Start spreading the news: the New York Yankees backed up about 10 Brinks trucks for Gerrit Cole, giving him a reported $324 million contract over nine years. As my colleague Andy Nesbitt wrote, it’s good to be an MLB starting pitcher these days.
If you’re looking at that deal and thinking that’s way too much money for a pitcher who will be 38 years old by the time that contract expires (there’s a opt-out after five years, but would you opt out of that deal? Didn’t think so), that’s because it is.
But that doesn’t matter. The Yankees needed to make this move and it required giving out that kind of money and years.
In the past three years, the Yankees have won 91, 100 and 103 games, falling short of the World Series despite a lineup filled with sluggers — Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius, Miguel Andujar, to name a few. But it was always starting pitching that fell short in the postseason — Masahiro Tanaka had a string of good playoff starts until Game 4 of the ALCS this year and Luis Severino has had his share of struggles.
Is this the Yankees' Opening Day lineup?
1. DJ LeMahieu, 2B
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Gleyber Torres, SS
4. Giancarlo Stanton, LF
5. Gary Sanchez, C
6. Brett Gardner, CF (likely to be signed?)
7. Miguel Andujar, DH
8. Luke Voit, 1B
9. Gio Urshela, 3BGerrit Cole, SP
— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) December 11, 2019
The Yankees already had so much money invested in Stanton (who will hopefully rebound from an injury-plagued 2019), Tanaka, Severino, closer Aroldis Chapman, bullpen arm Zack Britton, back-end starter J.A. Happ … the list goes on. And there are arbitration-eligible raises coming for some of their young studs.
It's likely that the Yankees will pay more for Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton than the Orioles will spend on their entire team.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 11, 2019
And that’s where we get to the player and the contract. Cole went from former first-overall pick by the Pirates in 2011 to finally putting it all together for the Houston Astros in the past two seasons. He’s an ace in his prime, one who’s thrown over 200 innings four times in his career and who struck out a league-leading 326 batters.
If you want a pitcher of Cole’s caliber, one that strikes fear in playoff lineups and one that can throw perhaps three times in a seven-game series, you have to give him those extra years and money to entice him. The Yankees know Cole might not be worth that kind of money in, say, Year 6 of this deal.
But they’re not paying that for his 35-and-over performance. They’re paying that and a luxury tax bill to win a World Series NOW.
On paper, it looks like they have the team do it now that they have Cole in pinstripes.
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