As we all know by now, free agent third baseman Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have agreed to the outline of a contract that will pay the AL MVP at least $275M over the next decade.
A-Rod and super agent Scott Boras, of course, famously opted out of the slugger’s previous quarter of a billion dollar deal during game 4 of the World Series. And the New York Yankees vowed to cease negotiations with Rodriguez because of this. Apparently, however, they both need each other as the Yankees listened when A-Rod came crawling back.
So who is the winner in this debacle? More importantly, who got fleeced?
It may be easy to say that Scott Boras was fleeced here, as he was temporarily removed from negotiations and made to look like a fool. And it could be easy to say that Rodriguez was fleeced out of a more lucrative contract on the free agent market. But guess what? There wasn’t a market for this guy. No team came out with a whopper of an offer. In fact, most teams questioned about their possible interest seemed standoffish. Only the Angels publicly stated their interest, but without a regional sports network, could they really pony up $300M? Might it be that there just simply wasn’t a market as large as we were lead to believe. So, in effect, despite the lack of a market, A-Rod and Boras received a raise! Their average annual salary rose from $25.2M to $27.5. I don’t think they got fleeced.
The New York Yankees were fleeced. Yes, that’s right. I think Scott Boras won. The Yankees were competing with themsleves in these negotiations. No team was willing to pay Rodriguez more than the $25M he was already receiving, yet the Yankees came in at $27.5 and gave him another 10 years. The Yankees had Rodriguez where they wanted him (desperate), and they gave him a raise. Why not just offer 8 years? Where would he go? Or why not give him the same contract he walked away from? It was an interesting play by the Yankees, but right now, I’m going to have to say they were fleeced on this one.
Filed under: *Videos, New York Yankees | Tagged: Alex Rodriguez, Scott Boras
Agreed. Signing a guy with relatively no market competition to a *10-year* deal is insane. If A-Rod ends up hitting the DL a few times during this contract, and thus somehow doesn’t break Bonds’ HR record, this contract could be an utter disaster. Not to mention if A-Rod doesn’t win at least 2 rings (10 years for the Yankees is an eternity).