New York Yankees: Jacoby Ellsbury Likely to Miss Remainder of Season

Will the New York Yankees ever learn? Signing former Boston Red Sox players simply never works out, or rarely for all you sticklers. Johnny Damon was great in Pinstripes. The latest monster contract they dished out for a Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury, has turned into a nightmare for the team.

The Yankees are on the hook for $21 million in 2019 and 2020. Luckily, they can recoup some of that money back if he sits out for the remainder of the season.

How can the New York Yankees collect insurance on Jacoby Ellsbury?

The 35-year-old outfielder is owed $42 million in total over the next two seasons, and there’s a $5 million buyout of a $21 million option in 2021. The Yanks would be smart to keep injuring Ellsbury purposefully, as I simply don’t understand how he continues to pick up new ailments, in hopes of collecting $15,857,142 in insurance money.

Last week, manager Aaron Boone stated that Ellsbury is “dealing with different things” and that “a number of little things that continue to pop up.’’

If this quote doesn’t spell “insurance money,” I don’t know what does:

“He’s doing some things,” Boone on April 20th. “But he’s had different things that have popped up that haven’t allowed him to break through to get to that point to where we can start thinking about heavy baseball activity, heavy rehab games and stuff like that.

“He’s a little further off.”

Placing him on the 60-day injured list surely doesn’t bode well for the outfielder. Ellsbury had one impressive season with New York in 2014, hitting .271 with 16 homers and 70 RBIs. Since then, his average hasn’t broken .264 and age has surely taken its toll.

The last time he played in a professional game was in 2017, and the next time likely won’t be until 2019, if he doesn’t retire after a lengthy recovery from a procedure last August to repair a torn left hip labrum.

Ellsbury participated in light exercise this past spring after rehabbing for a majority of the winter in Pheonix. Plans to get him back into baseball shape have since fallen through.