Jason Varitek will return to the Red Sox for 2009. He could be back for 2010, too. I must say, this is money well spent… for Yankee fans. $5 million for an offensive blackhole—nice work, Boston.
Archive for January 30th, 2009
Bruney and Yanks reach agreement
January 30, 2009, 5:16 pmThere will be no arb case for Brian Bruney, as he will receive (via PA) $1.25 million in 2009.
Torre to explain himself to Larry King
January 30, 2009, 1:26 pmJoe Torre will be on ‘Larry King Live,’ later today, explaining why he decided to co-author The Yankee Years with Tom Verducci. King is a friend of Torre’s, but let’s hope that he asks him legitimate questions. I want to know why a manager that hasn’t retired yet is openly criticizing players that, in some cases, haven’t retired yet.
Logistically, Yanks can’t sign Dunn or others?
January 30, 2009, 2:12 amFINAL UPDATE - The Yankees can actually sign 8 FA A or B players in total. Bloom found out that there was, in fact, an agreement reached before the off-season that took into account the high volume of free agent players. Therefore, if the Yankees wanted to, they could actually sign Manny, Juan Cruz and Adam Dunn. THIS is why blogging is necessary. Without us, I don’t think Bloom would have had another story clarifying his previous one.
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From Barry Bloom (MLB):
The most commonly held misconception of this offseason is that the Yankees could have signed pitcher Ben Sheets or could still sign left-fielder Manny Ramirez if only there were a few million dollars remaining in the Steinbrenner bank.
Both assumptions are incorrect. According to the Basic Agreement, and confirmed by a top Major League Baseball official, once the Yankees signed CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, they had signed their quota of Type A or Type B free agents under the collectively bargained rules established by management and the Players Association.
All three were Type A free agents who played for other teams last season aside from the Yankees. The Yankees could re-sign their own Type A or Type B free agents without it affecting the quota.
Under the rules, “if there are from 39 to 62 [Type A and B] players [during a given offseason], no team can sign more than three.”
“Frankly, it’s an unusual year to have that many ranked players,” Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of labor relations, told MLB.com this week.
Manfred negotiates these kinds of terms with the Major League Baseball Players Union. And the current Basic Agreement, signed after the 2007 season, doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2011.
But it gets more complicated.
According to an unofficial list compiled by the Sports City Sports News Service, this year there were 63 Type A and Type B free agents — 29 Type As and 34 of the Type B variety. A Type A player is one who’s ranked among the top 20 percent of his group — pitcher or position player. A Type B player is among the top 40 percent. The Elias Sports Bureau does the annual independent rankings.
“If there are more than 62 such players, the club quota shall be increased accordingly,” the Basic Agreement also says.
“If there were more than 62 this year, we should have agreed on an increased quota,” Manfred said. “We did not. I think if [the Yankees] were contemplating signing another Type A player, they would’ve read the agreement and asked us what we wanted to do. They would’ve said they wanted to sign a fourth player and we would’ve had to do something with the union.”
The Yankees didn’t ask, Manfred said.
Thanks to Barry Bloom for clarifying this issue. I attempted to understand exactly how the system worked months ago, but it was a puzzling endeavor to say the least (I wrote about it, somewhere). Basically, as Bloom notes, 39-62 Type A and B free agents means that no team can sign more than three A or B players. Of course, there were 63 (one over the range), however, the Yankees have not attempted to maneuver through this issue with the MLB or the Union, so they’re essentially done dealing from the A and B basket (yes, they picked up Pettitte this week, a Type A player, yet he was their own free agent, which does not effect the quota).
Therefore, guys like Manny Ramirez, Ben Sheets, and Orlando Hudson can be crossed off the list. This makes two particular players—Juan Cruz (A) and Adam Dunn (A)—irrelevant to the Yankees, although they have generated a lot of stories lately. I guess Dunn will have to wait for the end of the season, after all.
UPDATE - After thinking about Bloom’s article for a bit, I’m wondering if his findings are accurate. I believe a previous post that I wrote specified that a team may sign 3 A or B players (if there are 39-62 of them), but that they may also sign as many A or B players as they have lost to free agency. This would mean that the Yankees could, if they wanted to, sign a total of 5 Type A or B players (so 2 more), in total, after losing Abreu and Pudge.
UPDATE - After reading the MLBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), I think I’m right and Bloom could be wrong:
(5) Quota
(a) Clubs shall be limited in the number of Type A and B Players, as defined below, they may subsequently sign to contracts. The number of signings permitted shall be related to the number of Player selecting free agency under this Section B. If there are 14 or less such Players, no Club may sign more than one Type A or B Player. If there are from 15 to 38 such Players, no Club may sign more than two Type A or B Players. If there are from 39 to 62 such Players, no Club may sign more than three Type A or B Players. If there are more than 62 such Players, the Club quotas shall be increased accordingly. There shall be no restrictions on the number of unranked Players that a Club may sign to contracts.
(b) Irrespective of the provisions of subparagraph (a) above, a
Club shall be eligible to sign at least as many Type A and B Players as it may have lost through Players having become free agents under this Section at the close of the season just concluded.
