Evil Empire is back: Yankees, with Cole, are the team to beat
The Evil Empire is back. The New York Yankees are back to being the Yankees. The Yankees reminded the baseball world of their financial clout late Tuesday night, reaching an agreement with AL Cy Young runner-up Gerrit Cole on a record-setting nineyear, $324 million contract.
“We wanted him, we made no secret of that,” said one high-ranking Yankees executive. “And usually when we want a guy, we get him.”
It only took 11 years – after he went to UCLA despite being drafted out of high school by the Yankees in 2008.
They tried to trade for him in January 2018, when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, only for Cole to instead be traded to the Houston Astros. He helped knock off the Yankees in this year’s American League Championship Series.
Now, with nothing standing in their way but money, the Yankees blew away the field to ensure that he’d be in pinstripes.
The Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers came hard at Cole as well, the Angels, according to a baseball official, tendering an offer just short of $300 million.
New Angels manager Joe Maddon insisted that owner Arte Moreno was “all in” on upgrading a pitching staff that has been the franchise’s Achilles’ heel. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said earlier Tuesday that his club was being “more aggressive than I can recall,” and spoke fondly of meeting with Cole earlier this autumn.
But the Yankees blew away the field in this bi-coastal battle for the offseason’s preeminent prize. Hey, it’s only money right? Why not pay $1 million for each of Cole’s 326 strikeouts last year.
To think, 24 hours ago, David Price was the richest pitcher in history with his $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.
Stephen Strasburg beat it on Monday with a seven-year, $245 million deal with the Washington Nationals. And Cole obliterated it. Consider this: Just one pitcher in the modern free agency era received an eight-year contract – Mike Hampton, who signed a $121 million pact with the Rockies in 2001.
Cole has now surpassed Hampton in years, and Strasburg and
Zack Greinke ($34 million over six years) in average annual value, and landed just shy of the $330 million Bryce Harper landed in March – the biggest free-agent deal in baseball history.
The Bronx Bombers haven’t eclipsed the luxury tax in two years, but for Cole, they didn’t mind spreading their wealth.
The Yankees, who just ended their first decade in a century in which they didn’t make the World Series, simply were tired of being beaten by aces.
Over the past few postseasons, they’ve lost to Dallas Keuchel (in 2015 and 2017), Justin Verlander (two times in 2017), Charlie Morton (2017), Chris Sale (2018) and Cole (2019).
Now, they got their own ace, a pitcher who, including in the postseason, went 24-6 with a 2.39 ERA and 373 strikeouts last season.
Cole, 29, and super agent Scott Boras can now lay claim to every high-water mark for a pitcher. Longest term: Nine years. Most guaranteed money: $324 million
And as for average annual value? That would be $36 million, or $1 million more than Boras client Strasburg will receive in his deal with the Nationals.
The Yankees sweet-talked Cole in a trip last week to his home in Newport Beach, California, with general manager Brian Cashman, manager
Aaron Boone, assistant GM Michael Fishman, pitching coach Matt Blake and five-time World Series champion Andy Pettitte in attendance.
They told him that they are just as analytically savvy as the Astros, and Pettitte told him about the prestige of pitching in New York, with the chance of a World Series every year.
They also reminded him of that 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks when he was pictured in the newspaper as an 11-year-old, holding a sign: “Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever.”
And, of course, they sealed the deal with a virtual blank check, with no money deferred, a full no-trade clause, and even an opt-out after five years, according to the baseball official.
Just like that, the Yankees are the team to beat – with a rotation of Cole, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton, a powerful bullpen and a formidable lineup.
The Yankees, who haven’t signed a marquee free-agent starter since CC Sabathia in 2008, are back to being the Yankees.
They are all in.
Just like the ol’ days.
See you at the New York ticker-tape parade. (USA Today/TNS)