Cole To Yankees 9 Years $324 Million

nattysez

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I'm sure I'll get drowned out due to the excitement over this deal, but the chances this contract works out well for the Yankees are incredibly small. Maybe they win the WS this year if none of their young guys regress, but it will be nearly impossible for them to field a competitive team in later years unless they blow through the top-level cap and pay the biggest penalties.

$58m for Cole and Stanton, $48m for Tanaka and Chapman, $51m for Happ, Britton and Ellsbury. That covers three rotation spots, the end of the bullpen and the DH, and leaves less than $80m under the top-level luxury tax threshold to field the rest of the team.
 

DeadlySplitter

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my overall take: I'm not sure Cole is quite the Verlander/Scherzer type that deserves to be the first 300M+ pitcher (seriously, this is nearly Mookie money for a STARTING PITCHER. ONCE EVERY FIVE DAY GUY. I know this is kinda old school thinking but sheesh) but this definitely lined up with the Yankees' rising window.

the Red Sox had their 3-4 year core window once Mookie blossomed into a superstar, but unfortunately it looks like the Red Sox spent too much on the wrong SP to extend said window. we'll see how the Yankees do now.
 

sean1562

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well it certainly guarantees that mookie is getting a shit ton of money next offseason. probably gonna look to match trout's contract. and then the same thing will be said of us if we are the team that signs him
 

jon abbey

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$58m for Cole and Stanton, $48m for Tanaka and Chapman, $51m for Happ, Britton and Ellsbury. That covers three rotation spots, the end of the bullpen and the DH, and leaves less than $80m under the top-level luxury tax threshold to field the rest of the team.
Happ is likely going to be gone in the next few days, but even if he isn't, Tanaka and Happ and Ellsbury are all off the cap after 2020. Also you're assuming the next CBA will be similar to this one, and that is very far from clear currently.
 

jon abbey

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my overall take: I'm not sure Cole is quite the Verlander/Scherzer type that deserves to be the first 300M+ pitcher (seriously, this is nearly Mookie money for a STARTING PITCHER. ONCE EVERY FIVE DAY GUY. I know this is kinda old school thinking but sheesh) but this definitely lined up with the Yankees' rising window.
The last game he lost in the regular season last year was in late May. He started 22 games after that, HOU went 20-2 in those games, Cole was 16-0 with a 1.78 ERA, 226 Ks in 147 innings.
 

Wingack

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$58m for Cole and Stanton, $48m for Tanaka and Chapman, $51m for Happ, Britton and Ellsbury. That covers three rotation spots, the end of the bullpen and the DH, and leaves less than $80m under the top-level luxury tax threshold to field the rest of the team.
Most of these players are good and are not signed long term. What is your point?
 

Wingack

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Right, definitely could be. I think the thinking behind hiring Matt Blake is attempting to avoid this scenario and trying to create their own Biebers internally, but a lot easier said than done of course.
I wouldn't trade them Dominguez but I would offer up a very appealing package to CLE for Bieber right now. The Yankees have some nice pieces to fill out their roster and some high upside lottery tickets too for down the line.
 

jon abbey

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I wouldn't trade them Dominguez but I would offer up a very appealing package to CLE for Bieber right now. The Yankees have some nice pieces to fill out their roster and some high upside lottery tickets too for down the line.
They're not moving Bieber, so it's a moot point, but I am still down for some version of the deal I talked about moving Gleyber (plus a bunch) for Lindor/Clevinger. They'd take on Lindor's salary for 2020 (he is a FA after 2021) but Clevinger's presence means they could let both Paxton and Tanaka walk into big FA deals elsewhere and have Cole/Clevinger/Severino/German/internal guy, which is a very cheap rotation besides Cole. I am maybe irrational on the topic of Lindor but I really think there is a deal there to benefit both teams, no way will CLE ever be offered another player as valuable back as five years of Gleyber.

Oh man I'm pumped. I've seen a lot of great Yankee teams but this could end up being the most talented 1-25 NY has had in my lifetime (first memory Chambliss walkoff in 1976 when I was 9).
 

SemperFidelisSox

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Cole is 6’4, built like a linebacker and has no history of injuries at any level of baseball. The idea that he will go from one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball to Carl Pavano in year 4 of the deal is mostly wish casting by bitter Sox and Angels fans.
 

Wingack

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They're not moving Bieber, so it's a moot point, but I am still down for some version of the deal I talked about moving Gleyber (plus a bunch) for Lindor/Clevinger. They'd take on Lindor's salary for 2020 (he is a FA after 2021) but Clevinger's presence means they could let both Paxton and Tanaka walk into big FA deals elsewhere and have Cole/Clevinger/Severino/German/internal guy, which is a very cheap rotation besides Cole. I am maybe irrational on the topic of Lindor but I really think there is a deal there to benefit both teams, no way will CLE ever be offered another player as valuable back as five years of Gleyber.

Oh man I'm pumped. I've seen a lot of great Yankee teams but this could end up being the most talented 1-25 NY has had in my lifetime (first memory Chambliss walkoff in 1976 when I was 9).
I think we have been over Lindor, I just don't see it. But now is the time for Cash to go for it. They have the trading chips and the depth, if not Bieber then push the chips in for another young stud.
 

CaptainLaddie

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I'm sure I'll get drowned out due to the excitement over this deal, but the chances this contract works out well for the Yankees are incredibly small. Maybe they win the WS this year if none of their young guys regress, but it will be nearly impossible for them to field a competitive team in later years unless they blow through the top-level cap and pay the biggest penalties.

$58m for Cole and Stanton, $48m for Tanaka and Chapman, $51m for Happ, Britton and Ellsbury. That covers three rotation spots, the end of the bullpen and the DH, and leaves less than $80m under the top-level luxury tax threshold to field the rest of the team.
Winning the World Series means the contract worked out well, no?
 

DeadlySplitter

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Cole is 6’4, built like a linebacker and has no history of injuries at any level of baseball. The idea that he will go from one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball to Carl Pavano in year 4 of the deal is mostly wish casting by bitter Sox and Angels fans.
so magically he is resistant to blowing out his elbow?
 

Wingack

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Winning the World Series means the contract worked out well, no?
I mean even if they don't win a World Series the contract can still be worth it. If he pitches well, the Yankees generate profit off of it, and it excites the fanbase to stay engaged, then it would still be worth it.

It's not worth it to keep your wallet in your pocket. This is entertainment after all.
 

CaptainLaddie

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I mean even if they don't win a World Series the contract can still be worth it. If he pitches well, the Yankees generate profit off of it, and it excites the fanbase to stay engaged, then it would still be worth it.

It's not worth it to keep your wallet in your pocket. This is entertainment after all.
Tell that to John Henry.
 

terrynever

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With Cole taking on staff leader role, and Matt Blake offering a modern approach to pitching, maybe Luis Severino gets better as the No. 2 or 3 starter. Paxton, too. Cole takes the heat off both these guys and the new wave of starters in the minors, led by Deivi Garcia and Clark Schmidt.
Also, very happy Larry Rothschild is gone and Blake in his place.
 
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EvilEmpire

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Waking up in the middle of the night to check my phone is unhealthy, but in this case, satisfying.

Thrilled with this signing. Fills a giant need and the Yankees can afford it. Let's go!
 

BaseballJones

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Cole is 6’4, built like a linebacker and has no history of injuries at any level of baseball. The idea that he will go from one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball to Carl Pavano in year 4 of the deal is mostly wish casting by bitter Sox and Angels fans.
Bah. The dude didn’t even win the Cy Young award!

Seriously I think the contract is insane but there’s no doubt that this makes the Yankees so much better. They are trending up in every way while the Sox are headed in the exact opposite direction.

Which....pretty much sucks. But oh well.
 

Van Everyman

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Having slept on this for a night, I have to say: as a Sox fan, I’m kind of thrilled when the Yankees spend this kind of money. Yes, they desperately needed a frontline starter. Yes, they are now the presumptive favorites in the AL if not MLB. And no, it’s not good news for the Red Sox in the short- and near-term.

But anytime you spend this much for a single guy, it’s an overpay – and in this case an egregious one, despite Cole’s obvious talent. This feels to me a little like the Stanton deal – which made me sick at first but slowly began to reveal itself as an unforced error that narrowed their options for the future by (again) tying so many resources up in a single player (and this was before he got hurt this past year).

This is what I’m telling myself anyway. It could also be 2009 redux where Cashman outright admitted they were desperate, paid a premium for Sabathia, Burnett and Tex and got exactly what he hoped for out of them (for that season anyway).
 

Devizier

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This is Cashman putting his chips in. They opened up a 6 year window, we’re heading in Year 3 of that window. This is the right time to go for it, especially with the Astros and Red Sox seemingly at the end of their respective windows.
Yep, it's the right move for right now.

Analogous to the Red Sox trading for Sale, honestly. I know there are differences between trading blue chip prospects and spending money, but let's roll with it.
 

EvilEmpire

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This feels to me a little like the Stanton deal – which made me sick at first but slowly began to reveal itself as an unforced error that narrowed their options for the future by (again) tying so many resources up in a single player (and this was before he got hurt this past year).
The Yankees have a 22 million per year AAV with Stanton. Still plenty of risk for such a long contract, last season being a good example, but it really isn't much of a constraint for the Yankees.

The talent pipeline from the minors still seems solid and Cashman is good at acquiring young players from other teams that fit what the Yankees want to do. I think lots of investment in organizational coaching, development and scouting, a steady stream of cheap young players, and a mix of higher end FA talent is the right model for the Yankees to use their financial advantage to good effect.

So yeah, I'm kind of thrilled too.
 

54thMA

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You can’t believe the Yankees got a premier free agent that they announced they’re all in on?

For real?

To me this is like the least surprising free agent signing of the past decade.

Yeah, gee, it's a real stunner the Yankees backed up a dump truck full of money and signed him to a mega deal.

Never saw that one coming.
 

Marceline

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Having slept on this for a night, I have to say: as a Sox fan, I’m kind of thrilled when the Yankees spend this kind of money. Yes, they desperately needed a frontline starter. Yes, they are now the presumptive favorites in the AL if not MLB. And no, it’s not good news for the Red Sox in the short- and near-term.

But anytime you spend this much for a single guy, it’s an overpay – and in this case an egregious one, despite Cole’s obvious talent. This feels to me a little like the Stanton deal – which made me sick at first but slowly began to reveal itself as an unforced error that narrowed their options for the future by (again) tying so many resources up in a single player (and this was before he got hurt this past year).

This is what I’m telling myself anyway. It could also be 2009 redux where Cashman outright admitted they were desperate, paid a premium for Sabathia, Burnett and Tex and got exactly what he hoped for out of them (for that season anyway).
I don't know, it's difficult for me to see this as a bad contract, even if it is a bad contract, if that makes any sense.

If Cole has an amazing next 5 years and then he's toast for the final 4 years, it still will have been worth it for the Yankees, and as we've seen countless times, they can manage these kinds of contracts fairly easily if that's what this becomes on the back end.

As a Sox fan I'm bummed (even though this result is exactly what we all expected), because I feel we're entering another late-1990s period of dominance for the Yankees for the foreseeable future. This signing is nothing but a huge win for them despite the risks on its length.
 

Tyrone Biggums

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The backend of this contract is going to be a horror show
 

jon abbey

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It'd be a real shame if Cole turned back into the pitcher he was in Pittsburgh, which was only a couple seasons ago.
It seems like a lot of the change was just pitch selection, he ditched his two seamer completely with HOU.
 

VORP Speed

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Congrats, my Yankee fan friends. A fine purchase. Should guarantee you several years of 100 win seasons.....


and 2nd place division finishes ;)
 

curly2

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The backend of this contract is going to be a horror show
Sure, there's a good chance at that, but there's no guarantee. Look at Verlander. He had a bad year at 31 and an injury-shortened year at 32, then went back to being dominant. He had his best season ever this past year at 36.

Verlander is an outlier, but it's not impossible Cole has a similar career -- which would be horrifying for the Sox.
 

Flunky

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the Yankees won last off season too. in fact they've done so several times in the last 20 years.
 

jon abbey

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Any big (or small) contract can go bad but the lack of dud deals for the top AAV pitching deals is kind of amazing, Price might be the worst one here and even that one hasn't been catastrophic. The top two and deGrom just signed recently, but Strasburg had a huge deal before that too that (obviously) went well.
  1. Gerrit Cole, $36 million
  2. Stephen Strasburg, $35 million
  3. Justin Verlander, $33 million
  4. Zack Greinke, $32.5 million
  5. David Price, $31 million
  6. Clayton Kershaw, $31 million
  7. Max Scherzer, $30 million
  8. Roger Clemens, $28 million
  9. Jacob deGrom, $27.5 million
  10. Jon Lester, $25.8 million
 

jon abbey

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Not sure why Sale isn't on that list, his extension is $29M per and if you include his $15M for 2019, it would still bump Lester for 10th there at $26.66M.
 

bankshot1

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I think we can all thank Brian "Checkbook" Cashman on delivering a much needed Ace to the Yankees, while also putting the MF back into Yankees for other fans.

We can only hope the Cashman's latest FA signing out of Houston works as well as the last time he overpaid for an Astros Ace.

Somewhere Suzy is having an orgasm.
 

Van Everyman

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Yeah, I want to be clear: I actually think this is generally the right move for the Yankees and possibly an incredibly good one. As a Sox fan, that part def. bums me out. The difference with 2009 is that they have a young core this time as opposed to an aging one that was necessarily in a win now mode. This could theoretically set them up for a very long period of dominance.

But there is always risk committing so many resources and years to a single guy – as we see with Price (who I think has been worth his deal actually notwithstanding his injuries and crankiness). And at this point in my sports watching career, I’ve generally learned to temper my expectations in both directions – particularly when discussing guys coming to play for Boston or NY.

The option that might have scared me more would have been trading for a guy like Sale where you get three years of cost controlled dominance and the downside risk is that the guys you trade turn out to be super valuable. Of course the Sox kind of f’d that up by extending Sale, but those kinds of deals—and I guess you could consider Paxton that kind of deal—suggest a less fixed approach to roster construction that I prefer. But I guess sometimes you just have to pay up.
 

jon abbey

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Generally one bad big deal doesn't hurt you too much, it's the second or third that does, plus as I've said a few times, we have no idea what the CBA will look like after two more seasons.
 

Wingack

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Yeah, I want to be clear: I actually think this is generally the right move for the Yankees and possibly an incredibly good one. As a Sox fan, that part def. bums me out. The difference with 2009 is that they have a young core this time as opposed to an aging one that was necessarily in a win now mode. This could theoretically set them up for a very long period of dominance.

But there is always risk committing so many resources and years to a single guy – as we see with Price (who I think has been worth his deal actually notwithstanding his injuries and crankiness). And at this point in my sports watching career, I’ve generally learned to temper my expectations in both directions – particularly when discussing guys coming to play for Boston or NY.

The option that might have scared me more would have been trading for a guy like Sale where you get three years of cost controlled dominance and the downside risk is that the guys you trade turn out to be super valuable. Of course the Sox kind of f’d that up by extending Sale, but those kinds of deals—and I guess you could consider Paxton that kind of deal—suggest a less fixed approach to roster construction that I prefer. But I guess sometimes you just have to pay up.
There is always a risk. Felix Hernandez was on track to be a first ballot Hall of Famer and then just poof turned into a pumpkin at the age of 29. It happens.

But at the same time, if you are an organization like the Yankees you can afford to take on some risk.
 

RedOctober3829

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Any big (or small) contract can go bad but the lack of dud deals for the top AAV pitching deals is kind of amazing, Price might be the worst one here and even that one hasn't been catastrophic. The top two and deGrom just signed recently, but Strasburg had a huge deal before that too that (obviously) went well.
  1. Gerrit Cole, $36 million
  2. Stephen Strasburg, $35 million
  3. Justin Verlander, $33 million
  4. Zack Greinke, $32.5 million
  5. David Price, $31 million
  6. Clayton Kershaw, $31 million
  7. Max Scherzer, $30 million
  8. Roger Clemens, $28 million
  9. Jacob deGrom, $27.5 million
  10. Jon Lester, $25.8 million
The contract for deGrom looks like an absolute bargain at this point. He is as good or better than Cole.
 

jon abbey

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Based off of last year's starts, Cole will make $9200 every PITCH HE THROWS this year.
There is only one previous pitcher contract ever that has been 9 years or longer, Wayne Garland's very early FA deal. He made a whopping $2.3M total for the 10 years, Cole will make that every 2 or 3 starts (!!!).
 

54thMA

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It is not really something they have done in awhile though.
Zero championships in the past decade.

Actually, zero WS appearances in the past decade.

Can't blame them; they have the money to spend, he was available, they weren't going to be outbid.

The Yankees get the guys they want, period.

Barring injuries, I can't envision a scenario where they don't win two or three WS titles now, maybe more.

As a fan, you must be thrilled; it's what's being a fan is all about, so good luck.