on payroll and (b) there are much higher taxes to deal with.  If I were a FA, while I might be pumped at the thgouht of joining the Yankees, I would definitely expect to be paid MORE as a Yankee than I would be paid on some random $80 million-payroll team. 

Keep in mind that CC is a better pitcher than the Yankees are a baseball team.  At this point in his career, CC is within about the top 1% of MLB pitchers, and that’s regardless of what team he’s plying with.  The Yankees are at best within the 10% of major league teams WITH Sabathia.  Without him, they are maybe in the top 20%.  The idea that CC should take less money to get a deal done with the Yankees doesn’t make a lot of sense.  While I hope he wants to re-sign with the Yankees, I wouldn’t expect him to take less money than he could otherwise get as a FA.

[47] Re T_3, if you have a more CC-friendly expression consistent with him opting out after the Yankees offered him an extension, I’m happy to consider it.  I think I could fairly have made it less CC-friendly, e.g. by appending “I only said T_0-2 because it made me popular in the clubhouse and helped me get local endorsement deals”.

If he now says, “I said that stuff, but I’ve just changed my mind, plus I think the Yankees are trying to exploit me by undervaluing the 40 WAR I’m worth over the next 7 seasons in offering to pay me 35 WAR”, then maybe I’ll reassess.

[50] Same finger (modulo mirror symmetry) - I do sometimes make l/r typos - but here I was thinking about “Wins Above Jeter”.

[51] If the argument is that he took a below-(Yankees)-market AAV or years in the original contract in exchange for the opt-out, then it’s fair for him to opt out - he paid for the Yankees to assume the negative risk.  I feel differently about him using his kids as an excuse to take advantage of the Yankees’ need for an ace next year to get paid for the last three years of a new contract in which his titanium replacement knees give out due to his weight.  Or maybe the Yankees gave him a below-(Yankees)-market extension offer figuring the bad PR arising from naive Yankees fans who think CC thinks T_3 will compel him to submit.

[48]  You can’t include performance incentives in MLB contracts.  You can include things like playing time and you can do bonuses for awards, but you can’t base it directly on ERA or “WAJ” (“wins above Javier”?) or anything like that. 

Also, I would think “fair”—as in “a fair 7-year deal”—means something like $25 million AAV.  CC is a horse, in his prime, with a record that makes him one of the top 3-4 best pitchers in baseball.  So the “fair” deal he could be looking at is something like 7/$175 (could be more, in fact). It’s possible the Yankees aren’t (yet) offering that long or that pricey of a contract, hence the opt-out.

Keep in mind that CC is a better pitcher than the Yankees are a baseball team.  At this point in his career, CC is within about the top 1% of MLB pitchers, and that’s regardless of what team he’s plying with.  The Yankees are at best within the 10% of major league teams WITH Sabathia.  Without him, they are maybe in the top 20%.

I’m not following this at all. There are hundreds of pitchers in the major leagues and there are 32 teams (I think).  So what?

Why would Sabathia want to pitch for the Yankees over, say, the Nationals? Probably because if he signs for 7 years with the Nationals, they may have one good year in the next seven. The Yankees may have one bad year in the next seven.

[55] With Strasburg and Zimmermann back, the Nationals with CC would be a very scary team.

[55]  “I’m not following this at all. There are hundreds of pitchers in the major leagues and there are 32 teams (I think).  So what?”

The point is, CC would have an easier time finding another team as good as the Yankees than the Yankees would finding another pitcher as good as CC.  For some reason, even though CC isn’t from NY and has only been with the NYY for three years, some people seem to think that someone in his position should take less money to play for the Yankees.  I don’t understand this.  Again, the Yankees are the top-grossing, top spending team in baseball, and (again) they need CC more than he needs the Yankees.  So why would anyone expect him to take any kind of a discount in order to play for the Yankees.  When Teixeira’s agent (Boras?) revealed that Mark “really wanted to be a Yankee,” he still got a bigger contract than the RS were offering.  Wanting to play for the Yankees doesn’t imply wanting LESS money than the Yankees customarily pay for top talent.  Typically, the player wants to play for Yankees AND wants every dollar his agent can get the Yankees to pay.

The opt out is in the contract and it’s his right and all that.

But I have the right to be pissed off that he bothered BSing us.

I sometimes confuse Davey Johnson and Bobby Valentine.

So the official announcement about the opt out has to come by midnight tonight, right?

The opt out is in the contract and it’s his right and all that.

But I have the right to be pissed off that he bothered BSing us.

Went OUT OF HIS WAY to BS us is what irks me.

He said things no one expects athletes to say. A-Rod never said anything like what CC said during his pre-opt out years. Lebron never said anything like what CC said during his last few years in Cleveland. Same with Bosh. Same with Dwight Howard currently.

CC, though, went out of his way to make people think he wasn’t going to opt out and then he opted out. That’s not cool.

Almost any other professional athlete would opt out in his shoes. But almost any other professional athlete would avoid going out of his way to mislead people into thinking he wasn’t going to opt out.

What’s also not cool is the Yankees handing out player options/opt-outs like they are candy. Maybe they will learn their lesson from this.

See? He wasn’t lying…he never actually opted out and became a free agent.

Sabathia’s contract extension - 1-year, $25 m. for 2016, and a $5 million buyout. Total guaranteed, five years, $122 m.. $25m option ‘17

(Buster Olney)

It’s a vesting option of some sort.

So it’s an extra $30m for one year plus a team option?  Ok, whatever, much ado then.

Much ado indeed, but he certainly would have opted out and tested the market if the Yankees hadn’t extended him, or else they wouldn’t have offered anything at all.

Sherman just reported on twitter that the option:

Joelsherman1 Joel Sherman
2016 Option vests automatically unless CC is disabled by left shoulder injury #Yankees

Joelsherman1 Joel Sherman
Option killed if: end 2016 season on DL, spend more than 45 days on the DL in ‘16 with left shoulder injury (cont)
51 seconds ago

Joelsherman1 Joel Sherman
or makie at least 6 relief apps in ‘16 due to shoulder issues
54 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Not bad at all.

I take it vesting option means he gets the extra year if he has e.g. 150 IP in 2016.

Edit: nvrmnd.

Awesome. Good for you, CC!

Yay! Now shell out for Darvish.

Vesting option instead of player option? Maybe they have learned their lesson.

Can’t say I mind this. Reasonable terms, reasonable dollar amount, no free agency dramas.