SUNDAY: The 2015 option is a team option, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com.
SATURDAY, 11:18pm: Bailey will earn a prorated base salary of $1.975MM if he works his way up to the Major League club, Olney reports. All told, the Major League side of the deal is valued at $2.5MM, and includes a 2015 option and buyout.
8:57pm: The Yankees have agreed to an incentive-laden minor league deal with Andrew Bailey, ESPN's Buster Olney reports. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes was the first to report that the sides were close to a deal (via Twitter).
Bailey, 29, had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder in July, and was not tendered a contract by the Red Sox this offseason. Nevertheless, more than 15 teams had called to check in with the reliever by early December, according to an MLBTR report. If the timetable we reported at that time holds, Bailey will be ready to suit up in pinstripes by mid-May.
A former All-Star closer with the Athletics, Bailey has struggled with injuries since his rookie season, and managed just 44 innings for Boston after he was acquired in a winter 2011 trade. However, he could provide a midseason boost to the Yankees, as his career 2.64 ERA attests to. The club's bullpen is in a state of flux following the retirement of Mariano Rivera, and appears to have few certain options behind closer David Robertson. January's sigining of lefty Matt Thornton is the team's lone major bullpen acquisition in an offseason in which Boone Logan and Joba Chamberlain have been lost to free agency.
Solid move. Even if he is unable to contribute much this year, Yankees will control him as an arbitration eligible player in 2015.
Any idea when we will be seeing him pitch, or will he be ready by opening day (whitch i doubt)?
MLBTR is saying mid-May, but I think that is a little bit of a stretch. I’m thinking he might be ready sometime around the All Star break.
Good deal for the Yankees.
And they didn’t have to give up a solid,gold-glove winning outfielder to get him (sorry, Ben).
Given that he will soon be wearing a 2013 WS ring, I sincerely doubt that Josh Reddick haunts his dreams.
Nice deal. Solid pitcher when healthy. no-risk deal for Yankees.
A low-risk, high-reward signing for the Yankees. Can’t go wrong with this deal.
Bailey , I think, was a metropolitan NY/ NJ/ CT area kid. Hopefully he can recover and do well except against the Red Sox. He seemed to be a good teammate.
He is from a NJ side Philly Suburb.
Went to Wagner in SI though, probably a Yankee fan growing up. I could see them getting 30 dominant innings out of him.
He grew up in sotuh jersey, and I’m 90% sure he was a Phillies fan.
Ya, he grew up a Phillie fan
At least the potential of him coming back strong helps to reduce the anxiety of having Kelley in the 8th all year.
Kelley was actually good for the most part but around August/September he completely ran out of gas.
I know, at times he could strike out batters at will, but I couldn’t see him going the entire seasons as the set-up man.
So now they have Robertson, Bailey, Kelley, Claiborne, Daley, Thornton, Cabral, and depending on who doesn’t get the 5th starter job they could have Warren, Phelps, and Nuno in the mix for the bullpen as well. I’m sure they’ll figure something out.
Bailey will be a good help, but think penciling him into the mix by May is not in the cards.
They probably signed him with an eye on the AS break-August. A good period and one teams the last few seasons have been looking at on relievers. Wilson being another. Hanrahan.
Bailey probably will begin in the minors and they can still 60 day DL him if required and he has issues. The guy really is good when healthy.
I agree when healthy but that’s the problem. There always seems to be some kind of issue with him. He will come back & tease you with a couple rock star outings & then suddenly break a finger. He really is the ultimate tease. Good signing for Yanks for the possibility but to expect anything at all out of him is tough.
Betances has a strong shot at making the pen with his power stuff. Banuelos is an interesting option for a power lefty if he looks ready in spring.
Don’t seeing him ready by mid May. He might start throwing bullpens but labrum surgery usually takes 12-18 months before you can pitch in MLB games.
Should help them next year as Robertson is a FA
Eh, torn labrums are not joke so I doubt he contributes much this season, however, on the off chance that he does then this deal is pretty good.
Smart deal. could be a really good deal if he comes back healthy and performs. if he doesn’t, not a big deal anyway.
What a fantastic deal for the Yanks. If all goes well he may become the closer they’ve been looking for.
They have the closer already
He didn’t work out as a closer for the Sox 2 years ago so he’d better bring something special if he wants to earn that role.
Whenever I see Andrew Bailey, all I can think of is Beane selling him at the right moment.
Josh Reddick for Bailey smh
It was worth the chance. I don’t regret the move at all. 2012 was a disaster for the Sox and if he had been there, maybe the Sox don’t grab a vital piece of their 2013 championship team, such as a Gomes or a Victorino.
Your right. Bailey was useless in Boston & is now gone. Though I love how they used his money on Mujica. Reddick was a monster who hit 30 homers in 2012. Last season however he was dreadful. Oakland still wins deal but let’s see what Reddick does this year. I think now that’s why Boston is turning to their younger guys in the bullpen like Wilson, Workman & Britton because they see the inconsistency from year to year with bullpens. They’ve been screwed with Bailey, Gagne & Jenks to name a few. Keep the Workmans of the world in the bullpen.
There was a point last season where opposing teams were hitting home runs off him every appearance for something like 7 games in a row or so. Painful to watch him pitch.
7 games in a row? He gave up 7 homers all year in 30 games, and they were not consecutive. He wasn’t by any means great, but before getting hurt he was good. Definitely not painful to watch.
I exaggerated quite a bite but I looked over the stats again and in June he gave up 5 home runs in 5 innings pitched making it 6/10 games that he gave up a home run. Bailey was then out for the season 2 weeks later.
So although he showed flashes of stuff early on in the season, this is the lasting image a lot of us Sox fans have of him.
Wow Yankees love terrible former red Sox relievers
Thornton won’t be terrible as a LOOGY and I don’t mind Bailey on a minor league deal
Thornton was a bad pitcher on the Sox. So was Bailey. If they turn things around on the Yankees, good for the Yankees. But it’s not worth investing real money is those guys.
Not even accurate ?
Unless this is a reference to years ago (i.e. Alan Embree) I don’t see the point…Matt Thornton was on the Red Sox for about 45 minutes so he could only be called a “former Red Sox” by technicality.
Aceves says hello!
At least it’s just a minor league deal
No risk…nice flyer
Excellent move by the New York Yankees. No risk, all reward.
A healthy Andrew Bailey really would work nicely with David Robertson.
Just rename the Yankees to the NY Red Sox ! Bailey, Ellsbury, Thornton. They should sign Drew!
The more I think about it they could sign Drew and he might produce better power numbers than Ryan. Both Drew and Ryan are better SS’s “today” than Jeter and Jeter is a better 3 B than K. Johnson.
I’m happy for Bailey he was a good soldier while in Boston. It seemed the injury bug found him whenever he was ready to get back on the mound.
I thought the Logan to Morrison to Rivera worked. Thornton may help–he’s really a lefty specialist.
I always thought Drew made perfect sense for the Yankees as well but I can’t help but think they are looking forward to next off season at guys like Hardy, Ramirez & Cabrera. Who knows if the Cubs have enough of Castro as well. Plus Lowrie & if Arizona makes one of their many guys available. Boras probably wants 2 years for Drew knowing these facts.
Yankees have done well with former Red Sox. Sparky Lyle, Wade Boggs, Johnny Damon, Roger Clemens and now Ellsbury.
Not so well with Youkillis, and unlikely to get much out of Bailey. Red Sox meanwhile enjoyed 2 years of Aceves.
You left out Ruth
Baileys value likely to be in 2015 with the option. I doubt he pitches an inning for the Yankees this year. Not sure where that May timeline is coming from, they were saying a minimum of 12 months when he was with the Red Sox.
How do the Yankees get every single Free Agent, the good thing is all the guys they get are major injury concerns.
Since they resigned Cano/Granderson and signed guys like Choo, Garza, Napoli and Ubaldo. Oh and they got Nathan to take over for Mariano. Yup, every single free agent!
They got McCann, Tanaka, Beltran, Roberts, Johnson, Ellsbury, Bailey, Kuroda, Ryan, Thornton. So they pretty much got every free agent they wanted, just be ready for another post season beatdown.
Team option for 2015 if Baily does manage to get in 1y worth of service time, so NY will probably get a closer for 2015 out of Bailey next year as well. Very, very smart move with little investment for 2014 to see if he’s healthy and can cut ties if they don’t like what they see.
This should give teams an idea what to offer Hanrahan as well. Maybe NY will take a look at him? I wanted him back at Boston as an injury rehab player, but NY could use him also as a late inning power setup option for June onward, probably earlier return than Bailey.
Seeing Hanrahan back on the Sox would remind me every day of the trade we made to get him – fleeced.
You have to be able to put the bad behind. Just like 2012 season in the past that led to 2013. Clean slate and many of the same players.
There was nothing wrong with Hanrahan’s personality. He was injured most of his time with Boston and they still didn’t give up anything. Melancon was a bust in Boston. The only real tragedy regarding him was that Lowrie, given up to acquire him originally never could stay healthy enough to fulfill his potential while wearing a Sox uniform.
I know he was injured and I think it’s part of the whole Sox curse thing but closers have been taxing on my heart over the years.
The Gagne trade nearly gave me a heart attack in my early teens, Hanrahan, Bailey during that June month, and even Pap. Thank god for Uehara and Foulke or I’d need a heart transplant right now.
Maybe it’s just me but last year was a godsend and I hope it continues so I can live longer.
I hope Hanrahan is next!
I now understand the Yankees plan for winning the World Series..sign as many former Red Sox as they can…there still a couple more out there Cashman…
I feel like Bailey’s worst outings with the Sox were when he tried to close again, so staying as a setup guy should serve him well
44 innings and 8 million dollars. Yanks can have him. He was on DL in his days with Oakland. With him you’ll get some Minor Leaguers some work, you’ll be calling them up.
Honestly, a brilliant move by the Yankees.
I really hope Bailey is able to get (and stay) healthy. Everyone knows how good he can be and this is a great deal by the Yankees. No risk, high reward. Perfect move.
there are also rumors that the bombers could also sign joel hanrahan depite the signing of andrew bailey