Brian Cashman has won three World Series rings in his 11 years as Yankees general manager. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Jon Heyman's Mailbag Got a question or comment for Jon? Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Jon Heyman on Twitter

Yankees' GM ready to cash in

The recent deals for Minaya and Red Sox GM Theo Epstein should provide Yankees GM Brian Cashman with a gauge for his new Yankees contract, which may come quickly, too. The new salaries for Minaya and Epstein aren't known yet (the guess here is that both doubled their price, Minaya to about $1.5 million a year and Epstein to about $3 million), but Cashman, who has excellent sources (better than mine) surely knows exactly what his two friends will make as he embarks on his own negotiation.

As SI.com reported on Tuesday, the Steinbrenners have asked Cashman to inform them by next week whether he'd like to return. People familiar with the situation expect Cashman to accept, and two reasons for that are 1) he likes Hal Steinbrenner, and 2) Hank Steinbrenner isn't the force he makes himself out to be.

If Cashman were to tell the Yankees no, one GM, noting Cashman's tremendous popularity and reputation within the game, said it would be "like dropping a bomb in baseball.'' As a free agent, Cashman surely would have multiple suitors. Beyond the expected GM opening in Seattle, three or four more teams might be willing to create openings to accommodate Cashman.

Hank opens mouth, inserts foot

While it appears that Hank Steinbrenner does almost no work for the Yankees, his first "piece'' for The Sporting News is in, and it's a doozy. In what really isn't a surprise, he dissed the Cooperstown-bound Joe Torre. "I'm happy for Joe, but you have to compare the divisions and the competition. What if the Yankees finish the season with more wins than the Dodgers, but the Dodgers make the playoffs? Does that make the Dodgers a better team? No.''

Since Hank appears to spend most of his time lounging around and doing nothing, he appears to have worked himself into a lather over the fact that Torre looks like he'll be in the playoffs while the Yankees will be on the sidelines for the first time since 1993. When you think about it, if the Mets make it, things could not have turned out worse for Hank the Yank. The hated Red Sox, hated Rays, hated Dodgers and hated Mets would all be in.

And by the way, it's always nice to see someone from the $210 million Yankees whining about competitive imbalance.

MLB tells Pirates to work it out with Alvarez

Pirates president Frank Coonelly said here and elsewhere that there was "zero'' chance he'd capitulate or compromise with agent Scott Boras and offer No. 1 draft choice Pedro Alvarez a new deal after the union challenged the original agreement. However, MLB powers wisely nudged Coonelly to work something out with Boras and Alvarez, and Coonelly complied, bumping Alvarez from a $6 million minor league bonus to a $6.355 million major league deal.

However Coonelly came to change his mind, he made the right call. As one competing owner said regarding Coonelly's chances versus the union, "His case was a loser.''

It's true that Coonelly had received approval from MLB to extend the midnight deadline and wound up getting Alvarez to say "I accept'' a few minutes past the original deadline. However, since the union wasn't informed of the extension at that time, it's easy to see how the arbitrator might have invalidated the Alvarez agreement.

In any case, there's no way Coonelly should have chanced an unfavorable decision. Alvarez is considered a superb prospect and the Pirates aren't in a position to let talent get away.

Regarding the redone deal, the Pirates' spin is that because the original $6 million agreement was up-front money, the present-day value of that contract was actually slightly higher and the new contract is worth about $5.6 million. However, the union would point out that a big-league contract requires payment of at least the minimum salary every year on top of the bonus, putting the value of the new deal close to $8 million. Either way, Coonelly did agree to redo the deal after saying he wouldn't.

Around the majors

• The Cubs aren't saying how they'll line up their excellent rotation in the playoffs. But one scout would be shocked if they didn't throw Carlos Zambrano in Game 1. "He's their guy,'' the scout said. The way the Cubs have it lined up now, it could be Zambrano followed by Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster.

• There's a battle for the bottom going on, too. In the race for next year's No. 1 pick, the Mariners are 58-99, the Nationals 59-98 and Padres 61-96. San Diego has hurt itself by heating up in its last 10 games, going 4-6 compared to 3-7 for Washington and 1-9 for Seattle.

• I've mentioned this before, but the Mariners need to hire Bobby Valentine to manage them. No manager's better in a rebuilding situation.

• Most folks seem to think Toronto's late run has helped spare GM J.P. Ricciardi from the chopping block.

• Johan Santana has pitched himself into the Cy Young discussion. And why not? His 2.64 ERA is actually slightly lower than favorite Tim Lincecum's 2.66. Lincecum has an edge in record (17-5 to 15-7), though the Mets pen has been especially incendiary in blowing Santana's games, and strikeouts (252 to 158). As for WHIP, Lincecum (1.155) leads Santana slightly (1.169). Meanwhile, Brandon Webb's 22-7 record will draw some attention, as will Brad Lidge's 40-for-40 saves chances.

• Lidge has got to be in the NL MVP discussion, too. Same goes for Santana, no? He has had 12 straight quality starts in the playoff push.

• Chipper Jones has missed four-consecutive games with shoulder trouble, though it's hard to accuse him of sitting out to protect his lead in the batting-average race as he's hurt constantly. He leads Albert Pujols, who's played though a bad elbow, .364 to .350.

• Nice touch by the Red Sox retiring Johnny Pesky's jersey number.

• Nicer touch by the Yankees donating $1 million to hurricane victims.