A-Rod

This is about the umpteenth story about how A-Rod isn't going anywhere this winter. So, that's the end of the story, right? Cashman says it isn't happening, Boras says it isn't happening, A-Rod himself says he wants to stay in New York - so clearly, we can all move on.

Well, not so much. A-Rod pretty much has to say that he wants to stay, because there's a good chance that he will stay and he wouldn't be helping anybody by making like Manny and expressing his frustrations regularly. Boras, as A-Rod's agent, has to back up his player. And Cashman? Well, if you had a player that you desperately wanted to trade, you wouldn't exactly want to make that obvious. If teams believed that A-Rod was going to be traded one way or the other, the offers that they made would become significantly less valuable to the Yankees. Cashman has to at least make noise suggesting that A-Rod isn't going anywhere to keep his value at its peak.

I'm not saying that A-Rod will be traded; I think that question is going to take most of the off-season to figure out, and is going to depend on what teams are interested (because A-Rod can veto any trade) and what those teams offer (because, make no mistake, the Yankees will demand value in any deal). However, the regular statements emanating out of New York are about as valuable as the ominous "vote of confidence" given to managers who are usually fired within a week after receiving it.