If you were told last season at this time that the New York Yankees let Didi Gregorius walk away during free agency, would you believe it? I don’t think anyone had this in mind.
After failing to extend the shortstop a qualifying offer on November 4th, it looks like the Yankees are going to let this happen. After a mediocre season, it seems that the club and Gregorius are split on his value.
Even though the Yankees like Gregorius’ attitude and he liked playing in New York, if both sides can’t reach an agreement then it’s very likely he’ll find a new contract with a different club. The club has already said if they were to sign him, it’ll most likely be for one year and it’ll be less than $17.8 million. Even though Gregorius had a sub-par season, there’s no way he takes that small of a contract – unless he’s obsessed with the idea of playing in pinstripes.
There have been rumors of a scenario that the Cleveland Indians could trade Francisco Lindor to the Yankees and then sign Gregorius from the free-agent market. As pleasing as this sounds, it’s a long-shot.
The Milwalkee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds have already expressed interest in the 29-year-old.
It seems that the Yankees know that Gleyber Torres is their future shortstop. They were able to catch a glimpse of this while Gregorius was recovering from his Tommy John surgery.
If the Yankees let him walk, they already have so much depth to their infield. The infield could look something like this: Luke Voit at first, DJ LeMahieu at second, Gleyber Torres at shortstop, and Andujar/Urshela at third.