Davidoff: Yankees, Sox have wild card cornered

The answer is the rivalry

If you’re wondering why baseball would possibly need an extra playoff team, look no further than what happened to Mariano Rivera and Carl Crawford this past week.

The Red Sox were speaking with people from SFX, the agency that represents Rivera, when the SFX people asked Boston if there would be interest in Rivera. The Red Sox, knowing full well that Rivera would not join them, did more listening than talking, but how could they not at least contemplate an existence with the great Rivera as their closer?

Crawford, meanwhile, heard from the Yankees, who very likely will not sign the outfielder, but you can never rule them out altogether.
Rivera’s agents smartly solicited Boston in the hopes of making the Yankees blink. The Yankees didn’t mind the publicity about their interest in Crawford, because maybe it will motivate the Red Sox to pay more for the outfielder.

The Yankees and Red Sox probably will wind up as the two teams that spend the most this winter. It’s awfully difficult to keep either one out of the playoffs; Tampa Bay qualified in 2008 and 2010, but the Rays now have to fill some major holes.

The rest of the American League deserves a better chance to qualify for October, even as the Yankees and Red Sox — and other parties — engage in their standard winter warfare.

Closers closed out

The slowest market to evolve in free agency has been the one for closers. Only one big-market team, the Angels, possesses a clear need for a closer, and the Angels seem more focused on pursuing Crawford.

With Rivera a Yankee again, Rafael Soriano, Kerry Wood and the non-tendered Bobby Jenks will be battling for a limited number of job openings. The next tier — Kevin Gregg, Brian Fuentes and Trevor Hoffman — would appear to have very little chance of getting save opportunities somewhere.

A different path

When Players Association head Michael Weiner met last month with player agents, he used the Mets’ agreement with Hisanori Takahashi as a teachable moment.

Takahashi signed a two-year, $8-million agreement with the Angels, so all’s well that ended well. Yet Weiner pointed out to his constituents that Takahashi and the Mets didn’t have to arrange for Takahashi to get released by season’s end, therefore taking the Mets out of the bidding (given that Takahashi couldn’t have re-signed with the Mets until May 15).

Instead, Takahashi and the Mets could’ve done as Hiroki Kuroda did with the Dodgers. Los Angeles made Kuroda a free agent, and they eventually reunited for a one-year deal.

New Mets general manager Sandy Alderson doesn’t want to commit any new multiyear deals anyway, so the Mets probably would have passed on Takahashi. But it would’ve benefited Takahashi to try to keep the Mets in contention for his services.

Around the leagues

The Yankees endured some tension with Derek Jeter and agent Casey Close, who works for Creative Artists Agency, before getting back on track. But the Yankees themselves used CAA’s services back when they were trying to sell sponsorships for their new stadium.

New Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has put together a solid coaching staff to help him as a rookie skipper. In a nice touch, new bench coach Trey Hillman — formerly the Kansas City manager — will run spring training.

This past Wednesday, CC Sabathia’s PitCCh In Foundation organized a student-athlete education session at alma mater Vallejo High School in California. The young adults listened to guest speakers and participated in a mock news conference.

Hank’s Yanks, the 18-and-under baseball team sponsored by Hank Steinbrenner that took Long Island by storm this past summer, will pose for the Silver Shield calendar today at Yankee Stadium. George Steinbrenner and former Olympian Jim Fuchs founded the organization, which raises funds for families of police officers killed in the line of duty.