"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Up Against It

Over at SI.com, our man Cliff takes a look at the Yankees’ aging roster:

The Yankees’ success over the last two decades was largely built around a core of home grown stars in Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada, but it’s clear that the end is nigh for each of them. Williams and Pettitte are retired, Posada is 39 and batting just .179 in the last year of his contract, Jeter is hitting a career-worst .255 as he approaches his 37th birthday and Rivera, though still pitching brilliantly, is 41 years old.

The decline of those players has brought attention to the advancing age and cost of the Yankees roster, which currently boasts five players who are at least 34 and earning eight-digit salaries and two other players earning annual salaries north of $20 million signed through or beyond their 34th birthdays. Setting aside Posada, who will turn 40 in August and is in the final year of his four-year, $52.4 million deal, here is a look at the six players the Yankees have signed through their age-34 season or beyond.

[Photo Credit: Ralph Gibson via This Isn’t Happiness]

5 comments

1 RIYank   ~  May 19, 2011 4:15 pm

Heh. Cliff reports on batters' performance by citing their batting average? He's going to have his SABR membership card revoked!

2 Alex Belth   ~  May 19, 2011 4:40 pm

Yeah, I gotta imagine the Alex deal is going to be a killer.

3 rbj   ~  May 19, 2011 4:59 pm

Po at first tonight.

4 MSM35   ~  May 19, 2011 8:16 pm

ARod's hip will go before his contract is up. "Hips don't lie" and they don't get better. Nothing to worry about here except replacing the numbers.

5 Cliff Corcoran   ~  May 20, 2011 1:01 am

[1] Guess which paragraph was the most heavily edited?

Not that I have a SABR card to be revoked (though perhaps a figurative one). . .

Thanks for the link, Al.

feed Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via email
"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver