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Tuesday brought us one of the busiest day of trades and free agent signings in quite some time, but none are bigger than what CBS Sports Jon Heyman is reporting:
Ellsbury and Yankees appear to be closing in on 7-year deal. http://t.co/BTOZbSjieJ
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 4, 2013
Wow….seven year deal is huge. And there is more:
told Ellsbury deal with Yankees will "above Crawford." $150M is a fair estimate. will give yanks dynamic lineup top.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 4, 2013
Some are reporting that the Yankees are in on both Ellsbury and Shin-Soo Choo, both of whom are Scott Boras clients, so signing both would mean good bye to second baseman Robinson Cano. I doubt they sign both, but signing Ellsbury would be a solid move for the Yankees who have plenty of holes to fill in their lineup this offseason.
They already signed catcher Brian McCann to a five year deal, and now this possible seven year deal for Ellsbury would certainly be a very good start to filling the holes in their lineup.
Here is what their lineup will look like after this deal, which looks pretty close:
LF Brett Gardner
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
RF Ichiro Suzuki/Vernon Well
3B ??
SS Derek Jeter/Brandan Ryan
2B ??
1B Mark Teixeira
C Brian McCann
DH Alfonso Soriano
On paper, it is a pretty good lineup. Should they go out and sign Robinson Cano on top of McCann and Ellsbury, I imagine they would just throw the Plan $189 out the window, which I think they HAVE to do after their disappointing 2013 season, which saw them miss the playoffs for the first time in quite awhile. On top of that, fans stopped coming to the ballpark, so dropping the $189 million payroll limit would indicate they are serious about getting back to being the old Yankees, that spends more than any other team in an effort to win and get to the World Series.
Update: Here is the latest on the Ellsbury contract:
Yankees deal with Ellsbury is seven years and $153 million. That's $12 million more than Crawford's contract.
— Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) December 4, 2013
For fantasy purposes, I don't think this changes Ellsbury's value one bit. Actually, he might hit a few more home runs in Yankee Stadium, or Coors Field East. But, as it is, I am not a big fan of Ellsbury, but he is valuable in the batting average, runs and stolen base categories.
