Yanks decline arbitration to Abreu, others

The Yankees decided not to offer arbitration to any of their eight free agents, which didn’t come as much of a surprise in seven of those cases. But in the case of Bobby Abreu, it makes very little sense. Unless the economy is going to have much more of an impact on free-agent signings than I think it does, there is virtually no chance that Abreu would have accepted arbitration, even though it would have guaranteed him about $16-17 million for 2009. Abreu is looking for a multi-year deal, and with the Cubs and Mets both expressing interest in him, it’s hard to see him settling for one year. Now, with no draft pick attached to Abreu, he’ll be even more appealing to other teams, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see his situation resolved in the next 10 days one way or another. Andy Pettitte was also not offered arbitration, though under the new rules, the Yankees can still negotiate with him and the rest of their free agents. Teams used to have to offer arbitration to ... (link)