Donald Trump has all kinds of opinions about the Yankees

By Craig CalcaterraOct 16, 2012, 12:34 PM EDT
23 Comments

Donald Trump weighed in on A-Rod’s struggles and Derek Jeter’s injury in the past day or so. And he did it with his usual subtlety.

On A-Rod:

Trump called on star Alex Rodriguez to donate his contract to charity. “He doesn’t make the Yankees any money and he doesn’t perform,” Trump tweeted. “He is a $30M/yr rip off.”

If you called into a talk radio show to make that point you wouldn’t get past the screeners due to the cliche and pedestrian nature of his rant, but I guess if you’ve convinced enough people that you’re important, it’s newsworthy.

Trump’s take on Jeter — who just sold his penthouse in Trump’s fancy-schmancy building —  is a little more inventive:

“Derek Jeter had a great career until 3 days ago when he sold his apartment at Trump World Tower,” Trump tweeted. “I told him not to sell- karma?”

Seems like the most likely explanation, yes.

Oy.

Yasmani Grandal signs a four-year, $73 million deal with the White Sox

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By Craig CalcaterraNov 21, 2019, 12:09 PM EST
5 Comments

The first truly big free agent signing of the offseason has gone down: the Chicago White Sox just announced that they have signed catcher Yasmani Grandal to a four-year, $73 million deal.

Grandal, 31, was the best catcher available in free agency. He is coming off a fine year with the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he had to settle for a one-year pact in 2019. He hit .246/.380/.468 with 28 homers and 77 driven in. It was his fourth straight season with 20+ homers. While his catching has been criticized due to some high-profile mistakes in the postseason, the two-time All-Star once again proved himself to be one of the best pitch-framers in the game if not the best. Between the bat and the glove he has a claim to being one of the best all-around catchers in baseball.

The signing leaves open the question of what happens to James McCann, who was himself an All-Star this year. It’s not that hard a question, of course, as Grandal is a far superior catcher to McCann in every respect. The Sox could make McCann a backup. Alternatively, they could try to trade him to fill other holes on the roster.

The White Sox finished 72-89 in 2019 but are showing signs of coming out of rebuilding mode and into contention mode. This signing pushes them a big step into that direction.