"Since Tim Lincecum signed his two-year, $40.5 million contract, a lot of folks have taken the liberty of speaking for him. Lincecum wants to be a Yankee, they say. He wants to sell himself to the highest bidder the minute he is free and collect $200 million. He's giving management two years to field a better offense, or he's gone.

Lincecum spoke for himself Friday and said none of that played into the brevity of his new deal. Echoing his agent, Lincecum said that two years was the "common ground" that the two sides found to avoid an arbitration hearing that Lincecum did not want, and that anybody who reads more into it is reaching.

"Just because I signed a two-year deal doesn't mean it eliminates extension talks in the future," Lincecum said.

"I'm worried about now, now. I've never been that guy who could make plans four years from now. If someone's going, 'You want to hang out a month from now when I'm down there?' I'm like, 'I don't know. Just call me when you're down here and I'll see what I'm doing.'"