• The Red Sox are meeting with CC Sabathia sometime in the next few days, and so will Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who reportedly met with Scott Boras, the agent for Mark Teixeira and Derek Lowe. It's unclear whether the Red Sox are seriously interested in trying to compete with the Yankees' $140 million offer to Sabathia, or if they are just doing their due diligence and preparing alternatives in their winter shopping.
The Yankees' plan is more transparent. They want to sign Sabathia, and if they cannot do that, then they intend to take the millions that would've been spent on the left-hander and chase after Teixeira, while bidding on Lowe. The Yankees also have had internal discussions about second baseman
Orlando Hudson, whom they would sign, presumably, if they were to move closer to the long-considered swap of
Robinson Cano to the Dodgers (or some other team). If the Yankees were to trade Cano to L.A., they almost certainly would insist upon an elite pitcher like
Clayton Kershaw or
Chad Billingsley in return, and in failing to get that, they'd lock in on outfielder
Matt Kemp.
The reason Sabathia hasn't taken the Yankees' offer is that
his first choice is not to play in New York, writes Tyler Kepner. The Yankees are
getting aggressive on Lowe, writes Mark Feinsand.
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Buster Olney
