Out with the old, in with the…oh wait, still old.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 1:12 pm by SJK
From Jon Heyman:
To this point, the Yankees and free agent outfielder Johnny Damon seem to be apart in contract talks, with the Yankees looking to pay him about $20 million over two years and Damon believed to be seeking a four-year deal while trying not to take a pay cut from the $13 million a year he made.
This is the second day in a row Heyman has said the Yankees want Damon for 2/20.
And like yesterday when we addressed this rumor at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, one immediate question comes to mind:
The Yankees would rather Damon sign a 2-year contract, than a 1-year arbitration deal?
We don't get it. Damon just turned 36 on November 5th. He'd be nearly 38 at the end of a 2-year deal. For the front office, you'd think years would be more important than annual salary, especially for someone who played a terrible LF this season. We'd much rather see 1 year at $15 mil (or whatever he'd get in arbitration) than 2 years. Plus with offering him arbitration, you'd at least get the insurance of multiple draft picks if Damon walked.
If this rumor is true, Cashman & crew basically thought 2 years/$20 mil at ages 36 & 37 far outweighed 1 year/$15 mil with draft pick insurance.
That's messed up, yo.
edit: For the record, we'd rather bid farewell to Damon entirely, and sign Holliday. Our commentary was based on speculation that the Yanks actually want to re-sign Damon. All this is rumor obviously. How are you today? Starting to really get cold out. Going to a holiday party this weekend. It's an ugly sweater party. Sounds like fun. Watched Carrie Underwood's special last night. Thought it was great. Who knew she was such an entertainer.
It is Jon Heyman, reporting on a Boras client. I want someone else to report it before I believe it.
Or maybe they don’t want him back but don’t want to just walk away from him. If this is true they might be offering a deal they know he won’t take so they can bring in someone else.
if they really wanted him back a 1 yr 14 mil deal would have been great. and if he left u would have got picks for him. weird.
we just got Granderson
later Damon!
Damon 2 for $20M is dumb. The market was set last year. Abreu (who is better offensively and I can’t believe I’m saying this defensively at this point) got only $5M last year. The Granderson deal (if it goes through) would moot Damon signing, but if they wanted to offer anything to Johnny, it should be one year and $8M. Don’t like it Johnny, go play for the Mets.
Jon Heyman is a jerkoff. All of his reports are the equivalent of somebody on a message board posting ‘FIRST!’ every time a new thread is started.
What you are saying makes no sense to me. I dont see how youd rather 1/15 than 2/20. I realize how old Damon will be in 2011 but what you are saying is that you don’t think Damon will be worth 5 mil in 2011. Is it a sure thing he will be worth that? No, but I think its a good bet Damon will be worth 5 mil in 2011.
” The market was set last year. Abreu (who is better offensively and I can’t believe I’m saying this defensively at this point) got only $5M last year. ”
But Abreu just got $19M/2 THIS year. That’s the market. Not last year’s Abreu deal.
There are a lot of options for DHs – $15 million is way above market.You guys are wrong on this one.