Free agent outfielder Chris Young is in discussions with the Yankees about a deal that would keep him in New York, according to a report from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Young joined the Yankees on a minor league deal in the middle of 2014, after he was released by the crosstown Mets.
Young had a rough go of things in Queens last year, slashing .205/.283/.346 over 287 plate appearances after signing a one-year, $7.25MM pact in free agency. That represented similar production to his run with the Athletics the year prior, when Young’s downturn began.
But he turned things around in a late-season run with the Yankees, putting up a .282/.354/.521 line in a short sample of 79 plate appearances. And the 31-year-old does have a history of pretty impressive work — twenty home run power, twenty steal speed, and solid defense in center — in the not-so-distant past.
For the Yankees, Young would surely fit in a reserve capacity. The club has committed big money to Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, and Carlos Beltran, though the latter may need to see an increasing amount of time in the DH slot.
How many times can you buy into the potential of a 31 year old?
I don’t think they are buying into the potential. They are looking at him as a 4th outfielder/right handed power bat off the bench with speed. If they sign him to a reasonable 1 year deal it wouldn’t be the worse thing. But honestly I’d rather the Yankees bring up a prospect to be the 4th outfielde.
No risk involved in signing him
I wouldn’t say no risk. If they spend 4M on him and he ends up not providing anything that’s 4M they could have spent elsewhere.
A report came out yesterday that said that the Yankees could actually support a $500 million dollar payroll and still break even. I think they can prolly afford to give Chris Young a chance.
I’m all for resigning Young. Just stating that depending on the salary there is risk.
The difference between $2-3 million (what the Yanks should give him) and $4-$5 million (what I’d expect him to get) is so small that you can’t call it a risk. If this was the type of player seeking a good multiyear deal (Asdrubel Cabrera) or a pitcher looking for a 1 year deal with a good salary figure (AJ Burnett), then I’d say there is risk.
No risk is a minor league contract or a non-guaranteed deal. When a team has say 40 M to spend and they are dedicating 4M to a player, there is risk. Maybe minimal risk but still risk.
It’s a risk when it is one of very few MLB roster spots that means someone else is in the minors and or out of the organization.
As Stan says, it’s a minimal risks. If they sign him and he stinks, they will release him, much like Brian Roberts.
Chance for what? Hit 230 with no speed or power?
If we can spend 500 mil this is an even worse deal. This isn’t an old players charity.
Except he is 31 which isn’t old, and he has speed, and a little power. And he hit .282 in his short sample with the Yankees. Fourth outfielders are not aplenty this offseason. I think it is a fine idea with minimal risk. And, since Beltran may or may not be better this year, they may even need a “fifth” outfielder before this season is over.
I’m not saying we don’t need a 4th outfielder.
I’m saying they should get one from the farm.
I don’t think those are mutually exclusive, but out of curiosity, who do you believe is ready? They tried Zoilo Almonte and Antoan Richardson last season and they didn’t really stick. Aaron Judge is supposed to be good, but hasn’t really debuted yet, I think he’s had some injuries. I don’t really know enough about the system to guess beyond that.
When you have 1 or 2 back up outfielders at most it’s pretty darn close to mutually exclusive.
I would hope for Austin or Garcia to win the job but Dugas and Flores should be given a shot. Heathcott and Judge might be given an outside shot but Judge would have to dominate to win a job.
Refsnyder is the easy choice if he’s not playing 2nd.
I think we disagree about the nature and flexibility of rosters, and that is fine, so be it. As to the outfield prospects, I suppose those you mentioned here will all be invited to Spring Training. I’ll have to keep an eye out. I think I have seen reports where Heathcott is injured a lot and is a bit of a disappointment, but the others are new to me.
I actually agree with you that it won’t be much money and the roster is totally flexible. History however has shown that the team will play the vet without giving the rookies a chance and they don’t seem to cut people until they are sure he wont help anyone else.
I think he would make a nice 4th or 5th outfielder & I don’t expect any of the rookies to play that much better. At a low enough salary you simply sign him because he has value.
My complaint is really about the failure to leave spots open for rookies. It’s easy to say you can just cut a guy but they don’t cut someone like him just to see what a rookie will do if he’s on a guaranteed deal. Garcia hit about 300/400/500 last year in AAA and didn’t get a major league at bat on a team with offensive troubles and the need for a right handed hitter. I think fixing that approach is more important than assuring every bench role is filled before christmas.
Minimal risk
I’m not comparing the 2, but that’s about how old Joey Batts was when he had his first MVP caliber season.
I see nothing wrong with bringing in Young to be a younger replacement for Ichiro. He will be our 4th outfielder. Seems funny that this would be our first move though (if that happens).
I approve.
I remember I called him the poor man’s bj upton. Turns out he is better than Upton.
Even Freddy Galvis is better than BJ at this point
I’d take Scott Smalls over BJ Upton
You’re killing me.
That’s a lotta projection. Even Benny the Jet only turned into a pinch runner.
He was only a pinch runner because the guy just couldn’t learn to use his breaks. Not even the great Jan and his soda can tower could teach him to stop. At least he got the head cheerleader though.
We only see him as a pinch runner, but I think the implication is that he’s at the tail end of a productive career
This is true. But I inferred he was a wheels-first, solid-but-not-great player since he didn’t enter the equation in the apparently critical game until the Dodgers got a runner to third.
Plus we know that DeNunez only made it to Triple-A, and he was kind of a stud.
I wouldn’t mind having him back. He is a halfway decent backup outfielder. Kind of thinking that Flores might be given the shot too to get on the team at some point just to help Beltran.
Ichiros replacement eh? decent bench bat, sure why not. If he performs real badly just DFA him
I still can’t believe he led the team in batting average (and he had the worst ISO. When was the last time If Ever a player led his team in BA but was last in ISO)
I remember when he was doing great in limited playing time because this was when we had the clustered OF/DH with Beltran and Soriano duo. Soriano was doing so bad and Ichiro had to play more and went through that real rough stretch, but he picked things up when he was used correctly. I wish him well, hopefully he gets to 3000
Yep. He can be serviceable to any team, AL or NL, in need of a pinch runner or defensive replacement with an occasional start here and there. He’s actually done better recently against LHP.
Ichiro has been better vs lefties for his career. Probably because he pulls out the box so early so they can’t squeeze his hands.
Quite common with Ben Revere. Last year he had a .306 batting average, tops on the team, with a .055 ISO. Which is an improvement over 2013’s .047 ISO.
Wow, you’re right.
I’d support this. The Yankees bench last year had Zero power. Only 2 pinch hit HR all year.
Anyone know what team led the league in pinch hit HR’s last year? That would be the Padres with 11 (they only had 109 all year. More than 10% came as pinch hit HR). Only in baseball.
That’s not that unusual though. The AL you don’t pinch hit all that much. The NL you sometimes do several times a game. Ideally I hope they get a solid enough lineup that they don’t need any pinch hitters.
Yes but they were still last in the NL in home runs. This was one of the worst offensive teams in baseball history.
Ichiro hit .462/.533/.462 as a pinch hitter. The bench though is definitely important. I’m not looking for home runs though, but rather people that don’t make a ton of outs. The Prado/Refsnyder combo will be big next year.
“Ichiro hit .462/.533/.462 as a pinch hitter”
In a very very large sample of 15 plate appearances!
Agree about Prado/Refsnyder , however I haven’t heard the Yankees say that they plan for him to be on the roster. Last I heard they want his defense to improve. I surely hope he is on the roster though.
If they re-sign Headley , then that puts Prado at 2B and then I don’t see where Refsnyder would fit on the roster, or at least as a starter.
Well how many pinch hit ab do you think will be available?
I expect Ref to be up mid-april to May. There will be plenty of ab I am sure. No Yankee even played 150 games last year. Between that and any injuries I’m sure Ref and Prado can get full time ab while both being on the roster.
Headley is going to Boston, and NY will frightenly sign Hanley.
If Hanley plays 3B and not SS I am ok with that
If you don’t think Refsnyder will be on the roster from Opening Day, why wouldn’t they keep him down there until post-Super 2 Deadline? The Yankees recent history doesn’t suggest that they are quick to push the panic button and ditch the line-up they exit Spring Training with make a change 2-6 weeks in. Brian Roberts was never effective, on either side of the ball, last season and he remained the Yankees starting second baseman until the July 31st trade deadline, when they picked up Prado and Drew. For better or worse, they seemed to stick with what they drew up.
Mid April would get them the extra year of team control. If they can wait until June for the super 2 that would work, but I think they will need him sometime before then.
He’s saying in reference to Yanks having only two
Padres starting offense was bad enough that the bench got a lot of ab. Yankees bench does not get into that many games as pinch hitters. Also NL teams in General will have more ph home runs because of pitchers hitting
I am well aware of the fact that NL teams will have more PH opportunities but I still found it it bizarre that they led in that department despite being the 2nd worst HR team this year.
Over 10% of their home runs came via pinch hitter. By comparison the Rockies had 186 HR to lead the NL but had only 5 PH HR’s (2.7% total HR’s)
Would probably guess it is one of those sss things.
Gardner may get traded to the Rockies, Ichiro probably won’t be back and Ellsbury and Beltran are a bit injury-prone.
Young and perhaps Heathcott would be quite serviceable as 4th and 5th outfielders.
Whom do you have coming back the other way in this Rockie trade? If it’s Tulo, the Yankees are going to need more than a 4th and 5th outfielder. They’re going to need another starter. If it’s CarGo…….once he’s on the DL again, it’s the same story as the Tulo scenario. Either way, it seems like a bad idea.
Tulo for sure. the Yankees need a shortstop a heck of a lot more than a corner outfielder.
the Yankees will need another starter and I expect them to keep McCarthy or go after a different FA starter
Right-handed hitter, can sub for Gardner/Ellsbury against a nasty southpaw starter, can play all the outfield spots, can come in late for Beltran for defense. Makes a lot of sense for the Yankees right now.
“Right-handed hitter, can sub for Gardner/Ellsbury against a nasty southpaw starter”
Gardner and Ellsbury hit lefties better than CY last year
In 2014 against LHP
Young – .149/.290/.270
Gardner – .262/.333/.354
Ellsbury – .300/.355/.472 (that’s nuts)
All of Young’s offensive numbers were bad last season. It’s not shocking that his numbers against lefties were bad. But he looked a little better once he joined the Yankees. Do you have his numbers versus lefties just as a member of the Yankees or numbers against lefties all-time? Might give a different picture.
A 31 year old outfielder with a lifetime ops+ of 94. OK, not the most exciting sign, but if cheap enough, i guess so, although i don’t know what he adds other than as a reserve. He’s not really good enough to start.
He saves the team money in about 5 years by delaying arbitration a year.
Prudent financial management.
Not.
I don’t think we are really arguing with each other. Young is a low-value piece if you have nothing else to put there. He can handle the position for a DL stay for a starter. The question is cost, and whether the Yankees have anything decent in the minors that he’s blocking. If he’s blocking younger talent, I’d rather see the talent. If he costs anything significant (what were the Mets thinking last year?) I wouldn’t bother.
I wasn’t arguing in my last post. Just answering your question and agreeing with the lack of value statement.
The talent blocking issue is my concern. If they sign him, he’s going to get a roster spot that could have gone to one of the prospects after a spring competition. I’m sure he’ll do fine and hit .240 but I think we would get that or more from Austin, Garcia, Flores or even Judge.
You just can’t look at his history and assume he’s going to be a good hitter next year any more than you can predict Judge hits 40 home runs if given the chance.
What kind of confusion leads a team to sign a vet that has proven he is a 200/300/400 hitter? I’m fine if it’s non guaranteed or a minimum deal with a clear understanding that he only sticks if the kids prove they aren’t ready but the idea that he’ll revert to PED era production levels is complete denial.
Any prospect who hit like that for a month would be demoted or cut and yet they are going to lock in that level of production instead of letting a younger player take a shot.
There just aren’t enough roster spots to play games like this and if they don’t start carving out a little playing time for rookies they will never develop. Maybe as a minimum salary, AAAA, depth move but otherwise this is a fail.