IS GARDY GONE?
Yankees decline outfielder’s club option, but he could stick with Yankees on a smaller contract
he Yankees declined the $10 million dollar option on Brett Gardner’s contract and the $17 million option on left-hander J.A. Happ’s contract Friday while officially announcing that they picked up the option for 2022 on reliever Zack Britton.
The option for the lefty reliever had to be decided by Friday or it would have allowed Britton to become a free agent this offseason. It was a smart move even if the Yankees are going through tough economic times because of the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging the nation.
The Happ decision was not at all unexpected after the team and the veteran pitcher bickered back and forth this season. Happ accused the Yankees of manipulating his playing time to prevent his option from vesting. The Yankees pointed out that Happ, coming off a horrendous 2019, started the season poorly and then used him in an untraditional role as a “bulk guy” out of the bullpen in Game 2 of the ALDS, which imploded on them. Happ, however, had the longest stretch of good starts by any Yankee starter this season.
The decision with Gardner is a little more complicated. A career-long Yankee, Gardner has made it very clear he does not want to retire and also has made it known he wants to be a Yankee. Even though the Yankees declined the $10 million option, Gardner could come back on a more team-friendly deal after they settle the $2.5 million buyout.
But the Yankees, like teams across the league, are facing huge financial losses from this pandemic-shortened season played without fans in the ballpark. They are also worried about the possibility of the pandemic, which has killed over 220,000 Americans, lingering into next season. So the decision to spend money may not be weighted by any sentimentality because Gardner is a home-grown Yankee and the very last playing link to their last World Series title.
A fan-favorite with his feisty style of play and obvious passion off the field, Gardner was brought back in 2020 as a safeguard on a one-year, $12.5 million deal with a team option for 2021. He was coming off a career year where he hit .251 with a career-high 28 home
runs, helping the Yankees hold it together through injuries to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks.
Hicks was expected to miss the start of the 2020 season after Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That was one factor in bringing back Gardner.
The Yankees were also uncertain about the outfielders in their player development system, particularly Clint Frazier. The highly-hyped 26-year-old had a horrible 2019 season defensively. Ranked the worst defensive player in the outfield that season, the Yankees were unwilling to bet on him and Mike Tauchman in case of injuries impacting the 2020 season.
But this season, Gardner started out slow, hitting .183 the first month of a basically threemonth season. The 37-year-old also saw a decline in his defense. Rated as great as an outfielder by Baseball Savant last season, Gardner was average to below average this season.
That came at the same time Frazier is seeming to mature as a player and a person.
Frazier, who made 27 starts in right field mostly while Aaron Judge was out with a calf injury, transformed himself from a player who cost the Yankees eight runs last season with his defense, to a plus-2 in defensive runs saved this season. In Statcasts’ Outs Above Average, Frazier is in the top 69th percentile. In 51 chances in right field this season, Frazier made one error.
That was good enough in this abbreviated season to make Frazier a finalist for the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
It was a good sign, but it was also an abbreviated regular season. There were some adjustments to how the finalists were decided and it was obvious the Yankees were not 100% sold on that when they used Gardner more than Frazier in the playoffs.
Gardner’s role as a leader in the clubhouse with this young team is certainly valuable, but in this new harsh economic light for all of baseball, exactly how much the Yankees can weigh those intangibles is the question.