The Yankees Are Wise to Move On From This Free Agent

By Derek McAdam

January 31, 2024

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While the New York Yankees have already made a big splash this off-season in acquiring Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres, the transaction came via trade. The Yankees’ top free agent signing this off-season (so far) is Marcus Stroman, who signed a two-year, $37 million deal with a vesting option for a third season. While the Yankees have been linked to a couple of top free agents, they have not put pen to paper and completed the deals. And this trend may continue due to the latest news. 

According to Bob Klapisch of NJ.com, the Yankees’ offer of six-years, $150 million to reigning Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is “off the table.” Klapisch referenced a “major” source that said Hal Steinbrenner has “moved on” from Snell, who has been seeking a deal rumored to be nine years, $270 million. What makes things even more interesting is that if the reports from the past couple of weeks are true, Snell’s only official offer that he has received would be the Yankees’. 

If these rumors are true, I think the Yankees made the correct decision in letting the deal fall through. First, Snell is not a pitcher known for his lengthy outings. He’s started 191 games in his eight year career and is still seven innings shy of reaching the 1,000 innings pitched mark. He’s also walked 451 batters, good for one every two innings, and has not had a great track record of staying healthy, a situation in which the Yankees are all but familiar with. 

But here’s the most important reason why I think the Yankees are smart to walk away from this deal altogether: the Yankees should not be betting against themselves… again. When the Yankees acquired Gerrit Cole five off-seasons ago, they signed him to a contract that was over the top. While I can’t confirm this, I doubt any other team was willing to offer Cole more than seven years, and probably nothing above $250 million. Stephen Strasburg received a seven-year, $245 million contract from the Washington Nationals that off-season, so I figured Cole would just slightly beat that out. 

Instead, the Yankees blew Strasburg’s deal out of the water with their contract offer to Cole. Now, I’m not saying that I wish the Yankees didn’t do that, because Cole has been outstanding in his four years with the Yankees. It was a signing that the Yankees absolutely needed to make in order to secure an ace. But, the team’s desperation showed in this deal.

The Yankees missed out on signing him when they selected him in the first round of the 2008 Draft. They missed out on acquiring him when he was in Pittsburgh before he was ultimately traded to the Houston Astros. They simply didn’t want to miss out on him a third time. 

While the circumstances aren’t necessarily the same regarding Snell, I didn’t want the Yankees to make a desperation signing. Since they’ve lost a handful of pitchers due to trades and the Rule 5 Draft, the team had to make some moves to revamp their starting rotation and bullpen. While Brian Cashman has made deals with players like Stroman, most of his other pitcher transactions are deals that haven’t grabbed the headlines. 

And while I’m not exactly a Cashman sympathizer, some of these deals he has made this off-season are actually decent transactions. The most recent transaction was picking up Matt Gage off waivers from the Astros. Gage was simply placed on waivers to make room for Josh Hader. Gage does not have statistics that are amazing, but he will surely be a pitcher than can give the Yankees some bullpen depth. Bringing over Victor Gonzalez from the Los Angeles Dodgers was another good move for Cashman, as the southpaw reliever has three years of team control remaining. 

As I’ve previously said, if the Yankees have decided to move on from Snell, this is a smart move for the entire franchise. I didn’t have much of an issue with the contract that the Yankees offered him. It wasn’t for too many years, and I thought the money was fair. But, the Yankees should not beat themselves down with another long-term contract that could end up turning into a nightmare just a few years down the road. 

This could also be a negotiating tactic that the Yankees are using in hopes that Scott Boras will drop his demands for Snell. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Boras to do so. After all, there are some analysts out there predicting that Snell may not even have a team by Opening Day. It appears that it will come down to which side is willing to budge first, but it sure doesn’t seem as if the Yankees are having any issues of shying away from Snell. 

Things can always take a major turn in the near future, but I’m encouraged by this one report. As Spring Training is quickly approaching, we will soon find out Snell’s true status in the market. There’s no doubt that Snell is going to get a nice contract, but it is unlikely to be anywhere near his demand. However, I must mention that I didn’t think Shohei Ohtani would get $500 million from any team and I was off by $200 million. I would just take my predictions with a grain of salt.