Shin-Soo Choo rejected seven-year offer from the Yankees

When the Yankees signed Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year, $153 million deal, many thought that Robinson Cano would be the next big signing. Not exactly.

According got Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, the Yankees made a seven-year, $140 million offer to Shin-Soo Choo right after they had signed Ellsbury. When Choo rejected the offer, they moved on and signed Carlos Beltran to a three-year deal instead.

Choo has been searching for a contract at his price, all while his market appears to be shrinking every day. Passan says that Choo has multiple offers on the table at the moment. The Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks has been the teams showing the most interest lately.

Choo is the best available player on the market -- until Masahiro Tanaka gets posted, if he'll even be posted -- is worth paying a lot of money, but maybe not anything more than the $140 he rejected from the Yanks. A lead-off hitter that can get on base would fill a hole on a lot of teams.

The Yankees were likely trying to sign him to fill the void of Cano's impending signing with the Mariners. The Bombers signed Ellsbury a few days before Cano signed in Seattle, the same day the Yanks agreed to terms with Beltran.

It'll be interesting to see if Choo ends up landing a contract bigger than what the Yankees offered him.

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Yanks Are "Definitely Serious" About Carlos Beltran

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reported via Twitter earlier today that the Yankees are "definately serious" in free-agent outfielder Carlos Beltran.

Lobby chatter: Source says that the Yankees are definitely serious about chasing Carlos Beltran.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) November 12, 2013

This doesn't really comes as any surprise, as the Yankees have been linked to Beltran for a few weeks now, and there was even reports a few weeks back that the two sides had mutual interest in each other.

Beltran hit .296/.339/.491 with 24 HR for the Cardinals this past year, and is said to be looking for a 3- or 4-year deal. Something of that length doesn't excite the Yankees very much, but it doesn't  mean they won't give it to him.

The competition for Beltran is expected to be very fierce, as the Yankees won't be the only team bidding for his services. The Red Sox, Rangers and Orioles are said to be in the running.

After Curtis Granderson rejected the Yankees' one-year, $14.1 million qualifying offer yesterday, there is now room for the Bombers to add another outfielder. The Yankees have also been reported to be interesting in free-agent outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.

Like Granderson, both Beltran and Choo were given qualifying offers from their teams, which they both denied, meaning that the Yankees would have to give up their first round draft pick for next June's draft -- the Yankees will have the 18th pick next year.

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