The New York Yankees just made another huge splash in the free agent market as Mark Teixeira and the team have agreed on a eight year contract that will be worth $180 million. Yes, you heard me right, $180 million! That means that the highest four players in major league baseball all will be playing for the New York Yankees.

The contract would pay Teixeira an average of $22.5 million per season. New York has spent $423.5 million in salary in the last month, with $161 million going to left-handed pitcher C.C. Sabathia in a seven-year deal and $82.5 million on right-hander A.J. Burnett for five years.

The Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals were the two other teams that were in the final three for Tex. This was a big time signing for the Yankees, now let’s all just hope that it doesn’t backfire!

Yankees Blog

The New York Yankees made sure that starting pitcher Chien-Ming Wang was not forgetting with the recent signings of C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. The team signed Wang to a new one year contract worth $5 million as the two parties avoided arbitration.

Wang was 8-2 with a 4.07 ERA in 15 starts for the Yankees last season before spending the rest of the year on the disabled list with a sprain of the Lisfranc ligament in his right foot and a partial tear of a tendon in the same foot.

If Wang can stay healthy for the Yankees in 2009, expect him to be the number three or four starter in the rotation. Three if Andy Pettitte is not brough back, and number four if he is.

Yankees Blog

The New York Yankees made another splash in the free agent market over the weekend as A.J. Burnett agreed on a five-year deal that will pay him $82.5 million dollars. This coming shortly after the team signed C.C. Sabathia to a $161 million dollar deal earlier in the week. It looks like the Yankees are tired of not making a deep run in the playoffs and are opening up the checkbook to better their chances of getting there in 2009.

“A.J. Burnett has great stuff,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said recently. “I think he’s matured a lot as a pitcher, as well. He’s learned to control the running game a lot better. He attacks hitters and gets hitters out quickly, throws a lot of strikes, fields his position. I think he’s much more complete as a pitcher than he was a couple of years ago.”

As long as he can stay healthy I think this is a good signing for the Yankees. He will be a great addition to the starting rotation that is for sure.

Yankees Baseball

The New York Yankees made the biggest off season splash as they will soon be signing free agent pitcher CC Sabathia to a seven year $160 million dollar contract. The Yankees have been hard after Sabathia and have been talking with him for the past three days before he agreed to become the newest New York Yankee.

Sabathia, 117-73 in eight big league seasons, will bring something to the Yankees that they haven’t had in three decades: a relatively youthful pitcher at the top of their rotation. Traded to the Brewers by the Indians on July 7, the left-hander almost single-handedly carried Milwaukee to its first postseason berth in 26 years by going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts.

Sabathia had been courted by the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox. The Los Angeles Dodgers said that Sabathia, who lives in California, had expressed interest in playing there, too, although the team did not publicly make him an offer.

In the end however, Sabathia chose the Yankees and he hopes to get back into post season action this next year. It’s an exciting time to be a Yankee fan!

Looking for baseball equipment? Buy your gear online at Baseball Rampage to receive low prices and world class customer service. Order mizuno baseball cleats, baseball gloves, and much more from all the major manufacturers. Baseball Rampage has free shipping over $99 and the industries leading rewards program so every purchase you make gives you cashback on your next order.

We recommend BaseballRampage for all your baseball needs. Not just for the holidays, but anytime as they have great support and great products at great prices!

The New York Yankees declined to offer arbitration to any of the teams free agents in fear that they would accept and then the team would be forced to pay them a higher amount then what the would have wanted to. Bobby Abru and Andy Pettitte are the two big names that were not offered.

Even though the Yankees did not offer arbitration to both players, they can still talk about a new contract and negotiate with them.

Also not receiving arbitration offers were pitchers Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano and Sidney Ponson, plus catchers Ivan Rodriguez and Chad Moeller, and first basemen Jason Giambi.

With the Winter meetings coming up in the next week, it will be interesting to see what management decides to do about the starting pitching rotation as they would really like to get a couple of new pitchers that they could plug into the rotation.

New York Yankees