Thursday, May 12, 2016

What Does Strasburg’s Extension Mean for Pineda/Eovaldi


The Washington Nationals disappointed a lot of people not named Strasburg this week when the team announced a seven-year extension for the young right-hander. It was long thought that Strasburg, a former first overall pick by Washington in the MLB Draft, would hit free agency following this season but the Nationals instead locked up their ace righty begging the question how will this affect the Yankees? What will the Yankees do now with their starting pitching both on the free agent market and with their own free agents to be Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Pineda.

This coming offseason’s free agent market took a big blow with the loss of Strasburg with the front runners being Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey and Rich Hill. If New York needs another starter next offseason they may have to go the same route they went this season and they may have dig deeper into the trade market. That’s if the team has their eye on the 2017 roster and team and that’s only if they don’t have their eyes on the prize in 2018 and 2019. If it’s the latter and not the former you have to wonder if the team would consider trading either or both of Eovaldi and Pineda this July or offseason.

Both Eovaldi and Pineda are young fireballers that are under contract for the 2017 season and may be the team’s best trade pieces going forward. The Yankees have shown a reluctance to go dig deep into their farm system to make the big trades when they feel it’s necessary and the free agent class is barren leaving the Yankees with little in the way of options. Either they hope to contend or they need to trade and get what they can now rather than later.

If the Yankees plan on contending they could always extend either Eovaldi and/or Pineda but that may have just gotten pretty damn expensive. Eovaldi is 26-years old while Pineda is 27-years old while Strasburg is still somehow just about to turn 28-years old this season and all three pitchers are all upside. If Strasburg is getting $175 million over seven seasons for mediocrity what would Eovaldi and Pineda get? At least $150 million you would have to think which begs the question if they are worth it? Honestly I’m not so sure.


If the Yankees are out of it in July then trade them, if they aren’t then the hard question comes. To extend or not to extend. I don’t have the answer. 

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunately, pineda's value is shit right now.

    I originally ranted about trading tanaka. but signing a 27 year old x7 is very different than signing a 29-31 year old x6-7. these guys are expensive. I toss around "150 million" in conversation like it's nothing. hell, I could probably retire on 200k. it's disgusting.

    at this point, I'm done with pinedas bs. it's been going on since 2012. besides the up and downs in performance, there's the pine tar, and there's the shoulder, and I didnt witness it, but apparently he threw up his handles multiple times on dropped balls to aaron hicks. how about you dont give up 4 runs in the first inning, jackass. at this point, Yankees won the trade, but what a freaking waste of hype and expectation on both sides. I remember watching him in spring training with the belgian devil of an ex, 2012 or whatever. watching with hope that this would be the future of the yankees.

    I'm rambling, about god knows what. probably should take my meds. so where was I?

    sure, extend eovaldi. I think something comparable to hughes, at 5x58mil. i think that's reasonable.

    and tanaka. man oh man. I can't willingly let him walk. I either want to trade him or get an extension now. and it should be 20 mil less than stras. but I want to trade him for a top prospect. none of these wasteful Tampa fillins that the yankees typically land.

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