June 04, 2007
Clemens and the Yankees
I wondered yesterday if the Yankees had an out in Rogers Clemens contract. It appears they do, although they have no plans to use it:
If the Yankees wanted to walk away from their deal with Roger Clemens, they could do so with no more money exchanging hands, the New York Post reported Monday.
However, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the Post: "It's not something I'm thinking about right now."
Clemens has a minor-league contract, so Cashman told the Post that either the Yankees or the Rocket could exit the deal at any time with no financial penalty.
Every day Roger spends in the minors saves the Yankees money. If they're more than 15 games out on Saturday, however, is it really that wise to bring Clemens to the majors? Once he's there, I believe New York is on the hook for the contract.
Posted by David Pinto at
01:24 PM
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There is no way NYY will not bring Clemens up unless he is injured and opts not to draw a paycheck for nothing.
First, from a baseball and standings point of view, in the WC the yankees are 6 games in the L column behind DET with 108 games left to play. Granted there are many teams in between, but 6 games is very reasonable.
Second, just like losing the bidding for Clemens was not an option for NYY (money was no object, given their dire straits and no need to give up talent), there is no way their fan base would tolerate throwing in the towel, so to speak, and not activating Roger in June.
The Red Sox waved the white flag on 7/31 last year with the Wells trade, which is the time that a contender in a big market should do so if necessary. The idea of NY doing this now by essentially giving up on Clemens would be such anethema to the yankee front office and their fans that it cannot even be on the table for them unless the old guy is hurt.