More A-Rod

Some thoughts:

1. Buster Olney was all over ESPN today claiming there has to be a deal in principle, somewhere, else no way A-Rod opts out on a moment's notice without even talking to the Yankees. Which would be tampering, of course--not that Boras cares or would be penalized. If a team was talking to Boras or A-Rod while A-Rod was still the property of the Yankees, that is tampering, and millions in fines. Think Boras cares?

2. In the Daily News Yankee blog, one last look is given to Boras's "Yankee team in turmoil" caper. Mike Feinsand writes:

The idea that Alex Rodriguez ever wanted to stay in New York is preposterous. If he wanted to stay, the Yankees were going to offer him a boatload of cash, and despite his concerns about guys like Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte, it's unlikely that all three of these guys – if any of them – were going to bolt.

The Yankees are not in a rebuilding phase, even with A-Rod gone. This team won't be dropping $100 million off its payroll. As of now, here's what we know for 2008: Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera, Jason Giambi, Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy.

This isn't the Royals.

Add in the likely return of Posada, Rivera, Pettitte and Bobby Abreu and the only questions are first and third base. They will figure it out. Are they in a lock to make the playoffs? No. Were they a lock this year? Not at 21-29. Without A-Rod, they wouldn't have gotten there, but that doesn't mean it will be the same next year.

Suddenly, the why of A-Rod's last-night-of-the-World-Series announcement makes sense.

The Yankees (who, like all the other teams, are proscribed from making major announcements during the World Series, absent the commissioner's permission; agents and players are under no such restriction) announced Joe Girardi today, on the first afternoon it was possible to do so.

It is possible to think that waiting one extra day, with Girardi in place, would have undercut the A-Rod/Boras "Yankees in turmoil" canard . . . I mean, just a little?

It is clear the Yankees want Posada, Rivera, and Abreu back, and would be happy to pay Andy Pettitte's option and slot him in as second starter, giving them a rotation (assuming Mo's presence) of Wang, Pettitte, Hughes, Joba and Kennedy, with anything Moose can contribute a bonus. Posada is coming off the best season of his career, Pettitte became stronger as the season went along, and Mo is Mo. The three remain wildly popular with the fans and have eleven rings--eleven Yankee rings--between them. Abreu, for his part, was the only Yank besides Cano to, you know, hit the ball or anything.

The only reason any one of the above would go to another team is money, and money is the one thing the Yankees will never run out of. (In addition to, by the way, $35 million per season freed up with A-Rod's and--please, merciful God--the Rocket's departure.)

So?

So Scott Boras exhibited one of the hardest of human traits: Lying when everyone knows he's lying.

And A-Rod's departure may, yes, be better for the Yanks in the long run.