YANKS’ NEW $70M MAN
EXTEND HICKS’ DEAL FOR 7 YRS.
Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel are still unsigned. Ostensibly attractive free agents such as Patrick Corbin and Andrew Miller are jumping at the first real offers they get. A two-time All-Star like Mike Moustakas settling for a one-year deal in his first shot at free agency, figuring to try again next winter. And, rising stars like Hicks and Severino avoiding the process altogether.
Last year, Hicks hit a career-high 27 home runs, more than any other Yankee but Stanton. His on-base percentage of .366 was second only to Judge’s .392. He played a terrific defensive center field. And all he cost them was John Ryan Murphy and now, a comparatively measly $10 million a year.
“I’m betting on you,’’ Yankees GM Brian Cashman told Hicks at Monday’s press conference to announce the deal in Tampa.
From the looks of things, Cashman has already won his bet. And Hicks, who in another era might have hit the baseball lottery, may have settled for short money.
It was just two days ago that Yankees manager Aaron Boone called, Aaron Hicks, his center fielder, “possibly the most underrated player in the game.’’ If he’s as good as Boone and the Yankees believe, Hicks now might also be among the most underpaid players in the game, too.
If it’s possible to feel sorry for a guy who just scored himself $10 million a year for the next seven years, consider feeling sorry for Aaron Hicks.
The Yankees center fielder, who last year led the team in offensive WAR and whose OPS ran third behind Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Miguel Andujar, on Monday chose to forgo his chance at a possibly very lucrative free agency in 2020 in exchange for the security of a long-term contract.
And while his deal would be a financial windfall for the average person, it is most assuredly a little light if, as Boone says, Hicks is truly among the best center fielders in the game.
Without even trying to compare Hicks to the incomparable Mike Trout, who is in midst of a six-year, $144.5 million contract with the Angels that will pay him $33.25 million for each of the next two seasons before he hits free agency in 2021, consider this: Lorenzo Cain, center fielder for the Brewers, is being paid $16 million a year. Charlie Blackmon is getting $18 million from the Rockies. Adam Jones was getting $15 million a year from the Orioles.
If Aaron Hicks truly belongs in that company – and he showed signs in 2018 that he will if he can stay healthy – then the Yankees got a steal at seven years for $70 million.
Hicks’ agents, CAA Sports, the former home office of Brodie Van Wagenen, seem to have vastly undervalued their own player. If WAR is your thing, he was the third-best center fielder in the game last season, behind only Trout and Cain.
But that is what happens when you survey the landscape and see scores of excellent players still unsigned, Harper and Jones among them, and consider the fact that the owners have been slowwalking the free-agency market for the past couple of years.
It makes even a player as valuable as Hicks reluctant to test the waters, similar to his teammate Luis Severino, who 10 days ago decided to skip the arbitration process and sign a four-year deal, with an option for a fifth year, that will delay his free agency until he is 30. And we’ve seen how well 30+ year-old pitchers do in the current free-agent climate. Ask Dallas Keuchel.
This is a textbook example of how to break a union without sending legbreakers or hiring scab players. All you need to do is starve out the workers long enough to make them willing to take less than they’re worth.
Clearly, there is a class of young major leaguers who have been scared off by the slowness of the free-agent market and seemingly have no stomach for the bloodletting, and possible work stoppage, to come when baseball’s new CBA is negotiated in 2021.
Just as clearly, something is wrong with the system when so many topnotch players remain unsigned and when so many teams seem determined to cut back payrolls despite skyrocketing revenues.
The system disincentivizes good teams from spending money on players because of the luxury-tax threshold, and it disincentivizes bad teams from trying to improve themselves through free agency. It’s much more profitable to spend less money, win fewer games, and share in the riches of TV money, the revenue-sharing pool, the international bonus pool, and the reward of higher draft picks for poor performance.
The upshot is guys like Jones and