“Happy Halloween, everybody. I just want to be the first to let Yankee fans know that we agreed to a contract extension. I’ll be coming back in 2012. I want to thank the Steinbrenner family for making that happen. My goal the whole time was to finish my career as a Yankee and hopefully I can do that. We seem to have gotten that accomplished today. So I look forward to seeing everyone at the ballpark next year. Thank you.”
~ C.C. Sabathia
How cool is that? Nice job by Brian Cashman and Yankee ownership for getting something done before C.C. Sabathia hit the open market. New York City is the grandest stage in sports and is the perfect setting for great players, and C.C. is certainly one of the greats.
According to all parties involved, the key to this deal was open lines of communication. The Yankee front office made sure Sabathia knew how much they respected him and wanted him back.
Players, especially free agents, love to know that a team really wants them. So now Sabathia will be a Yankee until 2016 and perhaps 2017. All through the 2011 season, one thing Sabathia said again and again (much like Jose Reyes) was that he loved New York and wanted to remain in New York.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Sandy Alderson said yesterday that he does not foresee a quick resolution with Jose Reyes.
“There are some situations where a player might indicate what it would take for him to forgo the free-agent market. There are some situations where a club might try to make a preemptive offer to preclude that open bidding. I don’t think either one of those things is going to happen in this case. I don’t think Jose is going to give us a number for which he would forgo free agency. I don’t think we’re in a position to make him what I would characterize as a preemptive offer.”
Absolutely NO COMMUNICATION going on over here…
Yesterday I chuckled when I heard someone call this a “stealth-like” strategy. Really? I’ve never heard of a strategy of “non-negotiating” that ever led to a “negotiated deal.”
How can you make a deal when both sides are not even talking?
Is there an app for that?
