11/14: Why Has Mariano Not Signed Yet?
Posted by: James
Seriously. This is annoying. The Yankees recently improved their offer to Rivera to $45 million for three years. I mean, wow. $15 million a year for a reliever? Who happens to be 38? He also happens to be the best reliever of all-time...but still, a $15 mill average blows Billy Wagner's $10.75 million a year away.
In my mind (and probably 99.9% of the civilized world's), no relief pitcher (no, not even Mariano) is really worth that amount. However, the Yanks have opened up the checkbook for Jorge and with this offer, they've done the same with Mo. They have made a fantastic offer for an aging HoFer, and one that I really doubt any other team will beat.
So why hasn't Mo signed on the dotted line yet? I honestly don't know. The Yankees have treated him VERY well, both as a player and financially. Anyone who disagrees must not be okay with $84.5 million dollars...because that's what Mo has been paid for his career. The current offer would put Mariano at a just about $130 million earned in his Yankee career, which should blow away any other reliever.
So where are we at this point? Well, if he keeps hemming and hawing, I really wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees said, hey, this is the offer. It will be on the table for this much amount of time. After that, feel free to test out the other teams and see if their offers come close.
And if everything goes down like that...I really do believe that the Yankees wouldn't face a huge fan backlash because management did their best to keep Mariano. I really believe the sentiment would be, hey, we love you man, but if you're not happy with $15 million annually, well...you have been great but you are being unreasonable and we wish you the best.
In my mind (and probably 99.9% of the civilized world's), no relief pitcher (no, not even Mariano) is really worth that amount. However, the Yanks have opened up the checkbook for Jorge and with this offer, they've done the same with Mo. They have made a fantastic offer for an aging HoFer, and one that I really doubt any other team will beat.
So why hasn't Mo signed on the dotted line yet? I honestly don't know. The Yankees have treated him VERY well, both as a player and financially. Anyone who disagrees must not be okay with $84.5 million dollars...because that's what Mo has been paid for his career. The current offer would put Mariano at a just about $130 million earned in his Yankee career, which should blow away any other reliever.
So where are we at this point? Well, if he keeps hemming and hawing, I really wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees said, hey, this is the offer. It will be on the table for this much amount of time. After that, feel free to test out the other teams and see if their offers come close.
And if everything goes down like that...I really do believe that the Yankees wouldn't face a huge fan backlash because management did their best to keep Mariano. I really believe the sentiment would be, hey, we love you man, but if you're not happy with $15 million annually, well...you have been great but you are being unreasonable and we wish you the best.
