Pettitte, A-Rod, and the Other Cabrera

I guess I was sort of wrong on Andy Pettitte. His opting out of his player option was obviously not a ploy to get more money out of the Yankees. It was simply to give himself time to evaluate his personal life and balance that with his professional life.

Let's face it. The Yankees want him back. The fans want him back. Pettitte is still in great shape to pitch. I think he'll come back for at least one more year. In any case, he'll retire as a Yankee.

There is an interesting story by Joel Sherman of the New York Post about A-Rod: HE MIGHT BE STAY-ROD

Teams have until Dec. 1 to offer arbitration to their own free agents, and players must accept or reject by Dec. 7. If the player accepts, he is deemed a signed player and would either negotiate a contract or have an arbitrator decide the outcome.

If a Type-A-rated player such as A-Rod rejects arbitration, the team losing the free agent is rewarded with the new signing team's first-round pick (as long as the signing team finished with one of the majors' 15 best records the year before) and a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds.

It is a very slim possibility that Rodriguez could accept the offer, in which case his agent would attempt to set a single-season salary record by asking for at least $30 million and possibly as much as $40 million.

I would think in the eyes of the Yankees Brass and the fans this is probably a good outcome of A-Rod's opt-out. However I disagree with Sherman's assessment that there is even a slim possibility that A-Rod would agree to arbitration. If he was going to do that, why opt-out in the first place? The only reason I could see for agreeing to arbitration is becasue Boras can't find him a job and arbitration is his last resort. And that's not a bad thing for the Yankees because it solves the third base problem, at least for 2008.

Speaking of the hot corner...there has been a lot of talk about Miguel Cabrara from the Marlins being traded for. The guy has a great bat and a mediocre glove. There is also some concern about his conditioning (that's my way of saying he has a weight problem.) I personally don't think it would be worth using Ian Kennedy to get Cabrara. We need pitching this year. And the more we have, the better. If we can get Cabrara for a lower price then go for it.