Gardner return appears likely
This was not about the brink of elimination or thanks for the memories. Aaron Boone had determined he would start Brett Gardner in ALDS Game 4 well before a humiliating Game 3 loss to the Red Sox put the Yankees on the brink of the offseason.
The Yankee manager did so for the same reason he tabbed Neil Walker at third base Tuesday night with the more contact-oriented CC Sabathia starting for New York. Boone wanted better defense in the field and, with righty Rick Porcello starting for Boston, Boone wanted more lefty bats at the plate.
And despite the 4-3 loss that ended the Yankees’ season, it was probably not Gardner’s last game with the team. Because even off of his worst season, the Yankees still believe he is a productive player and a key voice in the clubhouse. That likely will mean his return next season.
Gardner has a $12.5 million 2019 option or a $2 million buyout, so this a $10.5 million decision whether to extend the current longest-tenured Yankee. It is not a no-brainer. He is coming off his worst season with a .236 batting average and a .690 OPS. But when you consider what the 35-year-old Gardner means to the heartbeat of the team and how general manager Brian Cashman has always felt about him, a 12th season in pinstripes is a lot more probable, than less.
Remember that in February 2014 when the Yankees and Cashman gave Gardner a four-year, $52 million extension that would begin in 2015 and includes the 2019 option the statistical appreciation for items such as defense and base running were not as fully formed as today. The Yanks had a burgeoning analytics department doing more to quantify these skills, but Cashman also was watching the games, knew the person.
“The bottom line is we liked the player,” Cashman said. “We liked the makeup. We liked the ability. We have bet on him several times over the years and the bets have always paid off because he is an above-average major league player.”
Gardner was easy to root for — the undersized underdog who profiled as a fourth outfielder sticking around to not only start, but play the 25th-most games in Yankee history … and maybe still counting.
But Gardner is 35 now and just hit .236 with a .690 OPS. Further complicating Gardner’s status is Jacoby Ellsbury is still due $47.3 million for 2019-20 and — when healthy — he shares many of Gardner’s on-field skills, though none of his leadership assets. But Ellsbury missed all of this season with a torn hip labrum that needed surgery. Clint Frazier missed a good deal of the year after suffering a concussion.
The most probable scenario for 2019 would be Aaron Hicks in center, Aaron Judge in right, Giancarlo Stanton as the primary DH and Gardner and Frazier in a lefty-righty left field platoon with Frazier being given a shot to win the job outright. Ellsbury would be the fifth outfielder if the Yanks cannot find a bad salary-for-bad salary swap, which becomes more unlikely after Ellsbury’s surgery.