Yankees Sign Ellsbury For $153mil Because They Can

ESPN – Free-agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has reached agreement on a seven-year contract with the New York Yankees pending a physical exam, a baseball source told ESPN.com. According to multiple reports, the deal will pay Ellsbury $153 million over seven years and includes an option for an eighth year that could increase the overall value of the contract to $169 million. Ellsbury’s deal exceeds Carl Crawford’s seven-year, $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in December 2010. Ellsbury was on his way from his home in Arizona to New York on Tuesday night to take the physical, the source said.

Let’s just start this off by saying I am totally fine with this move, but there are a bunch of questions that come out of this:

Contract Length and Size

As for the length of the deal, no it is not ideal to give him 7 years but at the same time he probably wanted 10. While every Sox fan says we are gonna be stuck with a bad contract in a few years, there is a very simple answer. OF COURSE WE ARE AND IT DOESN’T MATTER. The Yankees are the most prestigious franchise in sports history who print money at 161st and River. We could have waited for his price to drop but at the end of the day Cashman was comfortable with this price so why miss out by waiting. Money is just not an issue, because if you look at the history of our contracts, they are just like lies to your girlfriend – get caught in one just add a bigger one to cover it up.

Injury Prone

Ellsbury has had some injury problems as of late but I am sure the Yankees have more information about those injuries than we do. Some of his recent injuries were rough breaks. Its not like one chronic, career threatening injury he cant shake. On top of that, this is another lefty who can see a few extra fly balls end up in the seats and even more speed at the top of the order and a major upgrade when healthy.

Cano And Other Free Agents

I honestly believe that this has ZERO to do with whether or not there is money for Cano. I do believe that this is the Yankees drawing a line in the sand to say “Robbie, we told you how much we have for you and we have built a championship team around you. You want to go to Seattle or you wanna go home?” (Denzel Training Day Voice) Now it is up to Cano and Jay-Z to decide if a few extra million in some shit city it worth more in the long run than championships and a full career as a Yankee.

So I know a lot of people both fans and non fans of the Yankees want to hate on this move but this is the kind of stuff that makes me love being a Yankee fan. They are going to go out every year and try to build a championship team and make me feel compelled to make it out to the stadium to watch games. It’s way better than saving our money by signing Chris Young like the Mets.

PS: George Steinbrenner is still alive right? I mean this is a classic George move and I am just waiting to find out this was a WWF type move with George pulling the strings all along.

Tweet me to talk Yankees: @BarstoolJJ