Yesterday we learned that the Yankees plan to woo CC Sabathia away from his desire to play on the west coast for a National League team by literally driving a truck full of money to his house and offering it to him. It's not a bad plan when you think about it because it's a lot harder to say no to $150 million when you can actually see it. Whether their plan will actually work remains to be seen, but as it turns out, the Yankees aren't the only team in New York planning on making a pitch for the free agent.The Mets -- who last winter invested $137 million into Johan Santana only to see the team collapse and lose the division to the Phillies again -- are planning on making an offer to Sabathia as well.
The latest Subway Series tussle could be over none other than CC Sabathia, the Daily News has learned, as the Mets Thursday apparently joined the Yankees in pursuit of baseball's biggest free agent prize.
A high-placed Yankee source Thursday reacted to the development by saying: "The Mets are in it? Great. Bring it on."
Meanwhile, Omar Minaya was dicussing a trade for a pitcher with a GM but said he would first have to see how Sabathia's free agency was progressing, a baseball executive said. A Mets official subsequently wouldn't deny interest in Sabathia.While the Mets may have an advantage over the Yankees of being a National League team, I'm not sure they'll be able to match the money the Yankees are going to offer, and if Sabathia is going to sign with an east coast team money will be the deciding factor.
A possible solution to this would be to backload the deal, but I'm not sure CC is going to want to play on the east coast and wait another three years before he really starts getting paid. Of course, this all could just be a ploy by the Mets to drive up Sabathia's price for the Yankees.
