SAN DIEGO – Meeting with Gerrit Cole and the pitcher’s wife for the first time last week at the Fashion Island Hotel in Newport Beach, Brian Cashman tossed out a literary reference that prompted laughter.
“You’re my white whale,” the New York Yankees general manager told Cole. “He was someone we drafted in the first round, and he chose to go to college. And we tried to trade for him, and Pittsburgh chose to trade him to Houston instead. So we’re hoping three’s a charm.”
It was. With the help of a record $324 million, nine-year contract.
Cashman harpooned the biggest prize in the free-agent market, agreeing to a deal with the 29-year-old right-hander late Tuesday night, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement, subject to a successful physical, had not been announced.
After two dominant seasons with the Houston Astros, Cole will join a rotation that projects to include James Paxton, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and Domingo Germán or J.A. Happ, and he will be part of a roster built around young stars Aaron Judge, Gary Sánchez and Gleyber Torres.
“You’re talking about a guy that is the best of the best,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “You’re just hopefully finishing off a team that can potentially win a championship.”
After several seasons of payroll restraint – at least by pinstriped standards – the Yankees increased their projected luxury tax payroll to $247 million. That is $39 million above the initial threshold and about $1 million below the start of the highest surtax and a penalty that would back up the Yankees’ top 2021 amateur draft pick by 10 slots. New York is on track to owe at least $14 million in tax for 2020 and even more if outfielder Brett Gardner is re-signed and additions are made to the bullpen.
Other than taking on high-priced outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, in recent years the Yankees had promoted prospects and acquired cost-effective options that included Luke Voit and Gio Urshela.
“I think we’re just using every tool in the toolbox, not just the big hammer, but it doesn’t mean the big hammer is not still available,” Cashman said,
In adding Cole, the Yankees will forfeit their second-highest pick next June (about No. 64), their fifth-highest (about No. 175) and $1 million of 2020-21 international signing bonus allocation. The Astros will receive an extra pick, somewhere around No. 75.
Cole grew up a Yankees fan. The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, published a photo that caught an 11-year-old Cole in the stands before Game 6 of the 2001 World Series in Phoenix holding a pinstriped sign that read: “Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever.”
“You’re seeing a guy that’s really talented, really good at his craft, really intelligent,” Boone said. “This is what greatness can look like when it all gets synced up.”
New York was thought to have outbid the Angels and the Dodgers, the teams closest to Cole’s home.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner had several conversations with Cole’s agent, Scott Boras, and authorized the guarantee of a ninth year. Cole was drafted by the Yankees with the 28th overall pick in 2008, but he spurned then and enrolled at UCLA.
“We definitely weren’t mad at the Cole family or Gerrit Cole himself. More mad at ourselves,” Cashman said. “I don’t think many high school kids being drafted in the first round by their childhood dream team with financial components coming their way that far exceed what a college scholarship would be worth would say, ‘I’m going to college because it’ll all work out and I’m going to bet on myself.'”