Is DJ LeMahieu likely to return to the Yankees?

At the beginning of this off-season, most people in the industry took over DJ LeMahieu and the Yankees will stay together, even if LeMahieu tested the waters of free agent. A recent report suggested that the veteran infielder may be ready to look elsewhere. A group of MLB.com reporters gathered to discuss.

Alyson Footer (@alysonfooter, moderator): A recent Yahoo report suggested that DJ LeMahieu is unhappy that the Yankees are no longer aggressive in contract negotiations and instructed his office to open the floor to other suitors. What do we make of this? I feel like in normal times, this would be a bigger business than it is now. It was such a slow winter.

Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand, executive reporter): Honestly, I’m not sure how much other teams read in everything they see in media reports. It is difficult to know where the information comes from.

Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello, analyst): To be honest, I was shocked to think that they arrived in January without already engaging with other teams. Can it be true?

• The latest rumors about LeMahieu

Fine sand: The Yankees have made it clear that they want LeMahieu back, and LeMahieu has expressed a desire to return to New York. As Gordon Gecko once said, the rest is conversation.

Petriello: As much as I hate to say that, I think Mark is right. It’s not like other teams, well, OK, now we can think of LeMahieu. It doesn’t work that way.

Fine sand: I return to one thing: When was the last time the Yankees wanted to retain a player and that player left? Andy Pettitte in 2003, I guess, but there were other circumstances that drew him to Houston. Robinson Canó was not a player the Yankees wanted back enough for the price he demanded, so they made him a seven-year, $ 175 million offer, which they knew he would turn down.

When the Yankees want to bring a player back, they do. When all is said and done, I fully expect LeMahieu to stay with the Yankees. In any case, these reports could give the teams that were already interested in LeMahieu a glimmer of hope. Could he now increase his supply and try to make a deal? Sure. But it’s hard for me to believe that the Yankees won’t have a chance to match that offer until LeMahieu signs elsewhere.

Petriello: This also seems like How to Be an Agent 101 if you’re trying to send a signal to the Yankees, really.

Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson, Blue Jays beat the reporter): The Blue Jays have liked LeMahieu over time, but they also see what others see: probably LeMahieu’s return to the Yankees. Blue Jays were one of the “also interested” teams with more players in this off-season and this will continue, as the league knows well how much financial flexibility they have, but finishing second or third in search of an agent. free major won ‘Don’t take them anywhere. Is it encouraging to hear that LeMahieu is more open to talking to other teams, but are those other teams legitimate options or simply tools used in his negotiations with New York?

Basement: Keegan’s point is a good one. Teams like Blue Jays certainly don’t want to be “played” as a pawn to raise the price. The Yankees can assume they will offer the most LeMahieu anyway. But you can’t win the auction without two teams. So is it possible to play some game?

Fine sand: And Joel Wolfe doesn’t need a beginner’s class on how to be an agent.

Hey, if the Blue Jays can raise the price, they can force the Yankees to either A) overpay to bring it back, or B) decide the price is too high. If he is the first, they forced a rival in the division to spend more money than they wanted. If it’s the latter, maybe LeMahieu will end up in a Toronto uniform. Win-win.

• Hot stove tracking

Petriello: I also think maybe LeMahieu needs the Yankees more than he would like to leave. For me, it’s objectively hilarious that, after years of playing in Coors and all the associated connotations, he comes with him to the Bronx and, in two years as a Yankee, does this:

OPS at home: 1,063
OPS Road: .793

This is a difference of 240 points, without the narration “my home park hurts me on the road”, you can tell if you are a Rockie.

As Mark said, this seems to be the perfect match for the player and the team. (Besides forcing him to keep Gleyber Torres at rest, which seems, uh, bad.)

Fine sand: The whole market is slow. The fact that LeMahieu’s market is also crawling should come as no surprise.

Matheson: Blue Jays Vs. New York is a bit of a theme this season. They are in George Springer, of course, as the main target, but they could face the Mets as their biggest challenger. This search sounds more realistic than the conditions desired by LeMahieu.

The oversized Yankees of the Blue Jays for their own star would be a new and strange world.

Petriello: You realize that the Yankees are already watching what the Mets are doing, and losing the DJ to a rival in the division wouldn’t make this season much more fun for Steinbrenners. A few feet to the fire never hurts.

Fine sand: That is why such reports tend to attract different answers. I do not deny the validity of the report at all, but I am not sure how much it will influence the team’s approach to negotiations.

Petriello: (It will not be.)

Matheson: Blue Jays don’t even tend to make emotional decisions with their money. I wish I could say the same for me, but they will stick to their assessment.

Basement: Let’s look at this part of Yahoo’s report: “The teams that joined LeMahieu’s camp say LeMahieu expects more than Josh Donaldson’s $ 92 million four-year deal with the Minnesota twins and at least on par with the five years of JD Martinez and $ 110 million with the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees, LeMahieu’s favorite club after two successful seasons in the Bronx, did not meet those terms. “

Petriello: This is better than the previous report which said it was looking for five years and 125 million dollars, which was never realistic.

Fine sand: Donaldson’s contract has always been around where I thought LeMahieu’s contract would come from. I still think it’s a little fair.

The biggest question about LeMahieu’s contract is whether any team is in its fifth year. If they do, there’s a good chance they’ll catch him. I think the Yankees will stay at four, although that’s my personal opinion, not from anyone on the team.

Petriello: I think his problem here is that he is never close to the two players’ record, although he is obviously much more valuable as a defender than Martinez was. But he’s older than people think – 33 in July – and some of the core statcast values ​​haven’t been great this year (declining defenses, the ninth percentile of the barrel rate, for whatever you want to put in a shortened season).

He makes a ton of good solid contact and can play a lot of positions, so he’s valuable. But two years ago, he received two years, $ 24 million. He is categorical getting a nice growth on top of that. But I was thinking more about the “four-ish for $ 70 million-ish” line. There is a 0.0% chance of exceeding $ 100 million.

Fine sand: I was waiting for Mike to play with a bunch of stats to make me feel bad. Thanks, Mike!

Matheson: And I hope that one day I will be described as “older than people think.”

Fine sand: Mike, be careful with 0.0 percent. I wouldn’t say there’s a good chance he’ll get a plus $ 100 million, but it’s definitely a non-zero chance.

Petriello: Maybe less than zero.

Matheson: Regarding the Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro said that, “There are still a lot of uncertainties in the budget, but not in the salary of the Major League.” With Rogers, a communications company, as a property group, it has a very different dynamic from that of an individual owner, but the messages from the club continue to be that the money is there. With LeMahieu, the deadline could be more of an issue than the salary. This is also true for Springer negotiations or for anything else that extends beyond 2-3 seasons. By the fourth year, this young core will become more expensive, so Blue Jays is looking at long-term dollars and cents of it all.

Fine sand: What Keegan points out about Toronto’s budget uncertainties probably applies to every team right now. There are still so many things we don’t know about the 2021 season – when will it start? How many games? Will there be fans in the stands? If so, how many? – that the teams are still working on the road when it comes to salary budgets.

Matheson: And building this point – where does Blue Jays play? For example, if you sign a three-year contract and one season (or most of one) comes from a Spring Training Stadium in Dunedin, Florida, how much does it influence your preference? The answer will vary between players, but it is a real factor to consider.

Petriello: Keegan, if Springer and LeMahieu get similar offers … Springer fits Jay better, right? And wouldn’t he get both … too?

Matheson: Springer makes more sense between the two, not only on the surface, but when you look at what the backup options of Blue Jays would be. If they miss LeMahieu, then they can easily aim for an upgrade to third base and rely more on the versatile Cavan Biggio on second. This is an excellent result. Yes, the Blue Jays have Randal Grichuk in midfield, but adding a Springer caliber to that position is such a rare opportunity that they’ve been watching for several off-seasons.

The Blue Jays have a lot of high-end field prospects who also come in Jordan Groshans and Austin Martin. In the outer field, their savior is not around the corner.

Petriello: Tl; Dr. of all this for me is … well, of course is frustrated by the Yankees, because spring training should start in six weeks. There are a billion unsigned free agents. We don’t know if there is DH. And hey, how about that pandemic? I don’t blame him for being frustrated in the slow moving market; I also think that very little of this is specific to DJ LeMahieu.

Fine sand: Well, the Yankees know they’ll have a DH. His name is Giancarlo Stanton.

Petriello: Well, but the National League’s contenders. Not that he would be DH, but maybe someone he cares about right now has to keep a glove open.

Basement: Let’s end this. Answer yes or no: LeMahieu will eventually sign with the Yankees.

Petriello: I hate going with chalk, but … yes.

Fine sand: Yes. Four years, $ 86 million, option for the fifth year for $ 21 million ($ 8 million redemption). So $ 94 million in total.

Matheson: Yes. With Blue Jays, once again, being “close”.

Petriello: I’ll say four for $ 80 million, with an easy-to-reach investment option for a fifth.