IT’S A BIG DEAL
LeMahieu’s team friendly contract allows Yankees to add another pitcher in addition to Kluber
By stretching out DJ LeMahieu’s new deal to six years/$90 million, for an AAV of $15M, the Yankees got themselves a little more wiggle room to squeeze Corey Kluber under the $210 million competitive balance tax. This was about as splashy as it was gonna get in a down market for a team with significant financial restrictions that finished second to the Rays in the AL East and was defeated again by them in the AL division series.
Once they got LeMahieu in the fold, there were are a number of options for the Yankees to address their biggest need — the rotation — albeit all of them with questions. Masahiro Tanaka was still out there in the free agent market, but he is said to be looking for $12-15 million and the Yankees felt they got just about everything they could have hoped for out of the $155M they paid him over the last seven years.
Jake Odorizzi, the “marquee” starter after Trevor Bauer in this winter’s sparse free agent market, is said to be looking for a three-year deal in the $36M range despite coming off a lost season in which injuries limited him to 13 1/3 innings (and a 6.59 ERA) with the Twins. Good luck to him in this depressed market in which nobody is spending big money other than the Mets, White Sox and Padres. A somewhat cheaper but much bigger gamble for the Yankees was Kluber, formerly the most dominant pitcher in the American League from 2014-2018 with two Cy Young awards during that time, who missed most of the last two seasons with a broken right arm and a torn shoulder muscle. Kluber worked out for about 20 clubs last Wednesday, but was being supervised in his rehab by Yankees director of health and performance Eric Cressey. So they probably had a better idea about his fitness than anyone else and at $11 million they obviously believe he’s back and wanted to make sure they got him rather than the Red Sox.
Nevertheless, between the uncertainty of Kluber and the flock of youngsters from within, they could still probably use another starter. One scenario floating around baseball last week had the Yankees signing Kluber and trading for a cheaper somewhat established starter in the Pirates’ Joe Musgrove. In any case, it would seem 2021 is the year when the Yankees are going to need at least two of their own from among Jordan Montgomery, Clarke Schmidt, Deivi Garcia, Domingo German or Luis Severino finally emerging as consistent dependable starters. Developing starting pitching has never been a Yankees’ strong point. For years, the running joke about homegrown Yankee starters was “the closer they get to the big leagues, the less anyone likes them” — as evidenced by the fact the Yankees have not drafted and developed a consistent top-of-the rotation starting pitcher since Andy Pettitte.
In the meantime, the Yankees can feel fortunate the rest of the division has so far not been able to take advantage of their payroll issues coupled with their major league high losses absorbed from the pandemic. The Rays, for instance, have regressed considerably with the subtraction of two of their top three starters, trading Blake Snell to the Padres for a parcel of futures and losing Charlie Morton to the Braves as a free agent. And while all winter, the media pundits have been touting the Blue Jays as these potential big spenders (even though they don’t even know where they’re going to be playing in 2021), so far that has not materialized. As for the Red Sox and Orioles, both are far away from being viable contenders again.
The LeMahieu contract in many ways was the tip-off that this ice cold free agent market is real with no signs of thawing. Phillies CEO John Middleton has said he’s determined to find a way to re-sign J.T. Realmuto and has reportedly made a 5-year offer of slightly more than $100M to the All-Star catcher. Back in October, Realmuto was said to be seeking a 7-8 year deal in the $200 million range. Middleton should be heartened by the fact that so far there has been virtually no market for Realmuto. Instead, other clubs seeking catching help, like the Angels, are signing far cheaper receivers like Kurt Suzuki, on one-year deals.
It’s the same with George Springer, who thought he was in line for 7-8 year deal between $175-200M. At 31, that’s not happening for him either. It’s probably why Mets owner Steve Cohen has shown no indication of going after Springer. Right now, he’d be bidding against himself.