Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2019 13:41:41 GMT -4
Gerrit Cole, $324 million
New York Yankees (2020-28)
Here with his wife.........
The Yankees weren't going to let Cole leave the Winter Meetings without a deal. Once Stephen Strasburg signed his $245 million deal with the Nationals this week, it was just a matter of time that Cole would get his money. And he did.
From draft to free agency: How New York Yankees signing Gerrit Cole was 11 years in the making
Priority No. 1 this offseason for Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees: an ace.
The solution, club brass determined, was a name that's been on their radar since 2008, perhaps earlier. That year, the team saw an opportunity to find a future ace who could rise through the system and quickly make an impact in the majors, a prep right-hander from southern California with a live arm and maturity.
With the 28th pick of the 2008 draft, the Yankees selected Gerrit Cole, an Orange Lutheran High School product.
''Signability is something that we try to evaluate last," Yankees vice president of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer said the day after the selection. "We're the Yankees. We have to get talent. We're going to do everything we can to sign Gerrit Cole and do it in the right way, but that talent level was just too good to pass up.''
The Yankees were determined to convince Cole to forego his UCLA commitment and pick college. They were unsuccessful.
"Realistically, when it came time to pick, he was by far the best guy on our board," Oppenheimer told the New York Post during the 2019 playoffs. "There was a big drop between him and the next guy. Though we didn’t have the secure knowledge that he was going to sign, with the knowledge of him loving the Yankees, I thought we had a good shot. It was worth a shot to take him at the time."
Three years later, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him with the top overall pick. When they traded him following the 2017 season, the Yankees were among the bidders. Instead, the rival Houston Astros plucked him a year after winning the World Series, defeating the Yankees in a seven-game ALCS along the way. Cole and the Astros foiled them once more this past October, preventing the Yankees one last shot at winning a pennant in this decade.
In 2019, they were not to be deterred. Late Tuesday, New York and Cole agreed to a record-setting nine-year, $324 million deal that will finally consummate the marriage between Cole and the Yankees.
It's a fitting end for a player who grew up rooting for the Yankees, and the end of a recruitment that began with drafting him 11 years ago — a move the Yankees and Oppenheimer surely feel like has finally paid off.
New York Yankees (2020-28)
Here with his wife.........
The Yankees weren't going to let Cole leave the Winter Meetings without a deal. Once Stephen Strasburg signed his $245 million deal with the Nationals this week, it was just a matter of time that Cole would get his money. And he did.
From draft to free agency: How New York Yankees signing Gerrit Cole was 11 years in the making
Priority No. 1 this offseason for Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees: an ace.
The solution, club brass determined, was a name that's been on their radar since 2008, perhaps earlier. That year, the team saw an opportunity to find a future ace who could rise through the system and quickly make an impact in the majors, a prep right-hander from southern California with a live arm and maturity.
With the 28th pick of the 2008 draft, the Yankees selected Gerrit Cole, an Orange Lutheran High School product.
''Signability is something that we try to evaluate last," Yankees vice president of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer said the day after the selection. "We're the Yankees. We have to get talent. We're going to do everything we can to sign Gerrit Cole and do it in the right way, but that talent level was just too good to pass up.''
The Yankees were determined to convince Cole to forego his UCLA commitment and pick college. They were unsuccessful.
"Realistically, when it came time to pick, he was by far the best guy on our board," Oppenheimer told the New York Post during the 2019 playoffs. "There was a big drop between him and the next guy. Though we didn’t have the secure knowledge that he was going to sign, with the knowledge of him loving the Yankees, I thought we had a good shot. It was worth a shot to take him at the time."
Three years later, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him with the top overall pick. When they traded him following the 2017 season, the Yankees were among the bidders. Instead, the rival Houston Astros plucked him a year after winning the World Series, defeating the Yankees in a seven-game ALCS along the way. Cole and the Astros foiled them once more this past October, preventing the Yankees one last shot at winning a pennant in this decade.
In 2019, they were not to be deterred. Late Tuesday, New York and Cole agreed to a record-setting nine-year, $324 million deal that will finally consummate the marriage between Cole and the Yankees.
It's a fitting end for a player who grew up rooting for the Yankees, and the end of a recruitment that began with drafting him 11 years ago — a move the Yankees and Oppenheimer surely feel like has finally paid off.
