Friday, November 17, 2006
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD
NAPLES, Fla. -- There's not much that can shock the dollar-hardened baseball fan these days, but see if this doesn't flex your eyebrows: With free agency about to explode (again), the Red Sox are already the market's most aggressive check-writers, while the Yankees are actually sticking to a sensible business plan.
Must be some alternative universe we've been transported to. The Sox' $51 million posting fee for Daisuke Matsuzaka is only the beginning of what will ultimately turn into an $80 million transaction -- a stunning transformation for a team that didn't want to shell out $22 million for Bobby Abreu last summer.
The Yankees? They offered $31 million for Matsuzaka, and even that sum made them nervous. According to one major league official familiar with the Bombers' thinking, general manager Brian Cashman was already experiencing buyer's remorse about having spent too much -- and was secretly relieved that the Sox blew away the field with their historic offer.
Cashman insists "we made an aggressive offer," but concedes Boston made "a more aggressive offer." Which leads to the obvious question: Since when do the Yankees allow themselves to be out-bid for a can't-miss free agent?
It's all part of Cashman's blueprint to bring sanity back to the Yankees' fiscal empire and, as he put it, "to keep us at a championship caliber for years to come."
It worked for them last winter, when the GM successfully waited out Johnny Damon's demand for a seven-year contract. Cashman ultimately prevailed over agent Scott Boras, getting Damon to agree to a four-year, $53 million deal. And once again, the Yankees are laying low while the market accelerates.
The Blue Jays, for instance, are finalizing a deal with Frank Thomas for two years at $23 million -- a huge payoff for the production he gave the A's last year. The real time to sign Thomas, of course, would've been last year; now it's too late for shrewd bargaining.
The Mets similarly had to overpay for 40-something Orlando Hernandez and his fragile bones; more than $6 million a year through 2008. And now Barry Zito, another Boras client, is looking for a seven-year deal for at least $15 million per.
At that rate, there's virtually no chance the Yankees will engage Zito. Instead, they'll find pitching help on their own roster, including Carl Pavano and Phil Hughes and even Scott Proctor, who will be converted into a starting pitcher this spring.
"We have choices in-house," Cashman said at the conclusion of the general managers' meetings. "The have-to-do-something [option] has been eliminated. That's why we can be aggressive, but on our terms. We can pick our spots."
Since when has a Yankee GM spoken so logically about money? For the last decade the team has been baseball's equivalent of Microsoft, yet Cashman appears ready to close out the era of blowing out the budget. Maybe it's better that way: Imagine the national outrage had it been the Yankees, not the Sox, who emptied the coffers for Matsuzaka.
For now, Cashman seems determined to curtail spending and keep his payroll under $200 million. It's not just that the Yankees want to save money (and increase profits), but Cashman himself decided in midseason that the unrestrained spending wasn't helping the on-field product, anyway.
The turning point came after George Steinbrenner publicly put Cashman and Joe Torre on the hot seat, saying the two men were responsible for the Yankees' successes and failures. Cashman told colleagues that if he was going to take the blame, then he was going to run the franchise his way.
Indeed, one person in the organization said, "The days of the [Steinbrenner] signing a player because Billy Connors likes him are definitely over."
Now, the Yankees' transactions have Cashman's fingerprints all over them. Bench coach Lee Mazzilli was summarily dismissed. Mike Mussina is coming back, but for a 33 percent pay cut.
The Yankees traded Gary Sheffield to the Tigers for a promising pitching prospect, Humberto Sanchez. And they moved Jaret Wright to the Orioles with the hunch that the right-hander's run of over-achievement in the second half of the season wouldn't carry over into 2007.
What remains to be seen, of course, is whether Cashman's financial maturity will deliver the Yankees to the World Series. It's been six years since their last championship and, in the past, every impatient urge has been met with the same response: fire up the ATM.
But that philosophy only filled the roster with mistakes like Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez and, to a lesser degree, Randy Johnson. Pavano's tenure in New York has also been a disaster, although Cashman keeps insisting the right-hander will be reborn by spring training.
The problem is that the magic bullet doesn't really exist from the Yankees' perspective. Zito, they believe, costs too much and is probably better suited for the National League. And Matsuzaka was just a blind date that made Cashman nervous.
That's why the Yankees weren't particularly panicked or embarrassed at how they were smoked by the Red Sox this week. In this brave, new world of watching your millions, the Yankees were happy to let the Sox bleed instead.
Whether Boston was very smart or very reckless in its pursuit of Matsuzaka, Cashman wouldn't say. But his thin smile spoke volumes: Sometimes the best check is the one you never write.
E-mail: klapisch@northjersey.com
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