Thoughts after the Yankees re-sign Brett Gardner

The longest tenured Yankee returns. (Getty)

The inevitable has happened. Friday evening the Yankees agreed to a new one-year contract with Brett Gardner. It includes a player option and a club option for luxury tax purposes, similar to Darren O’Day’s and Justin Wilson’s contracts, and Jon Heyman says Gardner is guaranteed $4M. The deal can max out at $11M. I have a few quick thoughts on the signing that I don’t want to get stale between now and Tuesday’s regularly scheduled post, so let’s get to ‘em.

1. Gardner’s role. Even at age 37, Gardner is overqualified as a fourth outfielder. He’s on the heavy side of the platoon -- Gardner hit .229/.370/.431 (124 wRC+) against righties during the short 2020 season and .265/.346/.546 (131 wRC+) against righties in 2019 -- and he grinds out at-bats as well as anyone in the league, and he knows how to use the short porch. Just don't play him against lefties (70 wRC+ since 2018).

Gardner’s defense remains strong, though it has slipped in recent years, which isn’t terribly surprising at his age. Ignoring 2020 because of the tiny samples, here are Gardner’s defensive numbers the last three full seasons (OAA is Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric):

• 2017 (age 34): +18 DRS and +3 OAA in LF; +3 DRS and +0 OAA in CF
• 2018 (age 35): +10 DRS and +0 OAA in LF; + 2 DRS and +1 OAA in CF
• 2019 (age 36): +7 DRS and +1 OAA in LF; -2 DRS and +1 OAA in CF

At his age, there’s a risk Gardner will show up for the season and just be done. Alfonso Soriano was a monster when he rejoined the Yankees at age 37 in 2013, then he was completely toast in 2014, so much so that they released him in July. It could happen with Gardner, and if it does, the Yankees will deal with it when the time comes. Not much more you can do.

For the time being Gardner should be the fourth outfielder who only starts against righties and comes in for defense in the late innings. I think the best way to keep him productive all year is limiting him to 2-3 starts a week. Should he get molten hot at some point, sure, ride it out, but less is more with 37-year-old ballplayers, especially guys who play as hard as Gardner.

Injuries have been an unfortunate reality with the Yankees the last few years and now we have to worry about the pandemic as well. It threatens to shorten the roster at any moment. Hopefully everyone stays healthy and Gardner can be that true fourth outfielder. I think it’s inevitable he will be pushed into everyday duty at some point though. Until circumstances force the Yankees to shift gears, less should be more with Gardner.

2. Whither Frazier? Aaron Boone was asked about Clint Frazier’s role during his start-of-spring press conference earlier this week, before the Gardner deal was done (as far as we know), and the manager confirmed Clint is the left fielder. Here’s what Boone said (via Dan Martin):

“Last year really proved he was ready to grab an everyday role on this team,” the manager said Wednesday during his Zoom call with reporters from Tampa, where Yankees pitchers and catchers reported. “Especially with the improvements he’s made in every aspect of his game, at his age, his experience now and his success and confidence that he’s continued to build has put him in a position to go into this camp as an everyday player. He’s certainly earned that.”

Gardner’s presence on the roster is the threat to Frazier’s playing time. That’s just the way it is and I get it, but I think the Yankees are ready to commit to Clint. He’s 26 now and he’s done everything the Yankees have asked him to do the last few years. Frazier improved his defense, cut down on the distractions, and he’s hit. Career .258/.331/.475 (113 wRC+) in sporadic playing time while constantly having to look over his shoulder.

Although re-signing Gardner felt inevitable to me, the Yankees were ready to walk away. They went about all their offseason business and saved Gardner until the very end, and said “here’s what we have to spend under the $210M luxury tax threshold, take it or leave it.” If Gardner said it’s not enough, the Yankees would’ve moved on, I think. They wanted him but only at their price.

The Yankees are so obsessive with rest that Frazier (and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton) will sit more often than we like, and there will be times it appears he’s being benched for Gardner when it’s really just part of the rest plan. It is what it is. I think the Yankees are ready to turn Clint loose though, including riding out inevitable slumps. It’s time for Frazier to play a full season and I don’t think Gardner will stand in the way.

3. 40-man roster moves. The Yankees will have to make two 40-man roster moves to accommodate Wilson and Gardner. Position players report Monday and Gardner still has to go through intake testing and pass his physical, buying the team some time. Pitchers reported a few days ago and, as far as we know, Wilson is going through that process now.

Luis Severino will be placed on the 60-day injured list to clear the first 40-man spot. That’s a given. The 60-day injured list is open for business (Mike Clevinger and Chris Sale were among those placed on the 60-day injured list in recent days) and Severino is not expected to return until midseason. Clearing that first 40-man spot is a piece of cake.

The second one? Eh. I listed Mike Ford as the top 40-man roster casualty pretty much all winter but context matters, and with Gardner returning, the Yankees don’t need Greg Allen and Mike Tauchman. It would be nice to keep both in case outfielders get hurt in Spring Training, but that’s not really feasible, and I have to think one of those two will get the boot for Gardner.

Tauchman is the incumbent and that might keep him around. The thing is, Allen is two years younger and he’s a switch-hitter. They both have four years of team control remaining, so that’s not a tiebreaker. How much stock do you put into Tauchman’s insane six-week hot streak in July and August in 2019? Allen’s never done anything like that in his career, but who’s to say he won’t do it in 2021, when he will be the same age Tauchman was in 2019?

Allen and Tauchman both do their best work in the field, and anything they give you at the plate is a bonus. Allen is objectively faster -- Statcast has his sprint speed and home-to-first time in the top 10% of MLB (Tauchman is top 40%). -- and the Yankees did trade a living, breathing player for him earlier this winter. Granted, James Reeves is not a top prospect or anything, but the Yankees didn’t get Allen for nothing. They paid a price to make sure they got him.

A few weeks ago Brian Cashman told Bryan Hoch he gets “a lot of calls” about Tauchman and I believe that to some extent, though he could be pumping up his own player. Creating the illusion of interest to create leverage, that kinda thing. Clearing a 40-man spot may be as simple as listening to offers for Allen and Tauchman, and trading whichever one brings back more.

It’s too bad neither Allen nor Tauchman has a minor league option remaining, because that would’ve made the 40-man decision easy. Keep the guy you can send to Triple-A and trade the other. Alas, that is not the case. For now, the Yankees just need to open one 40-man spot and I think the player who fetches a greater trade return* (not that either figures to bring back much) goes within the next few days.

* Trading a player for Allen, then turning around and flipping him may seem unusual but it does happen. The Yankees traded Drew Finley for Tim Locastro in Nov. 2018, then traded Locastro for Ronald Roman when they needed a 40-man spot in Jan. 2019. They may wind up doing something similar with Allen.

4. Updated payroll status. We don’t know the particulars of Gardner’s nor Wilson’s contracts. Joel Sherman says the Yankees are at $204M for luxury tax purposes, though I don’t know if that comes from his math or the Yankees themselves. Assuming that is correct, the Yankees have about $6M in wiggle room under the $210M luxury tax threshold.

That $6M or so has to cover in-season call-ups, first and foremost, and you have to anticipate more call-ups than usual because of the pandemic. The Yankees spent about $2.3M on call-ups in 2018, the year I obsessively tracked the luxury tax payroll, and that was with the old Sept. call-up rules. That $6M or so seem like it should be enough? I think so.

The $6M also has to cover the trade deadline. The Yankees haven’t been active the last two deadlines but that doesn’t mean they won’t make moves this year. We’ve seen them get the other team to eat money to facilitate trades in the past (Jaime Garcia, J.A. Happ, and Lance Lynn all had salary retained) and they’ll probably have to do that again this trade deadline. We’ll see. Worry about it in July.

Cutting payroll in the middle of a championship window is dumb as hell. Within that self-imposed payroll limit, the Yankees did very well turning Adam Ottavino’s salary into three good players (Gardner, O’Day, Wilson), and they still have a decent chunk of change left over. Not my ideal offseason, but within the team’s payroll limits, that’s mighty fine work by Cashman & Co.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)