Chapman opt-out could work in Yanks’ favor
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Forget for the moment about whether Aroldis Chapman can help the Yankees win their first World Series title since 2009. We’ve got plenty of time to discuss that.
Here’s the really intriguing question for those who follow the game’s business side: Can Chapman help the Yankees record the most notable team victory in the history of opt-outs?
I like their chances, for this reason: Closers, in theory, are far easier to find than ace starting pitchers or iconic everyday players.
Chapman’s five-year, $86 million contract features an opt-out after the third year, by which time the hard-throwing lefty will have earned $56 million, as first reported by the Associated Press. That means that following the 2019 season, Chapman must decide to keep pitching with the Yankees (or a team to which he has approved a trade, but let’s assume that doesn’t happen) for two years and $30 million or hit free agency again.
(The Giants, by the way, signed freeagent closer Mark Melancon to a fouryear, $62 million agreement with an optout after 2018, so that’ll be an interesting test case leading up to Chapman’s.)
As the winter meetings broke up Thursday morning, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman took a page out of the ownership playbook and lamented the inclusion of an opt-out in the Chapman deal, which will become official as long as the 28-year-old passes his physical.
“I don’t like it,” Cashman said of the opt-out. “At the end of the day, I know that the competition that we were up with were giving opt-outs in Year 1 and 2. At least we put it in Year 3.”
The Marlins and Dodgers went hardest after Chapman, with the Marlins offering five years and $87 million.
Last winter, when opt-outs became the rage in a deep free-agent market, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told FOX Sports, “Personally, I don’t see the logic of [the opt-out].”
Consider The Post more sympathetic than Manfred. Winning the opt-out is to baseball clubs what the roommate switch was in “Seinfeld”: No matter how many people tell you it can’t be done, you envi- sion the immense upside and can’t resist giving it a shot.
Envision it for the Yankees: Chapman records three elite seasons similar to the 2016 he recorded for the Yankees and Cubs. At that juncture, he understandably thinks he can do better than two years and $30 million.
The Yankees, however, have been preparing for this moment. They’ve already signed an improved Dell in Betances to an extension. Or they’ ve brought back Andrew Miller as a free agent the prior offseason. Or Jonathan Holder has blossomed into someone able to dominate the ninth inning. Or so on. Chapman, after rejecting the Yankees’ qualifying offer, gets a big deal elsewhere and the Yankees get a compensation draft pick and a smile.
Cashman and the Yankees lost the optout game with CC Sabathia, who used the threat of his 2011 opt-out to push his end date from 2015 to 2017 (through a vesting option). They lost it with Alex Rodriguez as ownership decided it didn’t want to lose him when he opted out after 2007, from the contract the Rangers gave him, and consequently will be paying him $21 million next year to serve as a minor league instructor and consultant.
Twice, they held their own on this playing field. Mariano Rivera chose to stay put, passing on his opt-out, following an injury-plagued 2002. Let’s call that a tie. And when Rafael Soriano opted out after 2012, Rivera returned from his right knee injury to resume his role as closer in 2013. That goes down as a Yankees win.
Both non- negative outcomes involved closers, right? Now Chapman comes back, having shattered the record for a closer’s contract. In three years, the Yankees should hope he’s still good enough to opt out. And that they’ve been crafty enough to bid him good luck.
That would make the Yankees heroes to a whole new crowd: the rest of their industry.