Yankees bring back LeMahieu, sign Kluber
Sox quiet as rivals stock up for season
Sox easy agency There Let and on your each and was Yankees best other. your a time players wouldn’t rival when might get the make to Red free just it steal Dive them, into a the la Latin Jacoby American Ellsbury. market (back when there were no spending limits) and expect to compete with one another (see Jose Contreras, Yoan Moncada).
Pursue one of the most talented players in baseball history via trade,Alex Rodriguez, and expect fireworks. But that time isn’t now. DJ LeMahieu, an MVP candidate and Silver Slugger two straight years since joining the Yankees, is going
back to the Bronx on a team-friendly deal that has some in the baseball industry with their jaws on the floor. Coming off a season in which he won the American League batting title with a .364 average, LeMahieu is reportedly in agreement with the Yankees on a six-year deal worth $90 million, an average of just $15 million per year. And former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber also agreed to sign in New York late Friday night to complete a banner day for the Yanks. Kluber, like LeMahieu, had also been connected to the Sox this win-ner ES Network’s play-by-play man for the Yankees, Michael Kay, had a well-reasoned explanation during his ESPN radio show on Friday, when he said he was “shocked” the Yanks’ kept their star at such an affordable rate.
“Now, think about why I say shocked,” said Kay, according to NJ.com. “DJ LeMahieu won the batting title last year. DJ LeMahieu has finished in the top five in the MVP in the two years that he played for the Yankees. And in those two years that he played for the Yankees, he had a two-year, $24 million deal. So, you do the math. Again, that’s $12 million a year. So, for being one of the best players in baseball — great defender, great base runner, clutch hitter, even in the postseason, which the Yankees have lacked. DJ LeMahieu got a $3 million raise. Think about that. Because to be just taking the offer that the Yankees gave him for arbitration, he would have gotten something close to $19 million for just one year. So the Yankees got one of the better players in baseball for
$15 million a year.”
Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman had been widely praised for signing LeMahieu to the bargain contract before the 2019 season. For comparison, the $12 million annual salary was just $1 million more than the Red Sox paid Jackie Bradley Jr. last year. The Sox have paid and will continue to pay plenty of players more than the $15 million annual salary LeMahieu will make with the Yankees over the next six years.
And because it’s a sixyear deal with the money spread out, it keeps the luxury tax number low enough to allow the Yankees to continue adding pieces before the season begins.
The question that must be asked in Boston is why the Red Sox let this happen.
Why is a team with loads of money (their current payroll is around $154 million, which would be their lowest in more than a decade) letting their rivals resign arguably their most important position player at a discount?
It’s not like the Red Sox couldn’t use him. They find themselves in a situation where they have no clear leadoff hitter (Alex Verdugo did well there in the short season last year, but looks better suited for the middle of the order), they have no clear second baseman, they have a manager (Alex Cora) who loves LeMahieu and an offense that could use a veteran who knows how to control the strike zone, hit line drives and get on base.
LeMahieu is a three-time Gold Glove winner at second, a two-time batting title winner, strikes out less than anyone in the big leagues, can also play the corner infield spots and has been the leadoff hitter for the best offense in baseball.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox are prepared to enter the season with Michael Chavis, Christian Arroyo and Jonathan Arauz as their only options at second. And they’ve ranked near the bottom of the league in production from the position since Dustin Pedroia started dealing with knee problems in 2017 (negative-1.9 WAR in 2019 and negative- 0.6 WAR in 2020).
The Yankees have ranked near the top since getting LeMahieu, with 5.8 WAR combined since 2019.
The difference is amplified when the Sox have to play against LeMahieu’s Yankees 19 times a year (perhaps more if they meet again in the playoffs) and they’re using below-replacement-level players at the position instead.
The Red Sox can’t claim they aren’t willing to give out long-term deals when they extended Chris Sale and Xander Bogaerts longterm two springs ago.
LeMahieu is 32 years old and likely won’t be productive for the duration of the six-year deal. Odds are, the Yanks will have dead money on the books for the last year or two. But they’ve got the cash, they’ve got the luxury tax flexibility and they want to win.
There was a time when the Red Sox wanted to win badly enough to play a role in stopping their rivals from keeping their most important hitter atop the lineup, or at least limiting them from bringing him back on a team-friendly deal.
Yet here we are, in midJanuary, and we still don’t know if the Red Sox are trying to field a competitive roster.