Yankees Close to Signing Chase Headley
The news:
Sources: #Yankees close to signing free-agent 3B Chase Headley to four-year deal.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 15, 2014
headley signing with yanks. 4 yrs, a little north of $50M
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 15, 2014
The crowd had estimated 4/$56M for Headley, while I guessed 4/$60M, so this looks like a win for the crowd. And, from my perspective, a win for the Yankees, since I thought Headley would be a bargain at more than he apparently signed for. Last week, I compared Headley to Jacoby Ellsbury, noting that Headley is essentially Ellsbury minus the baserunning abilities, and it seems unlikely that the value Ellsbury can create through that one aspect of the game should be the difference between $50 million and $150 million.
Of course, Tony Blengino has offered some less optimistic opinions about Headley’s future, and I’d suggest you read his piece from last week as well. We’ll have a full post up on the deal once the terms are known, but safe to say I’m going to be a fan of this one for New York.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
It amazes me how the Yankees have become a sinking ship that keeps plugging holes with 30 something players past their prime getting paid on what they did prior to becoming a Yankee. Not giving Cano the money crippled this offense. Maybe Martin Prado and Headley can still have peak years, but I wouldn’t count on it from anyone else in that lineup. It’s a weak lineup, easily the worst in the AL East.
Ellsbury may have some peak seasons left as well, but every player in that lineup for the most part is well past their prime.
Their problem is not failing to re-sign Cano, their problem is their farm system has failed to generate viable replacements. Nearly all FAs these days have mostly decline years ahead of them. IF your farm system fails to produce then you’re stuck with FAs who are declining.
As for the 2015 Yankees, this is a pretty competent defensive team – despite the age.
“It amazes me how the Yankees have become a sinking ship that keeps plugging holes with 30 something players past their prime getting paid on what they did prior to becoming a Yankee. Not giving Cano the money crippled this offense.”
These 2 sentences seem to contradict each other in a big way…
I meant they reward guys like Beltran, McCann, Ellsbury, now Headley, but they let Cano walk who built his value AS a Yankee, not elsewhere.
So they should pay a premium because they performed as Yankees? Why?
The Yankees offered Cano 7 years, $175 million. That isn’t exactly “letting him walk.”
I understand what you mean, and it’s the reason why I (begrudgingly) admire the Yankees. Even though they have a reputation for big free agent signings, it’s the homegrown players – Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano, etc. – that consistently won titles for the club. That said, I like the Headley signing for NY, it feels like a throwback to those kind of players the Yanks used to acquire, like Paul O’Neill or Scott Brosius. I think they’ve forgotten that their greatest success came from having several pretty good and consistent players on the same team, not just throwing guarenteed money (the great de-motivator) to the previous year’s All-Stars and expecting them duplicate their career years, every year.
Yeah, much as I love the Core Five (Bernie counts, dammit!), Paulie and Cone were great, great Yankees.
You are spouting nonsense.
If Cano was willing to sign for $50M/4 like Headley, the Yankees would have signed him to two of those contracts.
He signed for $240M/10, that is why the Yankees let him leave.
Stop trying to draw a line between two unrelated points.
They’re farm system continued to churn out good players throughout their most recent run, yet they haven’t had many recently. They need the Chase Headley’s and Prado’s just to fill holes.
Actually, paying Headley $13m a year is an bargain for the 2.8 WAR he was worth as a Yankee last season.
And that’s not even looking at the fact that they only had him for 60 games.
I was going to say, the guy has put up 7.2, 3.6 and 4.4 WAR the last 3 seasons. Even playing hurt and missing time. He’s projected for 3.9 WAR. He should go 4, 3.5, 3 and 2.5 over a 4 year deal. That’s 13 WAR. Even knock 3 WAR off that and he’d be worth $60 million even at the old 6 million per WAR prior to the current inflation. More likely he is worth way more than that.
Good thing that you trust the projection system when it favors the Yankees. It’s too bad for Red Sox fans that Sandoval is at best a 2 WAR player right now and will be replacement level in one year because of his weight.
When did I say he’s a 2 WAR player? He’s a 3 WAR player right now.
I just believe that he’s likely to continue to decline offensively and defensively, as he’s done in each of the last 4 years, going forward.
Also, you need to work on your reading comprehension. I didn’t mention a projection. I was talking about his stats from last year.