He sits down Gardner when Judge is back. I am okay with not seeing him. Can't stand his face.
Gardner with a .694OPS and not fast enough to steal 20 bases. His defense has upped his WAR over 2, but he is eminently replaceable, especially on a team that isn't hitting.
Hal sucks
He's been better vs Boston than his average, but not by much. He's clearly not feasting on Boston, but doing a bit better than he is against everyone else. This Gardner is clearly limited. Speed is clearly down from last year. His contact rate is still around his average, but his power is gone. He's down 18 extra base hits from last year with a month to go. He aint coming close to that. This is his Yankee swan song and it will likely be with him on the bench in October
Hal sucks
I think re-signing him as a backup would be a good deal, although we’ll have the man of glass and Frazier ready.
And it isn't like he's a CFer. He's a defense first LFer who grades out well on the basepaths. He does a lot of little things, which is why his WAR is over 2, but he isn't worth $14 mil. The difference in speed and power wise from last year is apparent. One year older and he will likely slip further. With the funds we will have available and with the fact that the cap wont apply, we could do a lot better. Don't get me wrong, his contract was solid for both sides. One of the rare instances that the player didn't bilk the team and the team didn't short change the player.
Hal sucks
You guys are going to have a rare chance to almost totally remake your team this winter while keeping many of your young rising stars and Stanton.
Free Agents- To- Be:
$14.8 McCutchen
$13.0 Happ
$13.0 Robertson
$12.0 Britton
$12.0 Lynn
$10.0 Sabathia
$5.9M Hechavarria
$4.0M Walker
Last arbs
$8.5M Gregorius
$6.5M Gray
$5.1M Betances
$2.8M Hicks
$1.1M Romine
Tax Dollars
$22.0M Stanton (with $3m paid by MIA)
$22.1M Tanaka
$21.8M Ellsbury
$17.2M Chapman
Club Option
$12.5M Gardner or $2M buyout.
You'll have some hefty arb costs, but with basically no limit on spending next year with your tax rate reset, it's going to be a signing fest for you guys.
I wonder how many will turn out like Ellsbury.
We’ll have a pretty hefty post 2019 FA ledger with Betances, Didi and Hicks. All of those guys will see raises for 2019, although the only major raise of the three will be Didi. They look at prior two season’s performance, so Dellin has a bad 2017 and Hicks missed half of 2017. The biggest jumper will be Sevy, who will likely see something in the range of $7 mil as first time eligibles go.
I think the ship has sailed on Chapman opting out, since his balky knee will make it less likely he sees big time bank this offseason. I definitely think we let KRob walk as well as CC. I think Gardy comes off the ledger too.
With all the other expenses falling off and the Marlins chipping in some cash, our lux tax AAV will start at $82 mil. Add in the $15 mil for medicals etc, we’re looking at $97 mil. Assume Didi makes it to $14 mil, Hicks $10 mil, Betances $8 mil, Sevy $7 mil. That’s $136 mil with the majority of our team intact. Add in the other $15 mil due for prearb salaries plus another $10 mil for Chad Green and a few other arb guys (Romine too) and we can have a pretty solid base around $146 mil. The first lux tax threshold is $70 mil above this. The final threshold being $110 mil above their projection. You’re taking about adding three generational talent player to the team and still only seeing penalties in cash form only. Now the Yanks will have to be smart looking toward the future because Judge and Sanchez will have only one more year of near nothing cost before they get expensive. The good news is that Tanaka and Ellsbury come off the books after 2020, just in time for traditionally the biggest arb jumps for Judge and Sanchez and the first time arb costs for Torres and Andujar.