Associated Press
Major League Baseball's free-agent market opened for business at 12:01 a.m. EST Friday morning and the Yankees, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993, are expected to dominate proceedings.
"We're going to do what we do every year, and that's try to field a championship team," co-chairman Hal Steinbrenner told reporters on Tuesday. "That's not going to change. We know that we've got some weaknesses, and we're going to fix the problems as best we can. If that means spending money, obviously that means spending money. The philosophy has not changed."
Yankees GM Brian Cashman got things started Thursday by signing reliever Damaso Marte to a three-year, US$12-million contract and trading for Chicago White Sox first baseman/outfielder Nick Swisher.
That will likely not be the end of the moves for baseball's richest team.
New York is moving into a new Yankee Stadium that will generate tens of millions of dollars more than the team's former home, although a slowing economy has impacted luxury suite sales for this season. Seven were still available this week.
But with single-game ticket prices as high as US$2,500, the team will not be hurting for cash.
A.J. Burnett must be hopelessly underpaid because he didn't think twice about telling the Toronto Blue Jays that his current contract guaranteeing him $12 million a year just wasn't going to cut it anymore.
Hard to blame him, because fellow pitcher CC Sabathia figures to make double that by the time he reports to spring training a few months from now. Besides, there's always the nagging worry that a new administration taking office soon just might be coming after some of his fortune.
Some team, perhaps even the Blue Jays, will pay Burnett what he wants. They will because this is baseball and, as super agent Scott Boras points out, the economic rules that govern normal civilized society don't apply.
"In our myopic world," Boras said, "there's a lot of fixed elements that frankly are not as applicable to the outside world."
They may listen and nod approvingly when Bud Selig says times are tough and that teams should watch what they do with their money, as he did in a video call to general managers meeting this week in Dana Point, Calif. But toss a top starting pitcher in front of them, and even the mid-market teams start salivating and begging their bankers for a loan.
