Yankees Don't Offer Arbitration To Anyone

The Yankees declined to offer arbitration to any of their free agents yesterday. No real surprise there. I originally thought they might offer something to Damon or even Pettitte, but it makes sense that they didn't. If anyone is offered and accepts arbitration, they're guaranteed to come back to the team. I think if the Yankees offered them arbitration they would have probably ended up paying them more than they wanted to, and I think that goes for all of their free agents.

Offering arbitration is kind of a gamble. If the guy accepts you get him back but possibly at a dollar figure above what you want to pay. If he declines and signs elsewhere, you get compensatory draft picks. It would be nice to land a draft pick or two, but I think in the case of the Yankees, it wasn't worth the gamble as Damon, Matsui, and Pettitte would all likely receive decent raises. Those raises would probably bring their salary to an amount above what the Yankees want to pay.

The Yankees have a lot of shopping to do this offseason. I read that Cashman was meeting with the powers that be to discuss payroll allotment later this week so I would think that we'd start to hear some rumblings early next week. The winter meetings kick off on Monday the 7th and that's usually a very active time for trades and free agent signings. Crank up the rumor mill and turn up the heat on the stove. It should be a fun week.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie