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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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.

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George Steinbrenner officially turned control over the New York Yankees over to his son Hal Steinbrenner on Thursday. The eldter Steinbrenner was the boss of the Yankees for the last 35 years and now all Yankee fans are hoping that Hal can take over for the next 35. If that happens, things will be going very good for the Yankees in my opinion.

The Yankees won three world series under George so Hank says “”My dad is, needless to say, a tough act to follow.”

We can also expect Hank to stay involved in the team as well as he overlooks Brian Cashman and the baseball operations.

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The “Moose” will not be coming back to the New York Yankees as he announced he will be retiring from the game of baseball on Wednesday. Mike Mussina was one awesome pitcher in his career and could still throw the ball a lot better then most major league pitchers.

Mussina, spent the last eight seasons with the Yankees after pitching for the Baltimore Orioles for the first 10 years of his career. His 270 wins rank second among all active right-handers, behind only Greg Maddux.

We wish the Moose all the best as he spends more time at home with his family and away from the game of baseball.

Wow has it been a busy week for the management of the New York Yankees. Earlier in the week the team announced that they had signed pitcher Damaso Marte to a new three year - $12 million dollar contact. Marte will make $3.75 million next year, $4 million in 2010 and $4 million in 2011. The 2012 option is also worth $4 million and includes a $250,000 buyout.

And then on Thurday the Yankees picked up Nick Swisher and a minor leaguer from the Chicago White Sox via a trade that sent Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquiz, and Jhonny Nunez to the White Sox. Expect Swisher to get looked at to the everyday starting first basemen. He can also play all three outfield positions for the team.

Swisher has three years left on a five-year, $26.75 million contract. He’s scheduled to make $5.3 million in 2009, $6.75 million in 2010 and $9 million in $2011. His deal also includes a $10.25 million club option for 2012, with a $1 million buyout. As you can tell, the deal didn’t come cheap for the Yankees.

On Tuesday the New York Yankees declined options and starting pitcher Carl Pavano and first basemen / dh Jason Giambi. Pavano’s option was to be worth $13 million instead it was bought out for $1.9 million. Giambi’s was worth $22 million and he was bought out for $5 million. Not a bad payday for going on the free agent market if you ask me.

Pavano could possibly be re-signed by the Yankees if he will take a cheap deal but don’t look for the Yankees to really negotiate with Giambi.

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The New York Yankees are expected to decline the $22 million option on Jason Giambi but resign him to a much cheaper deal the New York Post is reporting. Giambi made $21 million in 2008 and will have to take a huge paycut if he chooses to stay with the Yankees in 2009.

The Yankees wouldn’t mind not re-signing Giambi if they are able to get a decent first basement via trade or free agency but I fully expect Giambi to be back in pinstripes in 09. Even if they choose to go with a younger player, Giambi can platoon at first and also DH while helping out a younger player.

The Yankees management should soon know if Mike Mussina plans to retire or not as his agent will be meeting with him in the next week to see what he would like to do. Mussinw won 20 games for the Yankees last year and if he chooses to retire, the Yankees will be looking for another starting pitcher as well.

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