Straight Cash

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman didn't like Rafael Soriano's three-year, $35 million deal. But the old Boss' boys, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner, showed Cashman who the new boss men are now that George has passed on.

It's been a twisted offseason for Cashman. He took an upper cut swing for the fences and struck out on signing lefty ace Cliff Lee; publicly feuded with the King of New York, Mr. Minka Kelly, the Captain, (cue Bob Sheppard's intro) Derek Jeter; and essentially ripped the high-profile signing of Soriano during the All-Star's introductory press conference.

"I didn't think it was an efficient way to allocate the remaining resources we have," said Cashman, who also re-signed 40-year-old iconic closer Mariano Rivera to a two-year, $30 million deal this offseason.

"And we had a lot of debate about that. We are better with Soriano, there's no doubt about that. It's all the other stuff wrapped up in the deal — the money, allocating closer-type money to an eighth-inning guy, those type of things."

Now two of the top 10 closers in the game today — Mo and Soriano combined for a 1.77 ERA, 6–5 record, 78 saves and 102 strikeouts over 122.1 innings last season — are wearing pinstripes.

And with a shaky starting rotation that reads CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and then who knows — Cashman went so far as to go after "American Idle" free agent Carl Pavano and told Mr. Game 2 Andy Pettitte not to "Brett Favre" the Bronx Bombers with a half-hearted, half-retired comeback — shortening games to seven innings isn't such a bad idea.

"Let me put it this way, I think 29 GMs would love to have their owner force Rafael Soriano down their throat," said Cashman.

But there is at least one GM who didn't want Soriano — a hard-throwing injury risk who now personifies Cashman's potential power outage in the city that never sleeps.