George King of the NY Post was the first to report that the
Yankees and Cubs were close to a deal that would send Soriano back to New York
for a mid-level prospect. While the components of the deal could be worked out
soon, Soriano would have to waive his no-trade clause for the deal to go
through and that will not be an automatic.
After being a perennial contender to join the 40/40 club
(Home runs and steals, not Jay-Z's place) in his younger days as a poor
fielding second baseman, the now 37-year old outfielder is a mature leader in
the Cubs’ clubhouse. He likes playing at Wrigley and turned down a deal to go
to the San Francisco Giants last year. (Perhaps his last chance for a ring
too.) He was recently commended by the Cubs management for his work ethic,
which included doing extra work to continue to improve his defense in left
field. Not many 37-year olds would do that. It was not always that way.
Soriano always worked hard, but his level of maturity needed
to improve. He was caught too many times watching his would-be home run shots
instead of running hard out of the box. His defense got worse and worse at
second base. After two years and 44 errors playing for Texas, the Rangers sent
Soriano to the Washington Nationals for Termel Sledge, Brad Wilkerson, and
Armando Galarraga. Needless to say the deal was awful for Texas, even though
Soriano only had one more year on his contract.
There was also the issue of making no contact in too many
at-bats. One of the memories of the 2002 and 2003 playoffs (30 K's in 88
at-bats) was watching Soriano swing and miss at pitch after pitch well out of
the strike zone. His strikeout to walk ratio was terrible during those two
years as well. Except for two seasons (2006, 2012) since then, Soriano cut down
on his strikeouts and improved on his walk total. He began to work the count
more and put more balls in play. Oh, and that 2002 season may be remembered for
his playoff failure, but Soriano led the AL that year in hits (209), runs (128)
and stolen bases (41), and missed the 40/40 club by one home run.
The first year for Soriano in the outfield was the one year
he played with the Nats. Defense aside Soriano could not have picked a much
better year to lead into free agency. He joined the elusive 40/40 club with 46
home runs and 41 steals. He had a career high .911 OPS, earned the fifth of his
seven All-Star selections, won his fourth Silver Slugger award, and finished
sixth in the National League MVP voting.
It all paid off when he signed an 8-year, $136MM deal with
the Cubs prior to the 2007 season. Though his skills have diminished since his
first year in the Windy City- he never stole 20 or more bases again - Soriano
still averaged 29 home runs and 98 RBI from 2011-2012. This year he has a .756
OPS (.785 with RISP) with 17 HR and 51 RBI in 92 games.
The money factor is a large when you take into account the
$18MM Soriano is owed in 2014, the final year of his deal, and the remainder of
the $18MM he's owed for the rest of this season. The Yankees want their 2014
salary to meet the $189MM luxury tax "line in the sand" and Soriano's
contract could greatly impact it depending on how much salary the Cubs pay. The
Yankees total salary next year might also be impacted by some apparent inside
information the Yankees could have a hold of concerning Alex Rodriguez's
pending suspension.
According to the Post's Joel Sherman (thank you to @TroyMags
for texting me this info) any monies lost by A-Rod during a suspension would
not count towards the luxury tax total. So Soriano's $18MM would then have much
less of a dent in the Yankees 2014 plans.
While Soriano's acquisition might not have a big impact on
where the Yankees finish this year, just ask yourself this. Would you rather
watch Soriano hitting or Vernon Wells/Travis Hafner?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
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