After being ousted from the ALDS in four games by the Red Sox, the Yankees got a head start on their offseason plans while their blood rivals captured a fourth World Series title in 14 years by beating the overmatched Dodgers in five games.
Now it is time for the Yankees to make decisions — or, as in the case of Shohei Ohtani last year, have players make decisions for them — on what is needed for the 2018 season after winning 100 regular-season games and beating the Athletics in the AL wild-card game.
The first decision is what to do about Brett Gardner’s $12.5 million option, which includes a $2 million buyout. The Yankees have until midnight Wednesday to activate the option or allow the longest-tenured player on this past season’s squad to test the free-agent market.
When Gardner was hitting .260 with a .352 on-base percentage on July 9, it looked like picking up the option would be an easy choice for the Yankees, who at the time were 2 ½ games back of the Red Sox.
In the next 65 games, however, Gardner hit .206 (49-for-238) with a .285 on-base percentage and down the stretch wasn’t a full-time player. He finished with a disappointing .236 average and .322 on-base percentage. The average was the second-lowest of Gardner’s big-league career (he hit .228 in 42 games in 2008) and the on-base percentage was his lowest since 2008 (.283).
The Yankees could go several ways with the 35-year-old. They could decline the option and pay him $2 million, thank him for being accountable and a leader over 11 seasons and helping win a World Series title in 2009. They could decline the option and negotiate a new deal. Or they could pick the option up.
Though Gardner’s numbers fell off, the Yankees were a better club with him hitting first (69-38) than when he hit elsewhere, didn’t start or didn’t play (31-24).
And he fits a big criterion for leadoff hitters, since he saw 4.23 pitches per at-bat. That was 14th in the big leagues last year and tied short-time teammate Andrew McCutchen’s total for the season, between the Giants and Yankees. Aaron Hicks was ninth at 4.28. The Yankees’ outfield, however, is a crowded house and hamstrung by the $47 million owed to Jacoby Ellsbury across the next two years after the 35-year-old missed all of 2018 due to lower-back problems and eventual hip surgery.
With Aaron Judge in right, Aaron Hicks in center and Giancarlo Stanton available to play left, do the Yankees have enough money to pay both Ellsbury and Gardner? And Hicks will get a raise from the $2.8 million he made last year in his final trip through arbitration.
Then there is Clint Frazier, whose 2018 season was lost due to concussion issues. The Yankees remain high on him, but need to see him on the field.
As for other issues, the Yankees can’t make qualifying offers to free-agent pitchers J.A. Happ and Zach Britton because they were acquired in trades during the season. They have to make decisions on free agents CC Sabathia and David Robertson (they won’t get the $17.9 million qualifying offer) and are expected to be major players in the Patrick Corbin free-agent chase.
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