While the Yanks may (or may not) be out of the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, the bloviating half of the two-headed Steinbrenner monster wants to see Manny in pinstripes. According to Jon Heyman, Hanks wants the Yanks, who are also rumored be in on Rick Ankiel trade talks, to go hard after Manny in an effort to shore up the offense. I like the idea of Manny Ramirez the hitter a lot more than I like Manny Ramirez the crazy guy.
RAB Winter Meetings Chat
Yanks tidbits: Burnett, Teixeira
Just a couple of items to whet your appetite for rumors:
- The Braves seem to be taking advantage of the Yanks’ preoccupation with CC, as they’ve been working through the night to sign A.J. Burnett. Many of us believe this is a good thing.
- Signing CC could mean that the Yanks are out on Mark Teixeira. I wouldn’t believe that at all. If we’ve learned anything from these Winter Meetings, it’s that no one’s sure of anything.
As always, links courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors.
CC deal has an opt-out
From Tim Brown and Gordon Edes of Yahoo! via MLBTR, we learn that Sabathia’s contract will contain an opt-out clause after three years and $69 million. So if Sabathia opts out after the 2011 season, he’ll be leaving $92 million on the table.
Davidoff: Yanks working to sign Nick Punto
Hardly big news by any standard, but Ken Davidoff drops in a note that the Yanks and Nick Punto are working on a deal. The Yanks have to replace Wilson Betemit somehow, and I guess Punto fits the bill. The defensive whiz and former Twin just turned 31 in November and has a career line of .252/.319/.332. He had his best season last year as he managed a 99 OPS+ in limited playing. Punto would clearly be around as a defensive replacement and not for his pop off the bench.
RAB Note: As you read this, I’m taking my first law school exam. If major New York news breaks between 10 a.m. and noon eastern time, look for the Las Vegas contingent to have the early word, but be mindful of the time difference. We’ll get stories up as fast as we can.
Yanks close on Lowe
Many here at RAB, me included, aren’t too excited about the prospect of signing Derek Lowe to any kind of contract, never mind a four-year deal. Yet, that appears to be close. Via MLBTR, we hear that the Yanks are/were discussing a four-year deal with the free agent righty. He was on WFAN this morning, where he said the Yanks are closing in. Clearly, the Yanks are tending to bigger matters, both figuratively and literally, right now. Lowe could clearly be next, though.
At that point, Sheets makes even more sense over Burnett. Why sign three pitchers to seven, five, and four-year contracts? Seven, four, and two sounds much easier to swallow.
Yanks back at the city’s stadium trough
Ed. Note: Yes, the Yanks are about to sign CC Sabathia for seven years. You can read our coverage of the contract right here. Now on with your regularly scheduled programming.
At this point, is anyone really surprised that the Yankees have asked for and are receiving more tax-free bonds? Charles V. Bagli, take it away:
With opening day for the city’s two newest baseball stadiums only four months away, the price tag for taxpayers continues to rise. The Bloomberg administration has issued fresh estimates for utility work, lighting and the cost of replacing the parks and ball fields that once stood where the new stadium for the Yankees is being erected.
The city also plans to issue $341.2 million in additional tax-exempt bonds on behalf of the Yankees and Mets to complete the stadiums, whose combined cost is about $2.2 billion. The teams are responsible for paying off the bonds, but they pay tens of millions of dollars less in interest because payments to bondholders are exempt from city, state and federal taxes.
The city and the state are also investing more than $660 million in parks, garages and transportation improvements around the stadiums and are providing the teams with an estimated $500 million in tax breaks related to construction materials and other items. The city had planned to issue a public notice of the latest bond offering and a required public hearing on Monday but decided to wait at least a week until it completed a cost-benefit analysis. With public costs mounting, critics of the deals say the city will be hard pressed to demonstrate that the economic benefits of the stadium projects outweigh the cost to taxpayers.
Neil deMause questions the accuracy of the exact figures, but the fact remains the same. As services throughout the city — education, security and public transit — suffer, the taxpayers are yet again shouldering more of the burden of the stadium than we originally expected we would.
I realize by now the stadium is pretty much a moot point. The Yankees aren’t going to fork over money denied to the public, and the new structure will open in a little over three months as scheduled. But one of the roles a healthy media should play is that of public watchdog. New Yorkers had little chance to understand the public ramifications of the new stadium because the newspapers didn’t start reporting on these issues until it was far too late. The teams could have built new stadiums without these subsidies, and while there will be benefits the neighborhoods and communities enjoy from the stadiums, they won’t justify the costs.