Thursday’s Hot Stove quote of the day came not from a player, agent, manager or general manager, but rather from a judge.
In a Manhattan federal courtroom, it was the honorable Lorna Schofield who said: “It’s ironic. Neither side wants to be here. But you both are here.”
She was referring to the legal teams of Alex Rodriguez and Major League Baseball, who faced off in the first conference concerning A-Rod’s lawsuit against MLB and Bud Selig. But she just as easily could have been talking about the Yankees and A-Rod himself, who would rather have certainty over their relationship — of course, they would prefer dramatically different resolutions — than their current state of limbo, which is seriously impacting the Yankees’ ability to conduct winter business.
You know who could benefit most from the circus surrounding Rodriguez? Someone who helped build the A-Rod brand, who still is earning a commission from the 38-year-old’s albatross contract with the Yankees, but now is now just standing on the sidelines of this titanic clash.
Someone who is notorious for his mastery of the free-agent calendar, and who could have some holiday goodies ready for the Yankees to buy — think Shin-Soo Choo — should things go their way.
“Arbitrator [Fredric] Horowitz, his duty is to examine all the contracts involved to make sure that procedurally, he’s providing all that’s required and mandated per the agreement,” Scott Boras said earlier this week in a telephone interview. “His timetable is connected to the fact that a player has a season to play and a team has right to access to that player’s services.”
Horowitz, the independent member of the three-man panel hearing A-Rod’s appeal of his 211-game suspension by MLB, will resume his duties on Nov. 18. We don’t yet know whether they can wrap up the action by Nov. 22 or whether another window of availability will be required. Baseball’s Joint Drug Agreement mandates the panel issue a decision “within 25 days following the opening of the hearing,” but that would have been Oct. 25. This hearing’s unusually long process means we probably will find out closer to Christmas.
Which means the Yankees, who are determined to keep their payroll under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold in 2014, will have their hands tied somewhat until they know what they have in A-Rod. If he somehow fully prevails, he and his $25 million salary, as well as a likely $6 million bonus if he can hit six home runs to tie Willie Mays at 660, are on board. If MLB fully prevails, then the Yankees get a huge financial break — and also need to solve third base.
“I think whether you have him or not … it’s important that we know,” manager Joe Girardi told reporters Thursday at Yankee Stadium. Perhaps he should be reminded of a mantra he often preaches to his players: Don’t worry about things you can’t control.
Now let’s cut to Boras, whom A-Rod left in 2010 and who mercifully has sat out the ongoing saga involving his former client. In an interview last January, Boras said, “Free agency, at a minimum, is like hockey, with three periods. Maybe it’s like basketball, with four quarters.”
He signed Michael Bourn with Cleveland in February and signed Kyle Lohse with Milwaukee in March. He doesn’t get shaken by the New Year, or the groundhog’s arrival, and he conditions his players to think similarly.
So let’s say Curtis Granderson turns down the Yankees’ one-year, $14.1 million qualifying offer by Monday’s deadline, a good bet. Let’s say the bidding for Carlos Beltran gets intense enough the Yankees, wary of his age, let the former Met go to Boston or Baltimore or somewhere else.
Let’s also say the Yankees win the bidding for Masahiro Tanaka, once MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball agree on the new posting terms, and they re-sign Hiroki Kuroda, and most importantly they manage to retain Robinson Cano. Let’s say their money is running a little low, once you contemplate the raises due Brett Gardner, Ivan Nova and David Robertson.
Let’s say, on the other side, Boras lands Jacoby Ellsbury with Seattle quickly yet lingers some with Choo, whose left-handed swing and ability to get on base would greatly enhance the Yankees’ lineup.
Then Horowitz issues his verdict: A-Rod’s suspension gets slashed to 150 games (my bet right now). Voila! The Yankees will have gained an extra $23 million-plus in payroll flexibility. And there’s Choo, who agrees to a six-year, $100 million contract.
The Yankees would be thrilled. Boras, too. A-Rod? Not so much.
Boras isn’t buying into The Post’s scenario.
“I think this is a very aggressive market,” he contended, and with slugging down, “The ability to hit leadoff is at much more of a premium than before.”
Maybe. However, it would be great irony, a fitting addendum to this amazing A-Rod story, for the industry’s best-known agent to lose commission on a former client, only to capitalize on that misfortune to land another nine-figure contract.