Brewers re-enter CC sweepstakes

CC Sabathia appears to be holding out hope for a West Coast team to step up to the plate. Al Tielemans/SI

LAS VEGAS -- The Brewers apparently mean business.

Free-agent ace CC Sabathia has told friends he is expecting the Brewers to upgrade their five-year, $100 million offer in coming days. Milwaukee is apparently refusing to back down from a fight with the mega-market Yankees, who threw what's believed to be the biggest offer to date out there for Sabathia, $140 million over six years.

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin reportedly will meet with Sabathia's agent Greg Genske at the winter meetings, and while reports have indicated that the confab will provide Melvin a chance to gauge Sabathia's interest, more importantly, it is believed that the Brewers will either at that meeting or soon after signal a willingness to enhance their initial bid.

That makes sense since they can't expect to stay in the game when they're $40 million behind the presumed monetary leader. Some might even say $50 million, as someone familiar with Milwaukee's offer said he believes deferred monies makes it worth closer to $90 million.

It's clearly time for the Brewers to either get serious or get out, and they apparently have chosen the former. Milwaukee all year showed a tremendous resolve to try to win, and made the playoffs for the first time in 26 seasons after acquiring the savior Sabathia and pushing the payroll to an unprecedented $90 million for a small market team.

It isn't known how or how much Milwaukee will enhance its offer, but offering a sixth year has to be one possibility. Whatever they do, it's an extraordinary attempt for a small-market team to try to keep pace and even beat the Yankees and two other bidding teams.

SI.com reported Friday that two other teams have made bids, though the identity of those teams isn't known.

The Giants, Sabathia's hometown team, would be a logical suitor. However, one competing club official suggested it would seem improbable that the Giants can afford to carry two pitchers who each make about $20 million annually, counting holdover Barry Zito, who has an $18 million annual salary. The one way the Giants could do it is if their ownership group dedicates personal funds to the team payroll, but that opposing official said, "There's no way in this economy anyone's dipping into their own pocket.''

Sabathia's agents have said that the Vallejo, Calif. product would prefer to play for a team in California if "all else is equal.''

The Dodgers have looked into signing Sabathia, but that would seem to be something of a long shot considering their multiple needs, including left field, shortstop, third base and probably two starting pitchers. The Angels could be a possibility, but they appear to be focused for now on retaining their own free agent, first baseman Mark Teixeira. While Teixeira is said to have loved his time in Southern California, there are some who believe he'll go home to the East Coast (the Red Sox, Yankees, Nationals and Orioles are pursuing him), and if Teixeira does choose to go East, perhaps that would create an opening for the Angels to use that money to chase Sabathia, who's also known to have received interest from the Yankees' archrival, the Red Sox.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman is due to meet with Sabathia out here this weekend, and while the Yankees will want an answer from Sabathia as soon as possible, the big lefty appears more likely to wait to see what his West Coast options are. The top of the free-agent chain is a puzzle, as the Angels and Yankees appear extremely interested in both Sabathia and Teixeira -- though East Coast guy Teixeira is the Angels' main target, while Sabathia from the West Coast is the Yankees' top target.

In the middle are the feisty Brewers still trying to squeeze their way in.