HIDEKI Matsui is going to be the best free agent available after this season, though nobody believes he really will be available.
Matsui shunned Yankee overtures this spring. He told the Yankees he signed a three-year contract and because, in his mind, he had yet to perform to his full abilities, he wanted to play this season before discussing a new pact.
The danger for the Yankees is not in losing Matsui. No Yankee official, executive from another team or agent spoken to felt Matsui would leave for another club (Matsui’s rep, Arn Tellem, did not return a call). Matsui has comfort playing with the Yanks, who provide the bigness he is familiar with from playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. A lot of bad will would have to be engendered during this season for Matsui to abandon his current locale.
Instead, the Yankee problem becomes financial (that is if the Yanks can have financial problems). Club executives insist no official offer was extended in the spring to Matsui because he made his preferences known. However, the club was using Ichiro Suzuki’s four-year, $44 million accord and J.D. Drew’s five-year, $55 million package as guidelines, and Tellem was aware of that.
The Yanks recognize that if Matsui moves where it seems he is heading, to among the elite players in the sport, the five-year, $74 million given Lance Berkman or the five-year, $75 million for Magglio Ordonez become more likely parameters.
“Hopefully he will put up that big year,” GM Brian Cashman said. “It would be good for us and good for him.”
Matsui could make himself more valuable in 2006 by becoming the full-time center fielder. There has been an assumption the Yankees will replace Bernie Williams, whose contract is expiring, with an established center fielder, someone like Atlanta’s Andruw Jones in a trade or looming free agent Johnny Damon.
But if Matsui plays center, the Yanks could try to save money in left, maybe even converting prospect Andy Phillips into an outfielder; or perhaps they could sign a free agent such as Sammy Sosa.
There was a time when having Sosa or Nomar Garciaparra on the market would make a free-agent class elite. Not next offseason. Not unless those players rebound significantly. With Berkman, Aramis Ramirez and Tim Hudson signing since the beginning of spring training, next offseason’s free-agent class took a severe hit. There is no in-his-prime positional difference maker such as Carlos Beltran available. Matsui is the best position player.
Among pitchers, talented-but-enigmatic and injury-touched A.J. Burnett, Chris Carpenter and Brad Penny head the class.
That is why Yankee and Met officials, among others, said it was imperative to be aggressive in last offseason’s free-agent market, especially when it came to filling rotation spots. “You had to take advantage of this market of the excess of young pitching,” Cashman said.
This scenario also puts further pressure, for example, on the Yankees to finally be right about young starters, because 29-year-olds Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright will be more difficult to replace moving forward. Especially because the best projected starter from the 2006-07 free-agent class, Johan Santana, also was signed long-term this spring and Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets might be inked soon.
“It certainly figured in our thinking,” Mets GM Omar Minaya said. “You look at the future markets and you don’t see much. You will probably overspend for a lower class of guys, so we decided to stretch this year, knowing we will gain financial flexibility soon in the future.”
DOWN THE LINE
It’ll Be Tough for A-Rod to climb out of two-hole
A Yankee executive recently made the point that Alex Rodriguez is in a difficult spot. He probably prefers not to hit second, but any qualms will hurt his already damaged public perception and yet, the executive said, he is probably also doing harm to his persona by so meekly accepting the designation.
The reality is that, at present, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui have earned the right to hit in the more prestigious third and fourth spots. The only way for A-Rod to win in this area is to hit his way out of the second slot and into the third or fourth spot and, the executive said, “We would be an even better team if that actually happened.”
One-time Rodriguez nemesis, uh, teammate, Ken Griffey Jr., is also batting No. 2 for the Reds.
A-Rod and Tino Martinez homered as teammates in a game for the fourth time Wednesday, but the other three happened when they were with Griffey on the 1995 Mariners. The last time it had previously occurred was on Aug. 4, 1995 in a 9-8 loss to Oakland. To accommodate the rookie A-Rod at shortstop, Luis Sojo started in left for the Mariners. The A’s team had Mark McGwire hitting third and Scott Brosius was moved to left field so a skinny, rookie third baseman named Jason Giambi could play.
The first time A-Rod and Martinez homered in the same game as teammates was June 12, both off of a Kansas City started named Tom Gordon.
A-Rod actually is batting second to Derek Jeter on another list that he cannot be pleased with. In a SportsBusiness Daily survey of 81 marketing, advertising and public-relations consultants, sponsorship consultants and journalists, Jeter by a wide margin was voted the majors’ most marketable player. A-Rod was second. At least Rodriguez has this, he beat his enemy Curt Schilling, who was third.
The Met home opener also serves as a return home of sorts for Andy Pettitte, who will start for Houston. Pettitte needed elbow surgery last year and started just 15 times. He held the offensively superb Cardinals to just one run in six innings in his 2005 debut, though he was throwing his fastball just 85-86 mph.
Astro GM Tim Purpura said former Houston closer Billy Wagner had the same bone-chip surgery and it took a while, but he returned to full velocity. What Purpura loved about Pettitte’s effort was that it was economical (71 pitches), the cutter was very good and Pettitte raved about not pitching in pain for the first time in more than a year.
All three one-time members of Generation K were active to start the season. Paul Wilson started Opening Day for the Reds, Jason Isringhausen was closing for the Cardinals and, shockingly, Bill Pulsipher, who last pitched in the majors in 2001, was with Isringhausen in the St. Louis bullpen.
“Nobody scored on him in spring training (10 innings),” Cards GM Walt Jocketty said in explaining Pulsipher’s presence. “He threw strikes. He threw a lot of breaking balls well. He is not overpowering, but he has a deceptive delivery.”
The Brewers plan another round of negotiations this week to sign Ben Sheets long-term and they may offer an intriguing structure. They do not have major money tied up in the near future, but with touted youngsters on the come such as J.J. Hardy, Prince Fielder and Richie Weeks, Milwaukee imagines a big arbitration bill about four years from now. So they might offer to pay Sheets the bulk of a four- or five-year agreement in the next two seasons, and much less thereafter.
