Baseball Insider: Stong indications Tulowitzki-to-Yankees not happening

Stronger-than-ever indications that Troy Tulowitzki will not become a Yankee.

Say this for the Yankees: Every time you talk to an official for a rival team, or an agent who has dealt with them this offseason, you hear the same theme — the Yanks truly are behaving as if they mean it about avoiding more long-term contracts.

The latest example is Troy Tulowitzki, a potentially iconic replacement for Derek Jeter. Although we have always seen Tulo-to-Yanks as a long shot, there are recent, strong indications that it will not happen, period.

Tulowitzki’s elite abilities are obvious, but the Yanks are sending clear signals that they have no interest whatsoever in assuming the final six years and $114 million remaining on the shortstop’s contract. Already dealing with Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia (and to a lesser extent, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran), the team truly does not want to take on another expensive deal.

Further complicating the situation, rival officials who have spoken with the Rockies in the past two weeks have come away with the impression that Colorado will not trade Tulowitzki. We are approaching a level of dithering worthy of Hamlet here, and it is hard to say where this drama goes. But for now, rivals have the impression that Tulo is not available.

Even if he were, the Yanks appear committed to a more modest approach. We have been skeptical of these proclamations, and continue to half-expect a sudden December spree, because they are the Yankees.

But the team was not in on either of the free agents who became Red Sox on Monday, Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. As of now, they remain disengaged on Jon Lester, from everything we hear. Max Scherzer? We’ll see, but no traction yet.

Add Tulowitzki to the pile. Even after Boston tossed around nearly $200 million on Monday, the Yankees remained privately steadfast in the position that they had no interest in assuming another veteran contract — even if that contract belonged to one of baseball’s best hitters when healthy, and a guy who idolized Jeter, and detoured to New York to watch his hero play this summer.

We will never be so foolish as to say never, when we’re discussing the Yanks and a desirable star player. But this time, at this moment, they sure seem to mean it.

THE RED SOX DID A LOT OF STUFF

This is from yesterday, on Ben Cherington’s latest reboot.

And Madden’s take.

Also, the Sox sent an unfortunate tweet.

THE HALL OF FAME CLASS

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Here are the News’ most overrated Hall of Famers.

ALSO

It feels a bit crass to report on the hot stove when an American city is burning, but the rest of the world does not stop.

Watching CNN last night, I was reminded of my experience last month reporting on the FergusonOctober protests during the NLCS. The city was filled then with a sense of foreboding, and hurt that would not soon be healed. Here is the column from that tense moment.

Anger ran deep, as did the depth of the disconnect between the black community and law enforcement. Many citizens were enraged about what they saw as a continual problem of police brutality, and seemed ready to boil.

Last week, in a telephone conversation with one of the people I interviewed at Busch Stadium, I was again struck by his resentment. He predicted riots across the country if the grand jury did not indict Officer Darren Wilson — not because he wanted this, but because the community was spilling over with helpless rage.

This man was not yelling, or ranting. He was mostly just sighing, weary and resigned to the violence that he knew was coming.