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Follow us on TwitterCNNSI’s Jon Heyman has the news: A-Rod will be opting out of his contract. Here’s the story:
Alex Rodriguez notified the Yankees on Sunday that he’s opting out of his record $252 million contract, SI.com has learned.
Rodriguez’s decision means he will become a free agent and be able to negotiate with all clubs. Rodriguez’s bombshell move will shake up the entire winter for the Yankees — who had hoped to retain him with a big extension — as well as other big-market clubs that will now pursue him.
Rodriguez’s agent Scott Boras said he sent word of the opt-out in writing Sunday and left phone and text messages for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. The Yankees have said that once A-Rod opts out, they wil not pursue him, since they will lose the benefit of the Texas Rangers’ $30-million subsidy.
“Alex made the decision today,” Boras said. “I thought we should notify the club.”
The Yankees were preparing an extension to his current contract for either five or six years, believed to be for close to $30 million annually. However, team officials said Boras has politely declined to meet with them in recent days, and they never presented the offer.
So now we’ll see if the Yankees are true to their word. As they’re losing a year’s worth of A-Rod money from the Rangers, they’ve said they won’t negotiate with him. Can the richest team stay true to its word in dealing with the game’s best player? The future just grew rather hazy for the Yankees.
As for A-Rod, if this report is true, I’m thinking some very unprintable things right now. Don’t let the door hit your money-grubbing hands on the way out.
Update 11:10 p.m.: Ken Rosenthal during the game just said he spoke to Scott Boras, and A-Rod opted out supposedly because he is unsure of the future composition of the Yankees. He’s unsure about Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte’s return. He’s unsure of the ownership transition. He claims he will continue to negotiate with the Yankees.
For my part, I call bullshit. I’m pretty pissed at A-Rod. The Yanks were willing to offer him a five-year, $150-million deal. Somehow, Boras and A-Rod think some team — not the Yankees — can trump that offer. As Joe wrote earlier today, no way.
Meanwhile, A-Rod is — or was — the future of the Yankees. Mariano Rivera has one more contract left; Andy Pettitte may retire after next season; Jorge has three or four years if we’re lucky. Alex Rodriguez would have been the face of the Yankees for eight years. There would have been nothing at all uncertain about that.
As for the Red Sox, we’ll see. Let’s see how the fairweather fans who hated A-Rod in Boston respond to that one.
Let A-Rod walk. Use the 30+ million per year to dominate the draft and international free agent market.
Well it has been a great offseason uh? It just keeps getting better and better.
If that’s the way it’s gonna be, then good riddance.
For a guy that’s supposed to care so much about his legacy he sure doesn’t help it any. After this move, his legacy with the Yankees could haunt him forever. So long schmuck!
we never won anything with a-rod put up big numbers in the regular season .nothing in the playoffs.lets keep the money and get some pitchers.yankee fans just be patient.we may lose for a few years but we will be chanpions again. we also should name a new captain.jeter is in decline and is not vocal enough.long live the yankees. rockies are a piece of crap.
F*** F*** F*** F***
Burn in hell.
arod is a parasite.. vno I am sorry how can I say that he is just trying to take care of his family!!!!!!!!!!!!!
give me a break.. Bye.. Time to move on. adios soft man……
bye bye…. anyone with a brain that thinks the yanks should keep him are MORONS….
As our old friend Alex use to say he loves Ny and the Yanks(give me a break). really how can a guy survive on $250 million or os???
i can’t wait to be allowed to hate arod again. what a bitch.
A-Rod is going to wear a cap with a dollar sign into the hall of fame.
So what’s the plan. Should we make a push for Miguel Cabrera, Garret Atkins or try to sign Lowell to a 3 year deal? Maybe something else I haven’t mentioned.
I think Miguel Cabrera just became more important then Santana
I was thinking that as I wrote.
Piece of crap, I rather Lowell after this series.
oh….my….god …. what the hell are we going to do now? who’s going to play third ?! who is going to supply more than 15 homeruns on the team ? this has been a terrible offseason so far …. and the sox are going to win it all. fantastic
Well, color me surprised. I thought there was no way he was opting out. This…sucks. Badly.
I think we can pretty much kiss Ian Kennedy good bye. And maybe Melky too.
Arod has just become Public Enemy #1 for his 3rd franchise. Pretty impressive given that he is such a great player who plays the game hard and the Right Way. I don’t think the Sox will sign him now that they are on the verge of winning their 2nd WS in 3 years, even though they have the bucks and he would be a perfect fit. They are too image-conscious and that would be over the top.
It will likely boil down to the Dodgers and Angels. And don’tt rule out th Giants of it is all about money. They have no other play than having the lonestar. But I think ARod will want to go to a contender.
If he doesn’t come back to the Yanks — and I’m still not ruling that out (how reliable are the Steinbrenners anyway?) — I’d say the Cubs are a prime contender too.
Well, better to know now than have to wait 10 more days.
Let’s roll:
Resign Mo, Posada and hopefully Pettitte will come back.
Keep the planned rotation of Wang, Joba, Hughes, Kennedy and Pettitte.
Use Mussina to spot start to protect the rookies.
Screw Lowell, signing a 30+ player is the old yankee way.
Try to make a move for a young 3rd basemen, preferably try to get Cabrera without giving up any of the 3 young guns.
Keep Abreau, but only for the 1 year.
Rebuild the bullpen. If twins don’t sign Nathan to long term deal, target him down the road.
This is a chance for the Yankees to rebuild around their young pitchers.
Please don’t let them blow it with a mistake signing of hunter or jones or something ridiculous.
See ya A-rod, have fun floundering in LA or Chicago with sub-par teams and fans that run hot and cold, depending on the day of the week.
He had a chance to leave a great legacy, now he just goes down as one of the greediest players of all-time.
SEE YA!!
The really isn’t that big of a deal. We now have twenty million to spend, and we don’t have to replace him just as third basemen. The Yanks had a giant hole at first, so if the Yanks are smart they can more or less replace his production by getting decent players at both third and first.
The Yanks should now look into what it would take to get Miguel Cabrera and if that includes either Hughes or Joba then move on to a Mike Lamb or Morgan Ensberg type who can compete with Wilson Betitmet for the third base job.
Seriously, the Yanks can lose 100 runs on offense and still be in a great position if they can build a dominant bullpen and the young arms improve the rotation.
It won’t be the Cubs. When you’re trying to sell a team, you don’t add on that much in salary. It makes it harder to sell, even if it’s a star like A-Rod.
I wonder if a package around IPK could be spun for Atkins.
I’d rather go after Miguel Cabrera than Atkins right now.
Gimme neither. Neither of those will be able to play 3B by 2010. What crappy news.
QFT
Ben may I ask the question of why would you want an overweight 3B that is probably better suited as a 1B or a DH in the long run? Miggy can hit, no doubt about it, but the guy is a slob when it comes to his playing condition.
I think he could be convinced ($$$) to stay in shape, and I like him a lot more than I like Atkins. That being said, I wouldn’t give up the farm for Cabrera.
Even if he did need to move to first, it’s not like we have a first baseman standing in his way. He certainly hits well enough to be an all-star as first as well.
Atkins on the other hand is a complete product of Coors field. Look at his splits. His bat wouldn’t play at first either if he did require a move. I wouldn’t trade much more than Jeff Marquez for him.
I think it could, the question is do we want to do that? I Atkins worth IPK + a B prospect? I am not saying he is or isn’t I would just like to look into it.
I would also like to check what it would take to get Ian Stewart, the kid Atkins is blocking. Would it be more or less? Would it be worth it?
Boras - all in.
Let’s see if the Yankees were bluffing or not. If it’s me, I have to keep my word and let him walk — otherwise I’m setup as a sucker for years to come.
We are rebuilding now folks, like it or not. I wouldn’t trade for Cabrera — it will cost too much to get him, and our left side of the infield would be a horror show defensively with him next to Jete.
What good 3B prospects are out there that we could trade AA pitchers for?
yes, Miggy and Jeter would be a poor left infield, but why not move Cabrera to 1b and Betemit to 3b. Along with Shelley, a sort of rotation of those guys on the corners could work.
Shelley 1b
Betemit 1b/3b
Cabrera 1b/3b
Yes, it would take a lot to get Cabrera, but he is a true stud hitter. He’s only 24 and has a career OPS+ of 143! supposedly Florida only plans to keep one of Dtrain and Miggy. if we could get Miggy without giving up Phil, Joba or Cano, i say do it.
Fuck him. We won 4 titles without an MVP, 0 with one.
let him try to get more than the Yanks would have given. You’re right Mike T, Arod will now be hated by fans of 3 teams, not 2 anymore. there goes his legacy, his monument, his retired #, his old timer’s day. i just hope Cash sticks to his word.
the push for Lowell or Miggy increases.
Boras said something really stupid. “He really didn’t want to make any decisions until he knew what they [Rivera, Pettitte and Posada] were doing.” They still haven’t made any decisions! All three could return to the Yanks, or all three could depart. no fucking sense at all.
i gotta say, everyone knows how good arod is. i mean he’s sick. but you know what, we did just fine without him. Arod is a complete douchebag. It is sometimes hard to see that when’s he’s jacking out 50 homeruns, but seriously, what a douche.
If you remove 100 runs from our total, you know what? you’d still have 1 more than the Red Sox.
I’m guessing Ian Stewart on the Rockies is prob too much of a reach to get without 1 of the big three going to Colorado in the deal.
This team has NO right-handed power. Shelley Duncan. That’s it.
I still thinks it’s bargaining ploy. Any lawyers in the hizzle? Does a text message mean he opts out? I doubt it. Something somewhere has to be signed, no?
I think this is Boras’ opening ploy. The Yanks will make their offer, Boras will keep releasing press statements about text messages and what not, and in reality we won’t know whether he’s opted out or signed an extension until the 10 days post-WS are up.
Boras sent it in writing.
The real question then will be whether the Yanks will be teh gay enough to send a private plane to pick Arod up in Miami to sign the extension, and whether the NY media will be teh gay enough to track said flight on radar.
As Mike pointed out, the hunt for a Right Handed Power Bat is on…
Atkins would most definitely cost a shit ton less than Cabrera. But his road OPS is .781 compared to .927 at Coors.
Still, if he could be had for Kennedy+Clippard+some fringe position prospect, I’d probably do it. He’s young and he’s a hell of a lot better than Betemit.
Andy LaRoche?
I’ll take it. Mark Reynolds or Chad Tracy is another possibility.
What kind of package do you think it would take to land LaRoche? I’ve in a couple places that the Dodgers would be more than willing to give him up for some veteran help (plus cash I assume).
I have no idea. Getting a new 3B is not going to be cheap.
Guess this site needs to be shut down:
http://www.projecta13.com/blog.html
I feel bad for Girardi… guy is inheriting another shitty situation
Miggy Cabrera is not coming cheap. Hughes or Joba would have to be the centerpiece of the deal. Look at the guy’s numbers in his 4 full seasons in a pitcher’s park:
.294-33-112 (130 OPS-plus)
.323-33-116 (151)
.339-26-114 (159)
.320-.34-119 (150)
He’ll be 24 on Opening Day 2008. That does not come cheap. Not at all.
if girardi gets the managerial position we can trade for miggy … he was in shape for girardi when he was in florida. we NEED a righthanded power bat. ASAP. we have no power now.
If Boras said he opted out in a quote to the media, then he definitely opted out. The Yanks cant go after A-rod anymore, it’ll just ruin them in future negotiations as a team that has no leverage whatsoever. There’s STILL a possibility that as you guys pointed out two posts before, no team can reasonably afford that big a contract, so if the Yanks end up offering 8 years at 25 million annually, a little more than they wouldve ended up paying them in the ideal extension scenario, he may have no choice but to accept.
Whether he comes back or not tho, A-rod is forever tainted with this move. No mercy on the boo’s for his first at-bat of 2008 at yankee stadium.
I am pretty shocked about this, and I have to say, A-Rod is an idiot for letting Boras con him into this. He is pretty much ruining his shot at saving his public image…
That being said, you people saying the Yanks won WS titles without him and they’ll be fine/should just move on are nuts. Take A-rod off the Yankees this year and no playoffs. Take him off the team next year and you are looking at a not very potent team…
I think people give Boras too much credit.
In the end, he still works for the player.
Well, technically the opt-out isn’t official until he files it with MLB.
I am seriously afraid that the need for right handed power could bring on the signing of Andruw Jones. In my opinion that would be absolutly disastrous.
The Steinbrenners f*ed up in not retaining Joe Torre. I think we are beginning to see a domino effect. The current management builds no confidence in their ability to make good decisions.
Are you kidding me with this? You really think this isn’t purely and completely about money? Joe Torre had NOTHING to do with this. If Pettite doesn’t pick up his option I might buy that argument, but “Batted 8th”_Rod is not sticking up for Torre.
Oh come on, Ben, you and everyone else on this site (and most blogging sites, for that matter) can’t stand Torre as a manager and are quite happy to see new blood for next year.
Seems kind of wrong to back track on this.
Also, I don’t think Arod has much love for the man who didn’t defend him and batted him 8th in a World Series game.
That other Ben is not me. He should do something to differentiate himself from the guys — me — writing the site.
oops. :blush:
I agree 100% with your opinion, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t Ben K. from the site, but rather a reader named Ben.
In order for A-Rod to bat 8th in the WS, he has to make the World Series.
A-Rod’s name will be associated with these in the future:
Don Mattingly, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Todd Helton, Ted Williams.
Great players in their sports to have NEVER won a championship!! He’s a LOSER who never made it to the World Series. A-Rod may be an unbelievable player, but I’d take Scott Brosius or even Chuck Knoblauch over A-Rod any day. A-Rod is a me player…everything’s about “Me, me, me.” If he truly wanted Posada and River and Torre back, he would have used his ability to opt-out as leverage. There’s no way he cares about those guys…he cares only about himself.
So, A-Rod, take your 3 AL MVPs and walk. My SS has 4 rings and a WORLD SEREIS MVP. Hell, he’s got a WS at bat…that’s more thaqn you can say!
well a not-potent-team in 2008 is going a bit far. Hughes and Joba will be solid next year, so better pitching for the most part, and our offense wont be devastating, but it’ll be above-average, especially if Damon and Abreu have a full season of what they did in the 2nd half of the year. plus betemit is not a disaster with the bat either.
Ian Kennedy now becomes more important to hold on to then he did before. I wouldn’t trade him unless it was for Santana.
This team is going to have to win with pitching now. ARod wants out - so be it. Move on. They haven’t won a championship with him and there’s no reason to think they are helpless without him. They aren’t going to be able to replace ARod at third with one guy. They shouldn’t even try to do it. Cabrera is so out of shape that he won’t be at third for very long at all. They shouldn’t do anything rash (Lowell, Jones, etc.). That will just compound the problems they’ve had even more.
This is a setback but far from a