A day after the news broke that the Yankees were signing Scott Boras client Andruw Jones, Sports Illustrated columnist Jon Heyman revealed that Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, two of Boras’ other clients are headed to Tampa together. And the next time Derek Jeter reportedly gripes about having to take a pay cut, somebody ought to tell him to take a look at what these one-time stars will be making next season (stats from Baseball-Reference.com):
* Manny Ramirez: The enigmatic superstar has made over $205 million in his career, and just finished up a two-year, $45 million deal. Now, he’ll be making just $2 million in 2011, with no reported incentive clauses. Yikes!
* Johnny Damon: Rays will pay him $5.25 million with an additional $750K in “attendance bonuses,” Big League Stew reports, saying “Don’t laugh. There are a lot of Red Sox fans in Florida.” Damon has made $105 million in his career, with his top salary being the $13 million a year the Yankees paid him. He made $8 million with the Tigers last season.
* Andruw Jones: The outfielder is getting $2 million from the Yanks in 2011, plus a potential $1.2 million in incentives. He’s made $103 million in his career, with a top salary of $14.725 million in 2008. Then Jones made just $500K for the following two seasons. (Come to think of it, I guess his new contract with the Yankees is a raise of sorts for him!) It’s interesting to me that Jones could actually make more money than Manny. How the mighty have fallen!
Derek Jeter’s $15 million 2011 salary looks awfully good in comparison, even if it was a $4 million drop from the average annual value of the $190 million, 10-year contract he just finished up with the Yankees. Not to mention that Jeter has two more years at that salary, plus an option year, so he won’t be in the position of these big names in having to take such a drastic pay cut.
BTW, have you seen the pictures of Jeter’s 30,000 square foot new house, aka St. Jetersburg? I wonder if astronauts can see it from space!
Anyhow, I was wondering on Facebook last night whether the Rays would reunite even more of the 2004 Red Sox. Could Pedro Martinez be pitching for the team? What about hauling Kevin Millar out of retirement? Or Keith Foulke?
There are a ton of Red Sox fans in Florida (and a few of them are regular Squawkers readers!), so in theory, this could get some of them out to Rays games. However, isn’t it also possible that Boston fans might hold grudges against Manny and Damon because of their respective exits from Boston?
Damon and Ramirez facing the Yankees — and the Red Sox — 19 times a year should add a little more drama to the games. Damon was one of my very favorite Yankees ever, so I’m looking forward to seeing him again. And Manny is one of the top five most entertaining hitters I’ve seen play, even though way too many of those hits were against the Yankees! At the very least, he’ll add some entertainment value to the games — as long as he stays healthy, that is.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
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