It'll take more than a friendly family for Corbin to sign
STAMFORD, Conn. — The way Brian Cashman sees it, cotton and linen are thicker than blood.
Sure, the Yankees’ general manager doesn’t mind that Patrick Corbin, the free-agent lefthander who visited Yankee Stadium on Thursday, has many family members rooting for him to wind up in The Bronx. Yet Cashman said Friday morning he isn’t counting on such sentiment to close the desired deal.
In between trips rappelling down the Landmark Building, Cashman addressed The Athletic’s report that Corbin’s younger brother used his bestman speech at Patrick’s wedding earlier this month to recruit on the Yankees’ behalf by throwing on a Yankees cap for the toast.
“I think their Yankee allegiances are appreciated,” Cashman said of Corbin’s family, which hails from upstate New York. “But usually in this process, the thing that’s most important is … the financial opportunities that exist at various locales weigh heavily in the decision-making process.”
(Dollar bills consist primarily of cotton and linen, as per the internet.)
The Yankees marked the third and apparently final stop of Corbin’s Acela tour, as the 29year-old, who has spent his entire major league career with the Diamondbacks, visited with the Phillies and Nationals before touring the Stadium’s facilities on Thursday and then going out to dinner with Cashman and other Yankees VIPs.
“He didn’t volunteer that,” Cashman said of Corbin and his brother’s wedding-night plea. “My understanding is it was more of a tongue-in-cheek [thing]. At the very least, we know we have people rooting for us, but at the end of the day, there’s going to be a lot of competition because he’s obviously a talented person. But there’s also a lot of options, too.”
As he stumped for Stamford’s annual “Heights & Lights” program, which will take place on Sunday night, Cashman deftly pivoted between praising Corbin — he called him and his newlywed wife Jen “wonderful people” and Corbin “a very talented pitcher” — and insisting the Yankees would be just fine if they didn’t land him. Corbin might command a six-year deal in the $130 million neighborhood given the multiple bigmarket teams interested in him.
“All I can tell you is, I would say he left here knowing a lot more about us than when he arrived,” Cashman said of Corbin.
Asked how long he would wait for Corbin to decide before moving onto other possibilities, Cashman responded, “I never said we are waiting.”
There probably won’t be too much drama, regardless of the resolution. Given the caliber of his suitors and the reality that Corbin will set the market for starting pitchers, there would be little benefit for the lefty to stretch out the process. A decision next week, before the Winter Meetings the subsequent week, seems quite feasible.
As he prepares for his 21st season on the job, Cashman said he has experienced two face-toface meetings — like the one with Corbin — in which “I walked out going, ‘We are crossing that one off the list. That’s not a fit for us in any way, shape or form.’ ” One of those was Corbin’s Diamondbacks teammate Zack Greinke, whom Arizona would like to trade.
Cashman said he remains engaged on all free agents, which means former Yankee J.A. Happ could still be in play, as well as the trade market, where the Indians appear likely to trade one of Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco or Corey Kluber. However, after trading their top prospect, Justus Sheffield, to the Mariners for southpaw James Paxton, a free-agent signing looks like the better option. And Corbin is the best option in that group. And his family, for crying out loud, wants him to sign with the Yankees.