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Spring has officially sprung around Major League Baseball at complexes in Florida and Arizona. However, free-agent hurler and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell remains unsigned. There has been lots of smoke recently between him and the New York Yankees. What could it take for a deal to get done, though?
ESPN’s Paul Hembekides joined Buster Olney on a February 21 episode of the Baseball Tonight podcast to talk about the situation between Snell and the Yankees. He put himself in general manager Brian Cashman’s shoes to make a hypothetical pitch to team owner Hal Steinbrenner. His idea was to offer Snell a two-year, $87 million contract with an opt-out after 2024. The $43.5 million annual average value would make him the highest-paid pitcher this season, per Spotrac.
Hembekides’ reasoning behind going for it is because of the current state of the American League East. The Baltimore Orioles have a hole in their rotation because of Kyle Bradish’s injury. The Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays also didn’t make significant upgrades this winter. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox are still looking like a last-place team.
So, the opportunity to retake the AL East is there. In Hembekides’ eyes, adding Snell to New York’s rotation with an improved roster is a path to them winning 100-plus games in 2024.
Yankees Still Looking for Roster Upgrades
Whether it’s Snell or somebody else, the Yankees don’t appear to be completely done with their 2024 roster ahead of Opening Day. Outfielder Aaron Judge fueled that fire by making a comment to the media about another move potentially being on the way.
Judge didn’t share specifics on what could be coming. But that’s where SNY’s Andy Martino comes in. Responding to Judge’s comment, he said, “He’s right, Yankees front office still having conversations about adding pitching,” on February 20 via X (formerly Twitter).
There are plenty of free-agent starters still available, but the top two include Snell and Jordan Montgomery.
Martino also said on February 5 that the Yankees weren’t quite satisfied with their efforts to improve the pitching staff. He speculated that a trade ahead of Opening Day wouldn’t be shocking.
A Potential Barrier in Snell Landing With the Bombers
The Yankees haven’t been afraid of signing Snell to a big-money deal. They offered him a six-year, $150 million deal before pivoting to sign Marcus Stroman in January. It’s just that they had no interest in paying him close to the nine years and $270 million he was seeking.
But now that it’s almost March, the situation has changed. In a February 19 report for The Athletic, Brendan Kuty and Chris Kirschner discussed why a lucrative short-term deal with Snell might not work for the Yankees. MLB’s highest luxury tax tier is $297 million. A source confirmed to them that New York was already over the limit. This means that any dollar spent above $297 million is taxed at 110%.
“For example, if the Yankees were to offer Snell a one-year contract worth $40 million, they would have to pay $44 million in luxury tax penalties, bringing the total outlay to $84 million,” they said. Snell rejected the San Diego Padres‘ qualifying offer at the start of the winter. If New York signs him, they’d deal with the luxury-tax implications while also losing their second- and fifth-round 2024 MLB Draft picks and $1 million from their international bonus pool.
Cashman is still investigating ways to get better, though, per Kuty. It’ll be interesting to see how things continue to shake out as spring training rolls on.
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