Alex Rodriguez, free agent

Word is the Yankees and Rodriguez and the Players' Union have come to terms over the marketing contract for Rodriguez's career milestones.

I hope Mike Lupica is crying bitter tears that the Yankees did not decide to take the "principled stand" and tell Mr. Rodriguez to take his purse swinging ways elsewhere. Idiot.

In any case, over at Hardball Times, John Brattain asks us to consider an interesting proposition: that while Scott Boras announced A-Rod's opting out of the contract during the Red Sox dismantling of the Rockies, Rodriguez himself opted for free agency a few weeks later.

If his goal was simply to get a package worth $275 million why bother opting out? The Yankees were already in the ballpark (factoring in the Rangers’ money and the three years remaining on the previous deal) with their extension offer. Something else that has to be kept in mind is seven years ago, A-Rod did not agree to terms until late January 2001. Boras feels time is an asset in increasing offers; that is why he wanted Rodriguez on the market—to get a bidding war going that would last a month or two.

Another thing to consider is how quickly Boras announced the opt-out coupled with making sure A-Rod had no contact with the Yankees whatsoever. Reports indicate that the future Hall of Famer had to be convinced by Boras to exercise the clause in his contract. It appears that Boras felt that any interaction between his client and New York’s front office/ownership could result in a quick agreement on an extension. To get Rodriguez into the marketplace meant ensuring that such a meeting not take place. While part of the timing of the opt out announcement was to make a point about how A-Rod could match the Fall Classic headline-for-headline, the other part evidently was to guarantee there would be no opportunity for the Yankees to make an offer that the third baseman would probably accept.

Every indication is that Rodriguez wished to remain where he is and his agent convinced him that even after opting out the Yankees brass’ proclamation about not negotiating simply was not the case.

Might the Yankees have re-entered the bidding even had A-Rod not made the gesture of making contact? We will never know, but one thing we have learned is this: Rodriguez did not want to take any chances. It gives us an idea of how important remaining in pinstripes was to Barry Bonds’ heir apparent as home run king.

We do not know what the final numbers of the new deal will look like yet; however while it will be a new record deal, it is nowhere near as impressive as it was seven years ago for several reasons. To begin with, back in 2000 the next highest contract was $92 million less—the deal that Manny Ramirez received from the Red Sox. A-Rod’s new deal will be just $23 million higher than the old record. Further, after Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to the Reds, he signed an extension with Cincinnati. While it was perceived that Junior gave the Redlegs a hometown discount, the total package was the highest given a player to that point in time.

Still another consideration is factoring in inflation, the value of the dollar, and that baseball’s revenue increased from under $4 billion to over $6 billion since 252 was signed. Rodriguez’s aggregate salary rose from $25.2 million to $27.5 million—a raise of just $2.3 million. Does anybody actually think that Scott Boras opted out and created this many headaches and bad publicity for his client just to get an extra $2.3 million annually?

As we learn more we also learn that Rodriguez is smarter and more independent of Boras than the Knights of the Keyboard and the Radio Waves give him credit for. I mean, it's a helluva lot smarter talking about the potential to make real money over time with Warren Buffet than with Scott Boras.

Rodriguez is no fool and does have a strong sense of baseball history. He recognizes that had Harry Frazee been more interested in baseball than Broadway and had never sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, the 714 homeruns The Big Bam hit for the Beanbags would have gotten him the keys to the city, a nice car, and free meals for the rest of his life at any of Boston's fine eateries. He would not have been the sports and marketing star of the 1920s he would become as he hit those homeruns while wearing pinstripes in the glare of New York.