Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Looking Ahead to 2018: Free Agent Yankees


With the July 31st trading deadline behind us and the August 31st trade deadline coming up in the near future I want to take the time while we have a bit of a lull to look ahead a bit. The New York Yankees plan for austerity and their plan to get under the luxury tax threshold begins as soon as the 2017 World Series ends and it begins with potentially six members of the team hitting free agency while other money, Alex Rodriguez’s salary namely, comes off the books. Let’s take a look at the impending Yankees free agents for the 2018 offseason and hot stove season.

CC Sabathia and his 23.666 million are coming off the books for New York which is one of the Yankees highest annual salaries currently on the team. Sabathia made $25 million is 2017 after a team vesting option vested due to the durability of Sabatahia’s left throwing shoulder.

Michael Pineda made $7.4 million in his final season of arbitration and will test the free agent market for the first time in his career this offseason. That’s generally good unless you underwent Tommy John surgery this season and will likely miss most or all of the 2018 season.

Matt Holliday signed a one-year deal worth $13 million this offseason so even I don’t need a calculator for this one. Holliday started out well for New York but has since fallen since being diagnosed with Epstein-Barr disease. Holliday wasn’t likely to be back in the Bronx in 2018 regardless of his production this season but it seems less and less likely with every injury, trip to the disabled list and strikeout that it’s definitely not happening next season.

Jaime Garcia’s salary is basically a wash since Minnesota is paying all but a prorated portion of the league minimum which the New York Yankees are on the hook for.

Todd Frazier and his $12 million base salary for the 2017 season will also hit the free agent market and will have little-to-no basis on the Yankees austerity plans and ability to reach them unless the team decides to bring the 31-year old back for another tour in the Bronx. That seems unlikely.

Alex Rodriguez and his balky salary is finally (FINALLY!!!) off the Yankees books this offseason and this sentence did not come a moment too soon. After signing a $275 million deal for 10-years that could have reached as high as $320 million with home run milestones and such New York has to be glad to be finally out from under that burden, both fiscally and literally. Rodriguez coming odd

Masahiro Tanaka, assuming the right-hander opts out of his contract, and his 22.142 million AAV could be coming off the Yankees books if the right-hander decides to opt-out of his contract. Of course that’s far from a given at this point given his struggles this season but in a weak starting pitching market you never know. The Yankees could also always re-sign Tanaka if he were to opt-out although I would personally bet and advise against it.

How will the Yankees fill these five-or-six 40 man roster spots and will the team be able to stay under the luxury tax threshold for the entire 2018 season? I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out but have no fear, I am already working up a way for the Yankees to spend all the money listed above that is coming off the books before 2018. #GetGreedy.


The salaries above are AAV and not necessarily the actual salary that the player received in 2017 *

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)