Yankees could do with A-fraud insurance

Like several baseball team owners, Hank Steinbrenner must be looking at the National Hockey League’s new collective bargaining agreement with some envy.

It’s not just that the NHL is moving toward a salary cap that is about 30 per cent of Steinbrenner’s 2013 Yankee payroll. Hockey’s new collective agreement also has a maximum contract length, something that would have saved Steinbrenner $50 million or $60 million on Alex Rodriguez alone.

In 2007, Steinbrenner vowed he wouldn’t re-sign Rodriguez after the third baseman opted out of his contract with the Yankees. Then he turned around and gave Rodriguez an even richer deal — 10 years, $275 million — than his previous record-setting agreement.

Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away in the moment and make an impulsive decision that ends up costing you a lot of money for many years. Just ask Dan Marino.

The contract raised a few eyebrows at the time. But Rodriguez had put up huge regular-season numbers in his first five seasons with the Yankees and there was a strong chance he would eventually make history as he challenged the all-time home run record, now tainted by Barry Bonds.

Within a year of signing the new deal, however, Rodriguez reluctantly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career. And in the last two seasons his performance has declined dramatically. He’s been moved down in the batting order and the Yankees pinch-hit for him during the 2012 playoffs.

Rodriguez has missed about 100 games due to injury over the last two years, and he’s likely to be out for the first half of this season. Given his performance, that may not make much difference to the Yankees.

Last year, his slugging percentage was the lowest it’s been since he was a 19-yearold breaking into the majors with Seattle. He finished 78th in the league. That’s what you got for $29 million in 2012.

And now, Rodriguez has been implicated in another drug scandal, making it likely the Yankees will be overpaying him for years to come. The team is exploring its legal options, but it’s unlikely they have cause to void his contract.

The punishments for using performance-enhancing drugs are clearly stipulated as league-imposed suspensions. Teams have little recourse.

So unless he retires or suffers a career-ending injury, the Yankees will be stuck paying Rodriguez $20 million in 2017, when Canada will be celebrating its sesquicentennial and, based on current projections, A-Rod will be playing like he’s 150 years old as well.

Rodriguez might now be the poster boy for overcompensation, but his contract isn’t the only one in baseball based on the false assumption of sustained long-term performance. In another deal that seemed like a good idea at the time, the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180-million deal in 2009. Since then, his offensive production has dropped steadily.

Albert Pujols has $228 million left on his contract with the Angels. He’s one of the best hitters of all time, but even his performance has to decline by the time he’s making $30 million as a 41-yearold.

Ryan Howard is owed another $95 million over the next four years by the Phillies. Last year, after signing a new five-year deal, he hit .219 and struck out more than once every three at bats. Howard’s batting average has declined each of the last three seasons.

Even the small-market Minnesota Twins caught the fever, signing all-star catcher Joe Mauer to an eight-year contract. The fact that the Twins weren’t losing a hometown hero to New York or Boston was heralded as an encouraging sign for baseball. Indeed, Mauer is a great hitter. But with the wear and tear of the job, the odds of a catcher being worth $23 million at 35 years old are pretty low.

To protect their investment, the Twins have started using Mauer frequently at designated hitter or first base. But that’s not an ideal scenario either. It’s hard to justify Mauer’s salary at positions typically occupied by hitters with much more power. Mauer has hit just 22 home runs over the last three seasons.

In his book, former Yankees manager Joe Torre said other players referred to Rodriguez as A-Fraud. The Yankee ownership might now feel the same way. And to some extent they are justified in feeling betrayed by his lies about never using performance-enhancing drugs. But they could have avoided the entire mess by not committing to an unreasonably long and lucrative deal in 2009. Whether he was clean or not, the Yankees would have been overpaying Rodriguez eventually, likely even by now.

No wonder team owners in other sports feel they need rules to protect themselves from their own foolishness.