12/01: Abraham: Nobody Gets Arbitration
Posted by: Seamus
That's right, folks. After much speculation, it turns out that Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu and Pudge Rodriguez will all be waking up on Christmas morning to find no present under the tree from the Yankees. Peter Abraham says that the Yankees "remain engaged with Pettitte and Abreu," however.
When you actually sit down and look at it, there aren't any real surprises here. Not quite sure why Mr. Abraham expected Pettitte to get an offer. If the Yankees were going to give him $16 million again he'd be on the books already. I'd like to have Pettitte back, but it would be rediculous at that price. $10-12 million seems like enough.
Pudge's case is obvious, of course. He isn't going to turn down $13.5 million+.
The only real tough decision here was on Bobby Abreu. Abreu is not THAT old (he is 34) and he can still rake. I don't think he's a $16M/yr player anymore, but one would think that he'd at least be able to get a two or three-year deal from somebody. Seemingly, though, he hasn't been getting too many calls so the Yanks went ahead and weighed the risk of losing a draft pick versus having to pay him $16 million again next season. When you're looking into possibly throwing a combined $200 million this offseason into CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett/Derek Lowe, I guess the bigger risk is in having to fork over the dough to Abreu.
When you actually sit down and look at it, there aren't any real surprises here. Not quite sure why Mr. Abraham expected Pettitte to get an offer. If the Yankees were going to give him $16 million again he'd be on the books already. I'd like to have Pettitte back, but it would be rediculous at that price. $10-12 million seems like enough.
Pudge's case is obvious, of course. He isn't going to turn down $13.5 million+.
The only real tough decision here was on Bobby Abreu. Abreu is not THAT old (he is 34) and he can still rake. I don't think he's a $16M/yr player anymore, but one would think that he'd at least be able to get a two or three-year deal from somebody. Seemingly, though, he hasn't been getting too many calls so the Yanks went ahead and weighed the risk of losing a draft pick versus having to pay him $16 million again next season. When you're looking into possibly throwing a combined $200 million this offseason into CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett/Derek Lowe, I guess the bigger risk is in having to fork over the dough to Abreu.
Patrick wrote:
But, given the value of the draft picks, I am a little surprised that they didn't offer arbitration to either Abreu or Pettitte. If either does bolt, it'd be nice to get something for them... something being a pair of good draft picks. If they accepted, that'd be fine, as well. Yes, it'd be overpaying, but given the market and our roster, having both players would be a good thing and not a bad thing.
I mean, if we want Pettitte, how much less can we sign him for? How much of a pay cut is he going to take? $2 million? $3? Is the potential of saving that money not worth the ability to have those 2 draft picks should Pettitte bolt to Los Angeles? I don't know. Kind of seems a little penny pincher to me.
I can see the logic in not offering them arbitration, though. However, I can't really see the logic in not offering Mussina arbitration. What's the risk? He comes back and gets a raise? He made $11 million last year. A raise would only put him to what he'd get on the open market, maybe even less.
Patrick