Word coming now about the Yanks avoiding arbitration with Chien-Ming Wang. They have agreed to a one year deal at the pay rate of $5 million. Not much to say except that its good for the Yanks relationship with Wang that they avoid the messy process of arbitration hearings like they had last year. Those can only make future contract negotiations more difficult to work out.Wang was 8-2 last year with a 4.07 ERA. He has been the anchor of the staff since 2006 and when he went down last year it pretty much killed the Yanks rotation. He is kinda being forgotten about during this whole CC and A.J. mess, but he is a huge factor in the Yankees 2009 plans. If he can bounce back to be his reliable economic old-self, then the Yanks rotation will be formidable and it will take pressure off of Joba and the youngsters to eat innings.
Barring any major injury the Yanks will probably look to lock him up for a longer deal after the season. Something that will be economical and team friendly. Though, nothing is stopping Wang from looking to his left and right and wanting the same deal as the guy who weighs 300 pounds and the guy with his arm in a sling.
4 comments:
So you have Sabathia at $21 million a year, Burnett at $16 million, Wang at $5 million next season, probably $10-12 after that. I am guessing they will try to lock Joba up through his arbitration years, so say $4-6 million for him after next season, which I am estimating is only about $500K. So, for your top 4 starters;
2009: $43 million
2010: $51 million
2011 -2013: $55 million+
Considering the Yankees' budget, that is not bad. The trouble comes if Burnett misses a lot of starts, if Joba continues to be injury prone, if Sabathia starts to break down, and if Wang continues to be injury prone.
Well in 2009 you have to include Pettitte who is going to get about $10 million next year and the Sabathia deal is structured so he gets about 14 next year and 23 every year affter that. Joba has about 2 years before they need to worry about locking him up so his pay will stay relatively low for a about three more seasons.
The biggest pitching concern their going to come after 2010 when Mariano's contract is up.
Wang at $5 million seems like a down right bargain to me. It's like finding an Armani tie at Marshalls.
The exact numbers don't really matter, my point was the Yankees (on paper) have a very good starting rotation, and that they are going to be spending roughly a third of their payroll to get it. If those top 4 guys make 120 starts between them, New York will win 100 games. The problem is, if they start breaking down, and there is concern that they could all break down, the Yanks have a big problem.
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