Gammons: Yankees “tampered” with Andrew Miller

The Red Sox are expected to put lefty Andrew Miller in their starting rotation against the Padres on Monday. And it’s a good thing, too, because during an appearance on WEEI in Boston earlier today, Peter Gammons said that they nearly lost him to the divisional-rival Yankees.

“I know this: There were a lot of teams that tampered and tried to get him to do the opt-out, including the New York Yankees. A lot of teams wanted him to opt out on Wednesday. Because of his trust for the Red Sox and how much they’ve invested in him — not in terms of money but in terms of effort to just get his delivery back and be patient with him, he stayed. In some ways, they’re fortunate. Because I think he could have gotten twice as much money if he had left.”

For those unfamiliar, Miller had a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to become a free agent on Wednesday. He let the deadline pass after being told that he would soon be promoted to the major league roster.

I don’t claim to know everything about how these opt-outs work, but the Yankees were able to sign Brian Gordon away from the Phillies this week and there’s nothing to suggest that they violated any rules. “Tampering” is a very loaded word in sports, of course, but I suspect these sort of things happen pretty regularly with players who have opt-outs in their contracts.