Everything Can Change

Johnny Carson once said that a New York Minute was the time between a traffic light turning greeen and the cabbie behind you honking his horn. Tonight, however, a New York Minute is the time it takes for Alex Rodriguez to negotiate a ten year, $275 million contract with the Yankees. This is a deal that's shocking on many levels.

Let's start with the fact that A-Rod and the Yankees were actually talking. A-Rod, after all, had rebuffed calls from Brian Cashman, the Steinbrenners three, and a number of his former teammates both before and after deciding to opt out of his contract. Meanwhile, the Yankees had repeatedly and emphatically stated that there would be absolutely no negotiations with Alex Rodriguez as a free agent.

Then there's the fact that the negotiations were made between the Yankees and A-Rod. For whatever reason, Rodriguez decided to bypass Scott Boras and sit down with the Yankees on his own (or, more accurately, with only his wife by his side).

Plus, let's not forget about the size of the contract. Reports have the total ranging from $275 to $290 million, but whatever it ends up being it won't be very different from what he makes now, and it's a lot less than the $350 million that Boras was looking for.

I'm honestly not sure whether or not I like this deal. This is partly because my head has been spinning too much for me to form a coherent opinion, but it's mostly because, since the deal isn't official yet, we don't know what the fine print says. A-Rod's last contract, after all, showed us that the devil's in the details.