You realize Peavy is not a free agent, right? He's being traded (possibly). So, if the Yankees were to land him, Peavy would bring over his existing contract...the Yankees would not have to give him tons of cash. Keeping that in mind, I don't see how that would effect their budget (as if they have a budget) for free agents, namely Sabathia. I just can't see the Yankees saying, okay, we got Peavy...that's good enough. We don't need Sabathia now.
I absolutely realize that. San Diego is dangling him out there to see the interest. What makes this interesting is that there is always dangling going on, but its done behind closed doors so that the general public isn't aware of it...this is different because Peavy has made it known that he isn't happy with how things are going in SoCal. Now Padres management is ready to see what's out there AND to let Peavy know they also would rather be rid of him. Mind games within the game.
Peavy's contract will continue to grow, I looked at it once I heard the story break.
What I'm saying is that it isn't likely that a team with a huge payroll is going to be as likely to want to spend the money to get two Cy Young caliber pitchers when just landing one is going to be very expensive. If Peavy gets onto a team like the Yankees or the Red Sox, it will determine a deflated cost of someone like Sabathia and what he's able to command or if there's the same level of interest. This formula can only apply to a handful of teams, but I'd say conservatively that it could knock off a couple of million from a team with deep pockets.
Often it seems that the Red Sox and the Yankees are doing a bidding war between themselves and that one team is only in the process not to land said free agent, but to drive up the price of the said free agent.
If Peavy isn't out there for the taking then Sabbathia would have an extra team to bargain with. Hell, if the Giants didn't have Zito's contract the Giants would be a major player in the Sabathia sweepstakes.
The Giants only have a mild interest in C.C. because of what C.C. said in a Milwaukee newspaper. C.C. mentioned that S.F. would be up on the list of destinations he would consider. Up until that point there was no way S.F. would even consider him for an inclusion to the team.
