NEW YORK -- Mariano Rivera is going to be the Yankees' closer for two more years, according to a baseball official with knowledge of negotiations between the team and the player's agent.
On Thursday night the Yankees and Rivera's agent, Fern Cuza, were putting the finishing touches on a contract that will be for around $30 million.
The contract negotiations with Rivera have gone smoothly -- especially in comparison to the ones for Derek Jeter. Unlike Jeter, Rivera had some leverage. The New York Daily News reported that Rivera was offered a three-year deal by an unnamed team.
Los Angeles Angels GM Tony Reagins refused to verify an SI.com report that the Angels had offered Rivera a contract.
Wonder if that unnamed team was the Red Sox? Amidst the Jeter rumors, I think the Red Sox should have swooped in and scooped up Rivera, just because he can...you know...still play.
Glad he didn't wind up with the Angels for three years. Scioscia LOVES to overwork his closers and overworking a 40-year-old Rivera could have ended disastrously.
At the end of the day, Rivera belongs with the Yankees and he should finish his career there.
Hall of Fame was a lock already for Mariano, but finishing for the Yankees is about your spot in Monument Park, for him and Jeter. Not that they wouldn't get in eventually, but there's some added cache to being a career Yankee. I don't see why a 37-year-old Jeter would have to be ashamed of making in-his-prime Tulowitski money.
Cabrera, for starters, put up a 5 ERA and walked 89 people to 76 strikeouts in 148 innings. That's pretty bad, you need to have dominant stuff to walk people like that, and he doesn't.