The New York Yankees FINALLY did something to help them win championships while staying under luxury tax thresholds. The New York Yankees paid Jacoby Ellsbury $26 million to simply walk away. Also cut were Greg Bird and Nester Cortes Jr. (well, DFAed, but we know they’re gone).
But this is about Ellsbury’s time as a Yankee ending. In the words of Homer Simpson “Jesus, Allah, Buddha, I love you all!â€
Ellsbury Troublesome Yankees Career
We haven’t seen Ellsbury since 2017. He’s been hurt in one way or another, keeping him out of each of the last two 100 win seasons. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering his injury history in Boston. Excluding his rookie season, he had 3 seasons where he missed more than 40 games due to injury prior to signing his $154 million contract. If you can’t do the quick math, that’s three seasons where Ellsbury missed a quarter of the season. How can you not see that as a GIANT red flag?
Offensively, you’d imagine the dimensions at Yankee Stadium would help Ellsbury more than Boston. As a Red Sox player, he has a career .297/.350/.439 slash line compared to his .264/.330/.386 slash line as a Yankee. Out of his 4 years he actually played for the team, he averaged 130 games played, meaning we still had to find viable subs for roughly a quarter of the season. It’s a little better than the 96 games he averaged for the Sox his final 4 years in Boston, but THAT should have been a MASSIVE red flag for “We need to stay below the luxury tax†Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner. (baseball-reference.com)
So this $26 million dollar buyout finally cuts ties with Ellsbury, clears revenue for next year, and helps free up another spot allowing the Yankees to save 7 players from the Rule 5 draft. That includes to pitching and outfield prospects like Deivi Garcia and Estevan Florial.
What Does This Mean For the Luxury Tax?
The buyout will affect the Yankees for the 2019 tax year. On December 2nd, MLB will tell the Yankees how much they’re over the luxury tax, and they have till January 21 to pay it. So this frees up about $44 million for the 2020 season. This means we can EASILY throw $20 million a year at Cole or Strasburg. 8 players are entering arbitration at the end of 2020, including Judge, Paxton, Sanchez, Urshela, and Kahnle. Not to mention you’re not paying Greg Bird to rehab, much in the same way you were paying Ellsbury to do the same.
So we get dinged in 2019. Big whoop. But that $44 million over two years go to a front line pitcher, Judge, Sanchez, Paxton, Urshela, Andujar, Torres and Kahnle contracts, as well as providing leverage for the Yankees doing the smart thing, and resigning Didi Gregorius. This resets what the tax threshold is for the Yankees in 2020, giving us (finally) a chance to ACTUALLY get together a championships caliber team on the field, that will finally get us back into the World Series for the first time since 2009.
Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out Jacoby. Your first year was great. Every year since? Not so much.