Time To Start Thinking About The Yankees

The big conversation has been about DJ LeMahieu all offseason.  I was on a different side than most.  Did I want DJ, yes, of course, he is a really good player who is kind of like Jeter in that they just show up and do their job extremely professionally.  DJ has also played 2 excellent years in a row, in fact, they were two of the best three years of his career (or 1.3 out of 2.3 of the best years based on only 50 games last year).

Outside of these 2.3 years and not counting his first 4 years of his career where his OPS was lower, those middle 3 years saw him with an OPS of .760 before coming here.  If you count his last 4 years before coming to NY (which includes the great 2017 year), his OPS was .797, basically .800.  This is the reason why we got him for 2 years at only 10 mil per year.  He could have received a little more somewhere else, but he was smart enough to know, go play for a team that should always be good.  But, keep that in mind, other clubs were not knocking down his door at 15 mil per year based on his history.  

The above was one of the reasons why after only one full year it is hard to pay 22-25 mil per year for 5 years (the initial numbers and then it came down to a little over 100 mil for 5 years.  That is not such a great deal when those 5 years will be 33-37 (he turns 33 on July 13).

Other thoughts:                                               

• His defense at 2nd was not gold glove, it was good though (not Urshela good) and the other positions it was avg (not a negative as playing other positions has value, but his best value is at 2nd base)
• The reason why so many people say that you can't let him go is that over the past 1.3 years his OPS was .922 for us.  That is excellent, especially when you consider the way he plays multiple positions and is a great teammate (from all accounts).  Including our two years, his lifetime OPS is .787.  The two years prior before coming to NY were a little less than that around .770
• I am one of those that has been down on Gleyber at SS defensively.  Yes, he could get more consistent and concentrate better, but he will only get bigger and that will make it even harder for him, so I think he is best at 2nd base.  I think when the Mets signed/traded for Lindor, the Yankees felt it was time to lock down DJ.  It is possible Gleyber gets traded still, but probably not next year unless it is a perfect deal or the Yankees are out of it (doubtful as I expect the Yankees to win the division by a comfortable margin.

Finally, the deal itself was pretty Yankee friendly; it is for 6 years which is too long, but it is possible he can still be mediocre at 36-37.  The way I see it, the deal is roughly a 20 mil a year deal for 4 years (the higher level of what I wanted to go) and then 2 years at 5 mil; or just 15 mil a year.  For perspective, Lindor just signed a one year 22.3 mil deal as arbitration-eligible.  I think Lindor is a better and younger player overall (not much better over the last 1.3 years and the dollars show it.

I am in favor of the Kluber deal because it is a one-year deal only and if he is a little worse than he was for his career (3.16 ERA)  that would be very good.  His last two full years saw him with an ERA of about 2.60 so he was great, but the last two years have been wiped out with injuries.  The Yankees watched him throw and were impressed so 1 year at 11 mil makes sense to me.  if he can give us a mid 3 ERA, that would be helpful!