Just read this bit over at Pete Abraham’s blog. It appears that should A-Rod opt out of his contract, the Yankees could (and by that, I mean will) offer him arbitration, thereby receiving a first rounder and a sandwich pick.
There has been much talk about this, and many people referred to the clause in Alex’s contract that says a team cannot offer him arbitration after the deal expires. Apparently — and this comes from Abraham via Brian Cashman himself — that clause does not apply for this opt-out years. It makes you wonder why the Dodgers didn’t offer Drew arbitration (or did Boras stick a “no arbitration” regulation in Drew’s opt-out clause?).
I’ll believe this for now, since it comes from Cashman. However, should it prove wrong, we might want to consider who we have running our baseball operations.