Baseball’s Winter Meetings come to an end today. New York teams made notable scores with the Mets grabbing K-Rod and the Yankees opening the vault for CC.
Flexing the economic muscle of their new billion-dollar ballpark and ignoring industrywide nervousness over big-money deals, the Yankees landed the top free-agent pitcher when they agreed Wednesday to the framework of a $161 million, seven-year contract with CC Sabathia.
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Sabathia’s contract figure seems quite appropriate — in February the Yankees move across 161st Street in the Bronx to their monumental $1.3 billion palace, where tickets cost up to $2,500, fans can watch games at a martini bar and the clubhouse contains a swimming pool, hot tub and every imaginable convenience. The way the schedule lines up, there’s a good chance Sabathia would pitch the opener there April 16 against Cleveland – which traded him to Milwaukee last July.
But there are still major questions unanswered. Will the Sox get Teixeira? Where will Manny end up? Will D-Lowe be a Yankee? Will Red’s cyber-puppet army idea come to fruition?
We have all the answers, we’re just not ready to share them yet.
