For you MOMOS that think the Yankees just throw money around, read this article from the New York Times, which CLEARLY shows the Yankees got A-ROD for almost nothing. The Yanks' payroll won't be changing too much. Shows you we have a brilliant front office. The numbers don't lie, read for yourself: Deal for Rodriguez Makes Dollars, and Sense By TYLER KEPNER Published: February 16, 2004 The Yankees and the Texas Rangers have completed a trade that will send Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named, baseball officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said last night. The players union has approved the deal, and all that remains is Commissioner Bud Selig's approval, which is expected today. A Major League Baseball official said Selig was merely waiting for a weekday to complete the paperwork. Rodriguez, the consensus best player in the majors, has longed for years to play on the New York stage. He is expected to be introduced at a Yankee Stadium news conference tomorrow, the day the team's pitchers and catchers are due to report to spring training in Tampa, Fla. The deal includes more cash — $67 million from the Rangers to the Yankees — than any previous baseball trade. The most staggering part of the deal is not what the Yankees are paying Rodriguez, but what they are not. Rodriguez is working under the richest contract in sports, a 10-year, $252 million deal he signed with the Texas Rangers after the 2000 season. The Rangers are receiving significant financial relief by trading him, but because they are paying so much of the $179 million Rodriguez is owed, he is something of a bargain for the Yankees. Rodriguez, the American League's most valuable player last season as a shortstop, will switch to third base for the Yankees, and he will essentially cost them no more this season than they had originally budgeted. The Yankees will pay Rodriguez $15 million in 2004, but he is deferring $1 million. The third-base prospect Drew Henson was scheduled to make $4 million this season before quitting to pursue football. The $5.4 million salary for Soriano, the All-Star second baseman, is also off the books, and the Yankees would save about $4.8 million by cutting third baseman Aaron Boone, who voided the guarantee in his contract by tearing up his left knee while playing basketball last month. The expected payouts to Henson, Soriano and Boone total roughly $14.2 million. The $942,623 in termination pay the Yankees would owe Boone, in addition to the $14 million they will pay Rodriguez this season, would raise the Yankees' payroll by less than $750,000. "We traded an All-Star to get a Hall of Famer at a gain of very little for this year," a Yankees official said. The Yankees' overall payroll for 2004, based on average annual payouts to 24 players and including the termination pay the club is expected to give Boone, will be about $180 million. Before deferrals, the Yankees will pay Rodriguez $15 million in each of the next three seasons; $16 million in 2007 and 2008; $17 million in 2009; and $18 million in 2010. Rodriguez will defer $1 million in each of the first four years of the deal, at zero-percent interest, and receive the $4 million in 2011, after the contract expires. The Rangers are expected to reduce the interest rate on the money Rodriguez has already deferred to 1 percent from 3 percent. That could have jeopardized the deal because the union does not allow its members to devalue contracts; that was the rationale behind the union's rejection of Boston's trade for Rodriguez in December. The Yankees had to add value to the contract for the union to approve it, and they did so in two ways: They guaranteed Rodriguez a suite on the road, a perk the Yankees almost never allow, and gave Rodriguez permission to link his Web site to the Yankees' team site. The first year Rodriguez will not defer money is 2008, when almost all of the Yankees' long-term contracts will have expired. Jason Giambi will be in his final year, leaving only Derek Jeter and Rodriguez signed for 2009 and 2010. Rodriguez, who turns 29 in July, is the classic five-tool player, with well above average skill in hitting, hitting for power, fielding, throwing and running. As the Yankees considered the deal last week, at least two club officials called Rodriguez the best player they had ever scouted. There was palpable excitement among Yankee officials yesterday because the team improved itself markedly on offense and defense without giving up a pitcher of consequence. The player to be named will come from a list of five players at Class A or Class AA and will not include the top prospects Dioner Navarro, a catcher, or Eric Duncan, a third baseman. "The middle of the lineup looks like: Jeter, A-Rod, Sheffield and Giambi, and Bernie fits somewhere in there," the Yankee official said. "That's not too shabby." The Yankees are expected to sign Travis Lee, complicating their order when Lee starts at first base and Giambi is the designated hitter. On those days, either Bernie Williams or Kenny Lofton would have to come off the bench. But the lineup Manager Joe Torre could use is potentially devastating. Lofton would lead off, followed by Jeter. The 3-4-5 spots could go to Rodriguez, Giambi and Gary Sheffield, with Williams, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui to follow. Those eight players have made a combined 39 All-Star teams. Batting ninth would be the second baseman, and the Yankees do not seem as eager to fill that hole as they were to find a new third baseman. Rodriguez's offense at third base erases the need for a slugging second baseman. "Hit ninth, hit .250 and play catch," the Yankee said. "The rest will take care of itself." Miguel Cairo, 29, signed a one-year, $900,000 contract in December and has been a reserve for the last three seasons. But from 1998 to 2000, he played in 373 games at second base for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, fielding at about the league average. He is a .269 career hitter. The veteran backup Enrique Wilson has played only 96 games at second base over seven seasons.
