Few joint ventures have worked as well as the one between Paul O’Neill and the Yankees. They have been wonderful for each other. So once the veteran outfielder determined he wanted to play one more year, the sides decided to make a deal for 2001.
As he has in the past, O’Neill willingly accepted less money than he could have garnered elsewhere. And the Yankees decided to bring him back despite a putrid September that hinted at O’Neill being finished.
“He’s meant for us,” GM Brian Cashman said, “and we’re meant for him.”
And so all the details were finally worked out yesterday on what O’Neill says will be the last contract of his career. The one-year deal is for $6.5 million with $3 million deferred over 10 years (the current value, a league official said, will be roughly $5 million when the Yankee payroll is computed).
Three months shy of his 38th birthday, O’Neill said he recently felt the call of the weight room, which made him realize he wanted to play one more year, and he finalized that issue with his family. And he determined that even with four championships in the last five years, there was still unfinished business with the Yankees. He said since the core of the team is still the same, he wants to see if they can win another title together.
“No doubt this was my first choice,” O’Neill said. “I want to finish this run with the Yankees. I want to finish with the team that has been such a big part of my career and life. It is special to me and I feel good about it.”
Obtained from Cincinnati following the 1992 season for Roberto Kelly, O’Neill quickly went from an underachieving Red to a building block as the Yankees went from terrible in the early ’90s to dynastic. He ultimately replaced Don Mattingly as the No. 3 hitter and became one of the most successful players in franchise history. Up until August this year, he was having a rather typical season.
But then he hurt his hip and had a dreadful September, raising the possibility that even if he wanted to continue playing, he would have to do it with another team. O’Neill, though, played brilliantly in the Yanks’ World Series triumph over the Mets. He knew there might be an opportunity for him to play elsewhere, notably in his hometown of Cincinnati. When it came to baseball, though, his home and his heart were here.
“It [finishing his career as a Yankee] means everything to him,” said Joe Bick, who has been O’Neill’s agent since 1984. “I told Brian that if we did not get this deal done, I would have considered it my biggest failure in 20 years of doing this. A wonderful relationship has formed between Paul and the fans of New York, and that aspect means so much to him.”
O’Neill partly based his decision to come back for his ninth season as a Yankee because he sees that it could be the last year that an important core is together. Joe Torre is in the final year of his contract as are Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius. David Cone very well might be back for a final Yankee season in 2001.
Despite rumors of Manny Ramirez, O’Neill said he imagines being the everyday right fielder as always in 2001 and added his goal is to be a contributor to another champion. He said he considered retiring after the fifth title of his career, but that “You want to look back and say you were there at the beginning of the spurt and you played all the way through.
“I pretty much made a choice [this year] this is it,” O’Neill said. “It’s not a swan song or anything.”