Results tagged “felixrodriguez”

Baseball has a wacky transaction system. Yesterday the Yankees offered Bernie Williams arbitration, but only because they knew he would decline it. Why the apparent waste of time? Because without the offer, the Yankees would have lost negotiating rights to Bernie and if Bernie had accepted he would have been in line for a salary near ten million dollars for 2006. So, the Yankees and Bernie have until January 8th to make a deal. Even if they do, Bernie won’t be back as a starter and a certain, hairy, centerfielder may take his place.

Everyone who follows the Yankees could see that a shakeup was coming. The team looked lifeless for most of the season and Bernie Williams could simply not throw the baseball anymore, but this is a bigger shakeup than anyone foresaw. Moving Womack to left is a huge gamble, as he has never played there. Matsui in center should be an improvement, but his arm is nothing to write home about. Getting rid of Karsay is a case of addition by subtraction, but the Yankees still have too many relievers. One can only assume that General Manager, Brian Cashman, surveyed the trade market and didn’t find anything to his liking, so he employed the Yankees’ greatest weapon, money.

For Yankee fans, Opening Night 2005 could not have come soon enough. A brutal winter, the anticipation of seeing Randy Johnson in pinstripes and the disappointment left over from last year’s collapse, have created an urgency among the fans to see their team play ball.