Here are a couple of notes on this Tuesday afternoon:
1) $100M for McCann?: Brian McCann could receive a deal for six years and $100 million, an MLB GM told ESPN New York on Tuesday. The GM reasoned that McCann is a top-five catcher and could transition to first and DH toward the end of the deal.
The highest paid catcher in the game, Joe Mauer, is in the midst of an eight-year, $184 million deal. In March, 2012, Yadier Molina signed a five-year, $75 million deal to remain with the Cardinals. McCann made $12 million in 2013.
McCann, who turns 30 in February, has already been the subject of Spend Hal's Money, where we advised the Yankees to go after him. A source with the knowledge of the Yankees' thinking said that if Alex Rodriguez's suspension is upheld, then the club could possibly sign Robinson Cano and McCann. We are not sure if that still applies if McCann receives nearly $17 million per year.
2) Let's get ready to rumble: Round 2 of the A-Rod appeal begins on Wednesday and it is getting feisty in there. Wallace Matthews' news story explains how one of A-Rod's lawyers, Joe Tacopina, and Julio Ayala, one of Anthony Bosch's lawyers, came nose-to-nose. Wally has this beauty of a quote from a source:
"If it had, this would have been a 'Down goes Frazier!' scenario," the source said in reference to a famous Howard Cosell exclamation during the George Foreman-Joe Frazier heavyweight title bout of 1973, although he declined to say which man would have played Foreman.