The release of ARod wouldn't shock me at this point.

"With every move they have made this offseason it’s clear the New York Yankees are preparing for the early jettison of Alex Rodriguez from their roster in 2015. The signing of Chase Headley to a four-year contract left him without a position in the field and the acquisition of lefty slugger Garrett Jones as a possible DH Friday further takes away potential at-bats for A-Rod.

It makes you wonder if the Yankees really expect – or want – Rodriguez, who’ll turn 40 in July, to play for them at all. It’s almost as if they are giving him a good-faith gesture in allowing him an opportunity to show he can still hit after a year-long suspension for PEDs. However, if he’s hitting .220 with a homer and 10 RBI in the middle of May, the real plan is to hand him his walking papers by Memorial Day and eat the remaining $60 million or so on his contract which runs through 2017. The surest bet in sports right now is that A-Rod will never play through the rest of that pact."

That may be overstating it, but I think the risk-reward analysis has tipped. $60 million is still a lot to throw away, but it's not really that much.

Scam

"Manager Buck Showalter told reporters Tuesday that Davis, who was diagnosed with ADHD while playing with the Texas Rangers and had previously obtained TUEs from the league for Adderall, will have the league’s permission to use it again in 2015.

Nearly 10% of Major Leaguers received TUEs for Adderall in 2014, a rate well higher than the 4.4% of adults affected by the disease nationally."

Ten percent that we know about.

Richard Justice really likes Chase Headley.

Of course, I don't think Richard Justice ever has an unkind word for anyone:

"Anyway, Headley re-upping with the Yankees for four years at a reported $52 million changes the divisional landscape yet again. The Yankees were prepared to move on without him, saying they'd shift Martin Prado from second to third and allow Jose Pirela and Rob Refsnyder to compete at second.

...

Meanwhile, the Yankees badly wanted Headley back. He probably surpassed all their expectations after being acquired from the Padres on July 22. His defense was outstanding. Offensively, his .381 on-base-percentage was fifth-best among all big league third basemen in that time. He was also fifth in walks, 13th in home runs and 11th in slugging.

These aren't All-Star numbers, but when his defense is factored into the mix, he was a solid contributor to a team that was in the playoff mix until the final few days of the season.

There was something else about him the Yankees appreciated, and it has become a pattern with general manager Brian Cashman's acquisitions. Headley fit in the clubhouse, too, in the overall culture of the Yankees."

No, I'm not sure what that means anymore, either.

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As for the Yankees, I must say, this guy is very optimistic:

"OK, back to the AL East, where the offseason has been punching and counter-punching.

I'd rate the Yankees and Red Sox in a dead heat for first place. How's that for copping out?"

I don't think it's copping out at all. It's a bold prediction for two teams that combined to be outscored by 112 runs last season.

"Landed on their feet" is one way to put it.

"Of course, an underlying storyline here is that Cabrera is another in the line of players recently suspended for PEDs to cash in with a nice little contract. Cabrera's deal actually comes two full years after he was banned 50 games after he tested positive for testosterone. In wake of their 2013 suspensions during the Biogensis scandal, both Jhonny Peralta (four-years, $52 million with the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 2014 season) and Nelson Cruz (four-years, $57 million with the Seattle Mariners on Dec. 1) landed on their feet despite the obvious baggage."

The list goes on and on ...

"In their second major deal Friday, the Yankees landed prized reliever Andrew Miller, who agreed to a record four-year, $36 million deal.

 The $36 million guaranteed contract for a setup man broke Rafael Soriano's three-year, $35 million contract with Yankees signed in 2011."

So if the Yankees signed Soriano to a record setup man deal in 2011 ... and the Royals didn't make the playoffs until 2014 ... and the Miller signing is proof that the Yankees are mimicking the Royals ...

Oh, forget it.

Late '70s. The Yankees had Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage in the same bullpen ...

I guess acquiring Gossage in 1978 because the Cy Young Award winner in the bullpen wasn't enough.

Ron Davis setting up Gossage. 131 innings in 1980.

Moving Rookie of the Year Dave Righetti to the bullpen.

Mariano setting up Wetteland.

The Mendoza-Stanton-Nelson "bridge" to Mariano.

Betances setting up Robertson:

"There has never been a single offseason that I can remember when the Yankees weren’t declared world beaters after they started making moves.

I like the signing of Andrew Miller, and it made perfect sense for them, especially not knowing whether or not David Robertson is coming back.

But I was a little confused, tracking the giddy reaction to Miller’s signing, as to how I could possibly have missed the obvious comparisons between him and Mariano Rivera.

Not so long after the Yanks were going to be world beaters because of the longball, now they are selling something new:

The first all-bullpen team in Yankee history!"

Nice addition of a setup man that no one is particularly excited about.

Zero people have compared Miller to Mariano and very few people think the Yankees are world beaters.

So, once again, Lupica is creating an imaginary, defenseless opponent and then intellectually defeating that opponent like a Big Man with a typewriter.

The Miller signing continues the Yankees' decade-long obsession with a strong bullpen. Every hack writer seems to have conveniently forgotten.

A suggestion for John Sterling.

The proposed HR call: "This is the dawning of the Age of Gregorius."

Two words: Rick Honeycutt.

This particular narrative is driving me crazy. The idea that the Yankees are copying the Royals:

"The Yankees are trying to navigate this difficult terrain: They want to position themselves to contend for a championship in 2015 without taking on onerous long-term contracts at a time when their roster is, at minimum, problematic.

This is why they are involved so deeply with Andrew Miller."

In his heyday with the Yankees, journeyman lefty reliever Mike Stanton appeared in 79 games in 2002. It's not quite the Yankee record. That would be Paul Quantrill with 86 appearances in 2004. It's not even the record for a Yankee lefty -- that's Boone Logan with 80 in 2012.

Remember when Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young Award? Me too.

Remember that year when Alan Embree pitched, like, 20 games in a row in anticipation of a playoff matchup with David Ortiz? The year was 2005 and here is the Torre Special Game Log.

What do all these workhorses have in common?

They pre-dated the 2014 Royals.


"The Royals showed last season that an indomitable late-game bullpen could be the key element in a team getting to the World Series. In conjunction with an elite defense, Kansas City used its powerhouse late-game trio of Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera to cover up for blemishes, namely, a good but not championship rotation and a middle-of-the-road offense.

The strategy is to win a disproportionate amount of toss-up games due to the strength of the pen, hope that is enough to push toward 90 wins or more and — should you get into the playoffs — have a proven October formula for success by reducing games to six innings."

Sounds like the Royals are copying the Yankees ... and the Red Sox ... and the Larussa A's ... and lots of other teams over the years.

Failure

"The league reported 10 positive tests for stimulants - which MLB first banned before the start of the 2006 season — between the 2013-14 offseason through the end of the '14 postseason, two positive tests for steroids — Boldenone and Methandienone — and the one non-analytical positive, which is the result of evidence of a violation other than from a positive test.

All cases resulted in discipline, including a season-long ban for Rodriguez, whose suspension was upheld by an arbitrator in January. By comparison, the league reported eight positive tests for stimulants a year ago, and zero positive tests for steroids and performance-enhancing substances. There were 13 non-analytical positives for steroids in 2013, all resulting in suspensions stemming from baseball’s Biogenesis steroid investigation."

That's what I thought:Two positive tests for steroids in two years.

MLB basically found none of their steroid users. The newspapers found all the steroid users.


Guess how many therapeutic use exemptions in MLB?:

"The number of TUEs granted in the past year was 113 - one for hypogonadism and 112 for attention deficit disorder."

That's four players per team with Attention Deficit Disorder. It's amazing that Selig rides off into the sunset with accolades from the three-monkey press corps.


ARod was caught because his supplier is from Miami.

If ARod played in Boston, he'd be going to the Hall of Fame, supported by a compliant press corps and compliant MLB officers.