Heyman: Ellsbury to sign seven-year deal with Yankees

[NJ Fan]

Wow, what an abrupt ending of the "formal" portion of the press conference.  
 
"We'll be back right after this as our Michael Kay and Jack Curry get to interview Jacoby."

 

[ss s h h hh]

This is more real now. Damn you, Jacoby.

Same for me. I'm ok with it though. Anyone else get completely weirded out by the flowers given to his wife in complete silence?

 

[NJ Fan]

Just said this twice: "It was an easy decision to make."
 
I've always felt comfortable playing at YS.
 
Kay: Are you a HR hitter or not?
 
Ells: I try to impact the game in all phases.
 
Revealed that he once dressed as Damon for Halloween.

 

[NJ Fan]

I won't enjoy facing this guy 19x/year for the next 3-4 years.

 

[Harry Hooper]

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2013/12/jacoby_ellsbury_thanks_red_sox_nation_in_full-page.html

 

[LuckyBen]

You really see him being healthy for those 57-76 games?  I'd like to see them get rid of Gardner because that is the pain in the ass that I do not want to see 19 times next year.

 

[DJnVa]

My son just pointed out that he hasn't mentioned the Boston Red Sox by name.  "That team..."

 
He did take out a full-page ad thanking Boston and the fans.
 
http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/10129694/jacoby-ellsbury-takes-ad-thanking-boston-red-sox-fans

 

[NJ Fan]

Harry and Drew...yeah, I saw that.  That's why I was surprised that he didn't mention them by name.  Often, the press dept will try to script some of the answers.  I actually don't think they coached him on that.  I think he was just trying to suck up to NYY fans who see him as one of the faces of their rival.
 
Lucky Ben...couldn't agree more about hoping the NYY trade Gardner this off-season even though he can be a FA after 2014.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

He only switched to 24 because Clemens came and after that he stuck with 24.

 
Cano is wearing 22 for the M's. (Griffey wore 24.)
 

 

[terrynever]

#22

He stole Vernon Wells's number!
 
http://www.yankeenumbers.com/playerslist.asp?x_Number=22&z_Number=%3D%2C%2C

 

[jon abbey]

Vernon Wells being released will be the happiest moment of this offseason for me thus far, if and when it happens. 

 

[bankshot1]

He stole Vernon Well's number!
 

 
Thanks-I thought it was for an easy reminder for his AAV. Like Cano's 24 in Seattle

 

[Wallball Tingle]

Can anyone confirm that Girardi actually said about Ellsbury "You are no longer a thorn in my side; you are a flower in our clubhouse."
 
Whatever, I'm sigging it.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

The cliches are unbelievable.  Pretty sure he has used the word "excited" 10 times so far.

 
Meh. He was never the most enthralling interview while he was One Of Us. I didn't expect that to change now.

 

[terrynever]

Reading between the lines, I thought Ellsbury understands he's going into a rebuilding era for the Yankees. He kept mentioning his "7 or 8" seasons in NY. He admitted he was fortunate to be on teams that won twice, in his first and last years, in Boston. Ellsbury will be comfortable as one of the key pieces in the puzzle. He isn't a team leader, as we all know around here. If the Yankees try to build around him, he will wilt. The next leaders are Teixeira and McCann among position players.

 

[PaulinMyrBch]

Can anyone confirm that Girardi actually said about Ellsbury "You are no longer a thorn in my side; you are a flower in our clubhouse."
 
Whatever, I'm sigging it.


I watched, that was it, give or take a word or so.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Reading between the lines, I thought Ellsbury understands he's going into a rebuilding era for the Yankees. He kept mentioning his "7 or 8" seasons in NY. He admitted he was fortunate to be on teams that won twice, in his first and last years, in Boston. Ellsbury will be comfortable as one of the key pieces in the puzzle. He isn't a team leader, as we all know around here. If the Yankees try to build around him, he will wilt. The next leaders are Teixeira and McCann among position players.

 
 
Translation 1: Don't try to hang me if I have a crappy 2 months out of the gate.
 
Translation 2: I am NOT the straw that stirs the drink.

 

[Granite Sox]

 
Not very dreamy-looking, if you ask me.
 
Kidding aside, a nice gesture to take out the ad.
 
Break a leg!

 

[rembrat]

He looks like he's aged a bit.

 

[InsideTheParker]

Somehow he's not nearly as dreamy as he used to be.

 

[Wallball Tingle]

I watched, that was it, give or take a word or so.

Much obliged. 
 
Hope you and your new team languish in mediocrity, Jacoby.

 

[ronlt40]

Can anyone confirm that Girardi actually said about Ellsbury "You are no longer a thorn in my side; you are a flower in our clubhouse."
 
Whatever, I'm sigging it.

Flower in the clubhouse?? Really?? I guess Joe takes the Dreamboat nickname to heart. You should throw flowers on the field on his first visit to Fenway.   

 

[soxhop411]

Bill Shaikin ‏@BillShaikin58m
MLB plans to investigate #Yankees president Randy Levine's comments about #Angels Mike Trout to see if they consititute tampering.
 
Dont know why MLB would waste its time w/ this
 
(something about Trout was said at todays PC)

 

[Kremlin Watcher]

Levine said something along the lines of: "Cano is 31 and you just don't sign a 31-year old to a 10-year deal. But take Mike Trout (he's 22) and yes, I'd do a 10-year deal with him."
 
Doesn't seem like anything material.

 

[Sampo Gida]

I won't enjoy facing this guy 19x/year for the next 3-4 years.

 
Rather him than Cano.  Also, how much protection is he going to get with Jeter hitting behind him.   He can turn a game around being on base in close and late situations with his speed, but not so much when they are being blown out. 

 

[rembrat]

Alex Rodriguez was 31 when they gave him 10 years.

 

[Wade Boggs Hair]

Levine said something along the lines of: "Cano is 31 and you just don't sign a 31-year old to a 10-year deal. But take Mike Trout (he's 22) and yes, I'd do a 10-year deal with him."
 
Doesn't seem like anything material.

 
Hasn't David Stern collected some charity money from Mark Cuban for comments like this in the NBA?  I'm not sure how closely MLB has policed this stuff in the past.  "Tampering charges" is the first thing I thought, though, when I read it.

 

[jon abbey]

Alex Rodriguez was 31 when they gave him 10 years.

 
That was in the power vacuum after George S died and was done by idiot son Hank. The fact that ownership keeps micromanaging specific personnel decisions makes it a lot harder to have a coherent macro strategy, which is the major reason that they don't. It's impossible to reconcile the way they've dealt with McCann and Russell Martin, with Ellsbury and Gardner, even with Beltran and Swisher/Granderson, just to name guys who play the same positions. 

 

[LeoCarrillo]

Alex Rodriguez was 31 when they gave him 10 years.

 
Yeah, but that was about restoring the integrity to the home-run record.

 

[Brianish]

 
That was in the power vacuum after George S died 

 
After he became less involved, yeah, but nearly three years before he died. 

 

[jon abbey]

 
After he became less involved, yeah, but nearly three years before he died. 

 
Oops, my bad. George was way out of it by then, though. 

 

[Sprowl]

Alex Rodriguez was 31 when they gave him 10 years.

 
10 years to life is a heavy sentence, but he could get time off for bad behavior.

 

[Lowrielicious]

Can anyone confirm that Girardi actually said about Ellsbury "You are no longer a thorn in my side; you are a flower in our clubhouse."
 
Whatever, I'm sigging it.

Sublte dig at the "fragile" Ellsbury? Which MLB player wants to be associated with a delicate little flower?
 

He looks like he's aged a bit.

I thought exactly the same thing of that picture of Cano.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

 

 

 

[geoduck no quahog]

It's been repeated many times, but Granderson/Gardner/Cano -> Gardner/Ellsbury/Dogshit is a swap any competing team would welcome from the Yankees.
 
And I for one would love to see Gardner in a Red Sox uniform.
 
I'll never understand why they didn't use Ellsbury money to lock in Cano, or to go after Choo. 

 

[EvilEmpire]

 
I'll never understand why they didn't use Ellsbury money to lock in Cano, or to go after Choo. 

How did Ellsbury's money keep them from signing Cano? They offered him a 7 year deal with a higher annual value than what the Mariners gave him. They didn't go 10 years because they didn't want him for 10 years. And why would they want Choo over Ellsbury?

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

I'd take Gardner/Ellsbury/McCann/Kelly Johnson over Granderson/Cano/Stewart/Gardner. And I wanted no part of Choo. Ellsbury is much, much better.

 

[jon abbey]

I'd take Gardner/Ellsbury/McCann/Kelly Johnson over Granderson/Cano/Stewart/Gardner. And I wanted no part of Choo. Ellsbury is much, much better.

 
It's really hard to defend the decisions when you go back to last winter, though. I did this already once in one of these threads, but let's assume NY just keeps all of their guys instead of signing any FAs. Here's how the situations would compare right now:
 
Ellsbury 21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1
McCann 17/17/17/17/17
Beltran 15/15/15
Ichiro 6.5
Johnson 3
 
Cano 24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24
Granderson 15/15/15/15
Swisher 15/15/15
Martin 9.5
 
That is almost identical money in 2014, 62.6M for the guys they actually have, 63.5M for the guys they let go. The overall commitments are also pretty close, 292.5 for the guys they have, 353.5 for the ones they let go (the difference being the last three years of Cano).
 
Laid out like that, can anyone really argue the way to go is with the top set of guys? Ellsbury/McCann/Beltran are all so much more injury prone than the guys NY let go, it's not even close to me.  

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Definitely the answer was to resign Swisher and Martin, and then Cano and Granderson. But based on this offseason, I'd rather have the group I mentioned.
 
Seeing it all laid out like that really rubs the salt in the wounds, though.

 

[glennhoffmania]

They could've had McCann, Cano and Beltran for the same cost in 2014 as McCann, Ellsbury, Beltran and Johnson.  That's a no-brainer to me.

 

[InsideTheParker]

They could've had McCann, Cano and Beltran for the same cost in 2014 as McCann, Ellsbury, Beltran and Johnson.  That's a no-brainer to me.

Years rather than AAV was the alarm for the NYYs.

 

[InsideTheParker]

In today's nyt on Jacoby Ellsbury: 

 
 
He wouldn't be surprised if he receives a hostile reception when he returns to Fenway Park next season.

"Fans like to boo. It's just kind of fun to boo," he said.

But he cherishes his time in Boston. He had dinner Thursday night with former Red Sox teammates Dustin Pedroia and David Ross.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/12/13/sports/baseball/ap-bba-yankees-ellsbury.html?ref=baseball

 

[derekson]

 
It's really hard to defend the decisions when you go back to last winter, though. I did this already once in one of these threads, but let's assume NY just keeps all of their guys instead of signing any FAs. Here's how the situations would compare right now:
 
Ellsbury 21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1/21.1
McCann 17/17/17/17/17
Beltran 15/15/15
Ichiro 6.5
Johnson 3
 
Cano 24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24/24
Granderson 15/15/15/15
Swisher 15/15/15
Martin 9.5
 
That is almost identical money in 2014, 62.6M for the guys they actually have, 63.5M for the guys they let go. The overall commitments are also pretty close, 292.5 for the guys they have, 353.5 for the ones they let go (the difference being the last three years of Cano).
 
Laid out like that, can anyone really argue the way to go is with the top set of guys? Ellsbury/McCann/Beltran are all so much more injury prone than the guys NY let go, it's not even close to me.  

 
I agree with all of this, and furthermore if you go back to last winter or even a few years ago, the biggest mistake the Yankees made was sticking to their silly "no extensions" policy. If they had negotiated an extension with Cano 2 or 3 years ago they could have probably gotten him for a 9 or 10 year commitment from that point rather than ending up in a position where he gets to free agency at 31 years old and is looking for a 10 year deal.

 

[melonbag]

Boras would have tried his hardest to talk Cano out of taking an extension.  And if he took an early extension it wouldn't have been at a discount- it's just not the Boras way.  A 28-29 year old Cano would have likely insisted on a 10 year deal, like the 31 year old Cano did.  

 

[rembrat]

What player has the cojones to turn down a 10 year deal because his impending free agency is 3 years away? Boras be damned, it's ultimately the player's decision.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Years rather than AAV was the alarm for the NYYs.

 
Except they kept saying they had to get under 189m, which is what I was addressing.  The last three years for Cano starting eight years from now would be a drop in the bucket for NY even if he was useless by then.  Meanwhile they'd be a better team over the next seven.  Their offseason decisions have been perplexing.