Mo Spurns Angels, Red Sox To Stay A Yankee

The 41-year-old Hammer of God is returning to the Bronx for two more seasons and didn't even demand a raise. Mariano Rivera re-signed with the Yankees for two-years, $30 million which is right in line with the $15 million he made each of the past three seasons. Jon Heyman tweeted late last night that the Angels and Red Sox were offering three years and more money but Rivera decided to stay at home with the Yankees until his arm falls off. Which doesn't look like will happen any time soon. Rivera broke into the majors in 1995 and joined the ranks of great Yankees relievers like Josias Manzanillo and Mélido Turpen Gross Pérez. Unlike Manzanillo though, Rivera survived the '90s with both testicles. Too soon? Jeez, wear a cup.

Kinda painted myself into a corner there. It's hard to segue from a testicle reference. So anyway, Boston actually just offered the same two-year, $30 million contract that the Yanks did. It makes some sense since they don't trust Jonathan Papelbon and could have non-tendered him if they stole Mo away from their arch nemesis. Instead they had to tender Paps and will end up having to pay him somewhere between $11-13 million anyway.

The Angels were more of a curious case. Obviously the back-end of their bullpen is shaky at best with Fernando Rodney trying to hit the strike zone blindfolded in save situations. But I can't imagine them being serious about allocating $15 million to Rivera when they'll likely have to go over $100 million for Carl Crawford and rumoredly have their eyes on Adrian Beltre. Plus they could get Rafael Soriano for less than $15 mil per but he carries a big durability risk.

By locking up Rivera, New York ends up signing their most important and productive free agent to a reasonable deal (for a rich team) and keeps him a lifetime Yankee. I'm glad that story is behind us and didn't drag out all winter.

Obligatory Mariano Rivera Stat
Rivera has a 0.71 ERA in 139.2 post season innings. He's surrendered two post season home runs. Yikes. I'm almost willing to call that clutch. Almost.

Yankees Eliminated, Raising Payroll To $3 Billion

In a fitting turn of events, Alex Rodriguez watched strike three pass him by to end the Yankees season. The Rangers stunned the baseball world and Yankees fans everywhere after they "manhandled" the Bronx Bombers according to Yanks GM Brian Cashman. Cashman wans't exaggerating either. The Rangers outplayed the Yankees in every facet of the game including outhitting them by a hundred points (3.01 to 2.01). Final score: Rangers ($64,810,570) 4, Yankees ($213,359,389) 2.

The Yankees did lose Mark Teixeira midway through Game 4 but his .000/.176/.000 line in the series wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire. A-Rod wanted no part of defeating his former team, hitting for just a .190/.320/.286 line while continuing his anticlutch ways. Derek Jeter was a shell of his post season self and put up a .231/.286/.423 line. Don't worry though, Minka, the Yankees will still give him a shiny new $20 million per year contract.

Speaking of Yankee off-season spending. The Yankees are sure to open up the YES Network's pocketbooks and attack the free agent market with a vengeance. Cliff Lee should be the top priority but prying him away from Texas will probably start around $150 million. The Yanks will most likely be in on the bidding for Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth. Either one of those contracts should be around $100 million (more than that for Crawford, less for Werth). It makes some sense too considering Curtis Granderson is strictly a platoon player (hits lefties with his eyes closed) and Brett Gardner is, dare I say it, their only everyday outfielder.

Of course, everybody assumes those are the moves the Yankees will pursue. One I haven't really heard about is Rafael Soriano. The Rays closer stayed healthy and was down right filthy. The Yanks could use some more bullpen help after ruining the career of Joba Chamberlain and Kerry Wood is an injury time bomb. Soriano will be looking for closer money and a closer role but I'd bet he'd take a big pile of cash from the Yankees. Even if the Yanks don't pursue Soriano, you can count on their ever expansive payroll to continue to grow during the Hot Stove League. Good news Pirates, more free money!

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

And Here Are Your 2010 All Star Game Payrolls

Off Base intern @Filosomesa recently wondered what the payrolls of the All Star teams would look like. I thought that was a great idea so I sent him over to Cot's Baseball Contracts to do all of the work for me. I'm very busy with all of my afternoon naps and whatnot. Don't worry though, we pay him handsomely in potato chips.

A few quick notes before we get to some numbers that are going to make me feel bad about myself. These are the salaries for the 2010 season, we rounded to the nearest $1,000 and there are no bonuses included. If any players would like to donate their All Star bonuses to our site, we'd appreciate it and we take personal checks and Paypal. Please hurry, I'm hungry. Okay, on to some gaudy numbers...

American League All Stars	National League All Stars
Starters:	Starters:
C Joe Mauer, MIN - $12,500,000	C Yadier Molina, STL - $4,313,000
1B Miguel Cabrera, DET - $20,000,000	1B Albert Pujols, STL - $16,000,000
2B Robinson Cano, NYY - $9,000,000	2B Martin Prado, ATL - $440,000
3B Evan Longoria, TB - $950,000	3B David Wright, NYM - $10,250,000
SS Derek Jeter, NYY - $21,000,000	SS Hanley Ramirez, FL - $7,000,000
OF Josh Hamilton, TEX - $3,250,000	OF Ryan Braun, MIL - $1,288,000
OF Ichiro, SEA - $17,000,000	OF Corey Hart, MIL - $4,800,000
OF Carl Crawford, TB - $10,000,000	OF Andre Ethier, LAD - $6,000,000
DH Vlad Guerrero, TEX - $5,500,000
Pitchers:	Pitchers:
Trevor Cahill, OAK - $410,000	Jonathan Broxton, LAD - $4,000,000
Fausto Carmona, CLE - $4,900,000	Chris Carpenter, STL - $14,500,000
Neftali Feliz, TEX - $402,000	Matt Capps, WAS - $3,500,000
Phil Hughes, NYY - $447,000	Yovani Gallardo, MIL - $7,500,000
Cliff Lee, TEX - $8,000,000	Tim Lincecum, SF - $9,000,000
Jon Lester, BOS - $3,750,000	Roy Halladay, PHI - $15,750,000
Andy Pettitte, NYY - $11,750,000	Tim Hudson, ATL - $9,000,000
David Price, TB - $1,000,000	Ubaldo Jimenez, COL - $1,250,000
CC Sabathia, NYY - $23,000,000	Josh Johnson, FL - $3,750,000
Joakim Soria, KC - $7,500,000	Evan Meek, PIT - $414,000
Matt Thornton, CWS - $2,250,000	Arthur Rhodes, CIN $2,000,000
Jose Valverde, DET - $7,000,000	Adam Wainwright, STL - $4,838,000
Jered Weaver, LAA - $4,265,000	Brian Wilson, SF - $444,000
	Hong Chi Kuo, LAD - $950,000
Reserves:	Reserves:
C John Buck, TOR - $2,000,000	C Brian McCann, ATL - $5,667,000
1B Paul Knonerko, CWS - $12,000,000	1B Ryan Howard, PHI - $19,000,000
2B Ian Kinsler, TEX - $4,000,000	1B Joey Votto, CIN - $550,000
2B Ty Wiggington, BAL - $3,500,000	INF Omar Infante, ATL - $2,225,000
SS Elvis Andrus, TEX - $418,000	SS Rafael Furcal, LAD - $9,500,000
3B Adrian Beltre, BOS - $9,000,000	2B Brandon Phillips, CIN - $6,938,000
3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY - $32,000,000	3B Scott Rolen, CIN - $7,667,000
OF Jose Bautista, TOR - $2,400,000	OF Michael Bourn, HOU - $2,400,000
OF Torii Hunter, LAA - $18,000,000	OF Marlon Byrd, CHC - $3,000,000
OF Vernon Wells, TOR - $12,500,000	OF Matt Holliday, STL - $17,000,000
DH David Ortiz, BOS - $12,500,000	OF Chris Young, ARI - $3,450,000
OF Nick Swisher, NYY - $6,850,000	1B Adrian Gonzalez, SD - $4,875,000

AL Starters Total	NL Starters Total
$99,200,000	$50,091,000
AL Starters AVG	NL Starters AVG
$11,022,000	$5,566,000
AL Pitchers Total	NL Pitchers Total
$74,674,000	$76,896,000
AL Pitchers AVG	NL Pitchers AVG
$5,744,000	$5,493,000
AL Reserves Total	NL Reserves Total
$115,168,000	$82,272,000
AL Reserves AVG	NL Reserves AVG
$9,597,000	$6,856,000
AL Total	NL Toatal
$289,042,000	$209,259,000
Al AVG	NL AVG
$8,501,000	$6,155,000

Notes: It shouldn't comes as a surprise the the AL out monies the NL for the All Star rosters. The Yankees players ($81,047,000) make more than the NL's starting lineup. Somebody needs to check the basement in old Yankee Stadium, I'm certain they're printing money there. That can't be legal.

Joey Votto is going to clean up in arbitration this offseason. Arbitration season is my fourth favorite part of the baseball year. 1) Hot Stove 2) Fantasy Baseball Draft 3) Opening Day 4) Arbitration Season 5) Angels getting knocked out of the playoffs

Derek Jeter makes too much money.

I'm not very good with HTML.

Tampa Bay and Florida have to be ecstatic with the contracts of Evan Longoria and Hanley Ramirez.

Alright, I'm tired of this post.