Here Today, Gone to”MO”rrow
February 15, 2007
Looks like Yankees pitcher and the greatest closer of all time Mariano Rivera is starting to get a little unhappy. And why not? Over a decade of service and Mo might be repaid with an impending free agency at the end of the season.
Mo had another excellent season last year, the Cy Young runner up in 2005 posted a 1.80 ERA with 5:1 K:BB ratio and only giving up 3 home runs while posting 34 saves in 37 chances. Rivera is currently fourth on the all-time saves list with 413 and is most likely to pass John Franco for third on the list by the end of the 2007 season, the only problem is, it may be his last in Yankee pinstripes.
Rivera wanted a contract extension to be done before the end of spring training, which began on Tuesday for the reliever. Yankees GM Brian Cashman has refused to address the issue as of yet, leaving Mo under the impression that he may have to test the free agent waters at season’s end.
Rivera claims that as a free agent: “Everybody has the same shot. The Yankees will not have an advantage. Everyone will have the same shot.”
It’s early so as a Yankee fan I don’t want to get too worried, but with the closest prospects that could be considered closers a few years away (Kevin Whelan and Mark Melancon fit the closer profile better than prospect JB Cox, which is a whole other post all together) and impending free agent Francisco Rodriguez in all likelihood not coming cheap, there should be no reason why the Yanks should not have Rivera signed up for another 2 seasons, and let him break the all-time saves record in the new Yankee Stadium due to open in 2009.
