A-Rod's special treatment

By Austin Amoroso

Brian Cashman, George Steinbrenner and the Tampa contingent have finally come to their senses. They’ve realized Alex Rodriguez is the greatest player in the game today, maybe of all time, and they’re prepared to stray from the norm and offer him some special treatment. Kudos.

A-Rod will deserve the $180 million, six-year extension he will be offered by the Yankees, which, thanks to Tom Hicks, will only cost them $150 million. The Yankees hope beginning negotiations now will stop Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, from doing what he does best, starting a bidding war.

Surely the Yankees could offer Rodriguez the most money, but once he’s out on the market, anything can happen. He’s said he loves New York, but that’s about it. Alex hasn’t talked much this year, about anything, and that might have a lot to do with the 30 home runs and 86 RBIs he has a little more than halfway through the season.

It took Alex three years to figure it out, but he finally has. Derek Jeter figured it out, probably a lot earlier than Alex did. It’s pretty simple. Keep your mouth shut and do your job. Go about your business like nobody is watching. He’s doing it this season and having one of the greatest seasons in Yankee history. That’s no coincidence.

So the Yankees front office has made a very wise decision to try and wrap up A-Rod for the rest of his Hall of Fame career. It won’t be easy, but it can certainly be done. It will take a lot of back-and-forth negotiating, unless of course, Cashman just gives Boras the liberty to set his own price. And that very well may happen.

But while settling on a contract extension likely will be a long and drawn-out process for Rodriguez, it wouldn’t be for two Yankee mainstays, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera, two guys with eight more rings than Rodriguez has. That’s not the point though. What is, is that negotiating with Rodriguez would be a slap in the face to two guys that are throwbacks to the days of Yankee winning and who have already assured themselves of a spot in Monument Park.

With the end of his six-year, $59 million deal, including a $12 million option this season, looming, Posada has remained very quiet while having the best season of his career. For a catcher that’s about to turn 36, you can’t quite call it a “walk year”. Posada wants, and deserves, another two or three years, and then he’ll gratefully call it quits on what should be a border-line Hall of Fame career.

It’s clear the Yankees are going to resign him. The only thing that’s left to figure out is if it’s two or three years, $20 million or $30 million. It’s really that simple. So if the front office is opening the door like this for a long, probably grueling, negotiation process for A-Rod, why not leave it open for Posada and Rivera, two contracts that are, basically, already signed.

The difference between Rivera and Posada, and A-Rod, is like night and day. Alex hasn’t said what he wants or what he plans on doing. All there is is speculation. But Rivera said repeatedly in spring training that he wanted an extension, that he wanted to stay a Yankee and retire a Yankee.

The Yankees didn’t budge from their standard, however callous and moronic it might be. Rivera made his stance very clear in spring training when he himself brought up the issue to reporters.

"Definitely, I want to finish my career here," he said. "But if they don't give me the respect that I deserve, [if] I have to move on, I have to move on. The Yankees always give me respect. When it comes to these times, I don't like to talk about it.”

And he emphasized that once he’s a free agent, nothing is guaranteed for the only team he’s played for.

"Everybody has the same shot. The Yankees will not have an advantage. Everyone will have the same shot."

While Rodriguez will undoubtedly (and after the over-the-top free agent spending this past off-season, deservedly) get in the vicinity of $30 million per year, the amount of money the greatest closer in baseball history has saved the Yankees is immeasurable.

Before the 2001 season, Rivera signed a four-year, roughly $40 million contract. Three years later, with one year still left on the deal, he signed a two-year, $21 million extension with a $10.5 million option for 2007.

The most important piece to Yankee success could’ve commanded whatever he wanted from the Yankees, and they would’ve reluctantly, but happily obliged. But Rivera didn’t. While Derek Jeter was signing for 10 years and $189 million, and Jason Giambi was being lured from Oakland for $120 million over seven years, Rivera quietly took the road less traveled.

But it didn’t make all the difference.

The Yankees should be rewarding Rivera’s temperance with a quick, easy and painless three year deal for $30 million that will ensure that Rivera will remain, and retire, a Yankee.

"I don't anticipate Mariano being anything but a Yankee,” Cashman said in spring training. “There's a time and a place, and we'll deal with it in a proper time and place. We love Mo, he knows that, and he knows how we feel."

Now is the time and this is the place. If you really love Mo, and Posada, you will show them the admiration that you’re giving A-Rod, but not just for their numbers, for what they’ve meant to the Yankees for their entire careers.