MY 2017 FREE AGENT REPORT

I went through the trouble and did a quick analysis of  the free agents that will be available after this season in case we are not patient enough to wait for all these future starters, some of whom won’t be ready until 2018 or 2019.  Let me be the first on BYB to say... it is a very thin free agent class this year. 

There is literally not one good starting pitcher available in my opinion... so absent of a trade, it looks like Yanks will continue to go with Tanaka, Severino, Sabathia and Eovaldi (if he doesn’t need TJ surgery).  

Now, to be honest, I couldn’t tell you right now who our #5 starter will be, but likely either a trade or we go with a young guy like Jordan Montgomery. That's all I got for that. But there's more...

Here are other potential free agents that could have an impact:

· Relief Pitchers: Aroldis Chapman or Mark Melancon

· 1B/DH: Edwin Encarnacion (34)

· Outfield: Yoenis Cespedes (33), Ian Desmond (31), Michael Saunders (30), Jose Bautista (36), Mark Trumbo (31), or Josh Reddick (30).

Now, I looked at every single free agent.  Trust me, there is nobody else worth signing. So the above are the "better" options. Given the youth movement, I am fairly certain the Yankees are not looking to sign a free agent catcher, plus, would stick with Castro/Didi at 2B/SS. 

I also think out Yankees will ride out Headley’s contract at 3B (and there are no good third baseman available anyway).  So the only spots that they can sign would be for the OF, 1B or DH. If they can’t trade Ellsbury or Gardner, I would assume that Aaron Judge and/or Tyler Austin will be used in RF regularly. This leaves 1B/DH as the only other spots, and that seems like a possible upgrade. 

If Yanks want to add offense in 2017, then the only real move to make is to sign Edwin Encarnacion. He can play 1B if Bird struggles or can’t recover from injury and would otherwise DH. He has hit 30 HR and near 100 RBI for the past 5 straight years. That's power.

Even if they could trade Gardner or Ellsbury, I don’t see the Yanks giving any other free agent OF more than a 1-year deal, as they won’t want to lock up outfield slots with Clint Frazier and Judge expected to eventually become starters in the outfield.  Austin can play OF as well and Blake Rutherford may be up by 2018 or 2019.

Plus, Cespedes, Saunders, Trumbo and Reddick will all be getting big multi-year deals, so that won’t work, although I guess whoever they get can move to DH once the outfield is established, and assuming they don’t sign Encarnacion,by the way, I can’t see a scenario where they add more than one free agent hitter.

Anyway look... this is just me blabbling, but it's thought out, I swear.  

So... what do you think? Comment.

   

--Douglas Solomon, BYB Guest Writer