Alex Rodriguez has been suspended for what is effectively a year; 162 games and the 2014 playoffs. Both myself and anyone even remotely interested has written about this ad nauseum, so I’ll just assume you’re up to date on the drama and info (or rather, the lack of info) and are sick of the topic from that standpoint. But, no matter how tired we are of this situation, it still matters. Here are two reasons why A-Rod’s suspension is important to Yankee fans:
The Yankees have extra money to spend…? Just this year?
Since A-Rod has been suspended for all of 2014, the Yankees do not have to pay him his salary, which gives them something like $25 million extra dollars to spend. Theoretically, at least – they could just pocket the money. Also, they could choose to spend only some of the money and not all of it. My understanding is that with A-Rod’s 2014 money off the books, the Yankees are now under the luxury cap, which is a goal they’ve been aiming for since… I dunno, they’ve been talking about it for years, it seems. They might be able to spend some of this money and still stay under the cap, but I’m not sure exactly how that all plays out – plus, I think Derek Jeter has some bonus money coming, so they have to account for that, too… it’s tricky. On the other hand, we all know the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs last year, so that might make them throw the luxury cap goal out the window. (There’s lots of money to be made in playoff baseball.. probably more than they’d save by staying under the luxury tax threshold.)
It’s also important to note that A-Rod is under contract through 2017 and he could choose to return to the team in 2015, which could effect decisions regarding long term contracts the team could give out in the wake of the suspension. I’m sure it’s unlikely that a 39 year old man could effectively return after missing a year of baseball, but straight up retiring would mean A-Rod would leave something like $60 million on the table, and that might be too much temptation.
The Yankees need a starting third baseman
Here’s the most immediate problem; who’s going to play third base for the Yankees? They’ve made some depth signings/minor league deals, but as far as I know, running those guys out there every day sounds like less than an ideal situation, and Yankees GM Brian Cashman has said publicly that they are not interested in signing Stephen Drew. Maybe they’ll try to get Michael Young? They were trying for an in season trade last year, so maybe they still like him as an option. Whatever they’re going to do, they better do it soon – we’re already about half way through January and pitchers and catchers reporting dates are right around the corner.
So where does that leave us?
I dunno. The Yankees need starting pitching, bullpen (although they have made some depth signings here) and third base help and have few trade chips to barter with. (Brett Gardner, Austin Romine?) Who knows if the new guys will work out (Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann), or if the veterans will return to form (CC Sabatha, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira)… it’s a waiting game at this point. We’ll just have to cross our fingers.
