How the hell can the average Yankees fan see a gane in the Bronx if players like Johhny D. think they are worth 13 million a season ...where does this end ?
Divorce leaves Damon, Yankees hurting
Last Updated: 1:31 PM, January 28, 2010
Posted: 4:19 AM, January 28, 2010
Johnny Damon wanted the Yankees and the Yankees wanted Johnny Damon. But in the end, pride and inflexibility on both sides scuttled a covert, last-second attempt to stay together.
So one of the intriguing questions of 2010 now becomes if the Yankees, Damon or both ultimately regret how that pride and inflexibility assured a divorce.
If, for example, July rolls around and the Yankees are dissatisfied with their outfield/DH production and are looking for a Damon-esque player, they probably will rue not behaving like their behemoth-market self to keep Damon. If Damon is unable to find significant dollars and/or ends up slumming in, say, Cincinnati or Oakland, he may wonder how he let the Yankees get away.
What is known for sure now is Damon will not be back. The Yankees were unhurried in negotiations with other outfielders, hoping a door to Damon would re-open. However, when their preferred $2 million option, Randy Winn, said he was ready to sign elsewhere (likely the Nationals) unless a deal was finalized immediately, the Yankees blinked and agreed to a deal with Winn yesterday. That agreement extinguished the flickering possibility of retaining Damon.
It also reignited recriminations from both sides claiming lack of good faith and communication. Both camps played the semantic game. Scott Boras, Damon’s agent, said yesterday the Yankees “have not made an offer to date.” Yankees GM Brian Cashman countered by saying that on Dec. 17 Boras told him Damon would “not take a penny less than $13 million [a year].”
The Yankees responded by signing Nick Johnson and a subsequent trade for Javier Vazquez left $2 million in Hal Steinbrenner’s budget for another outfielder, too little for Damon’s liking.
“We wanted Johnny back and we are sorry he is not back,” Cashman said. “But you can’t say publicly with a straight face that we didn’t make an offer because we were told not to make an offer because we were not in the same ballpark.”
Before this round of bad feelings teemed, however, there had been recent attempts to rekindle negotiations.
In the middle of last week, Damon called Yankees officials in New York, The Post has learned. Steinbrenner was on his honeymoon. However, a top Yankees executive told Damon that if he accepted a $6 million deal with $3 million deferred that Steinbrenner could, perhaps, be convinced to approve that; though many Yankees officials remain sure the young Boss would never budge off $2 million.
But like all previous concepts, Damon considered this latest idea unacceptable after he had a strong 2009 in which he made $13 million. The Damon camp, according to sources, continued to float that they had offers in the two-year, $19 million range that Bobby Abreu received from the Angels. Boras yesterday called Damon “a great player” who has a market.
Boras did talk to Yankees officials over the weekend and Damon spoke with Steinbrenner on Monday. However, both sides sensed entrenchment, no proposals were extended, and it became obvious that unless one camp was bluffing Damon’s Yankees days were definitely over. Neither camp moved. So yesterday the Yankees had a Winn and a loss (Damon).
But really it is a loss all around. Like his departure from Boston to New York as a free agent, Damon leaves a championship in the background, leaves angry and in a financial dispute. He landed well with the Yankees (four years, $52 million). But there will be no repeat this time, and he may not exceed $7 million plus deferrals.
He might have chased a few extra bucks and left behind a Stadium that ideally fit his swing, and a winning, big-market club that fit his outsized personality. The Yankees, too, are losing that Stadium swing and imperturbable personality, and are replacing Damon with a human first-aid station (Johnson) and role players (Winn and Brett Gardner).
From the outside, it seems like both sides needed to relent. But pride and inflexibility reigned, and now you wonder if regret is coming next.
