Yankees Rumors: Team Now “Seriously Looking” at Edwin Encarnacion

The New York Yankees are reportedly, “seriously looking” at the top DH options on the market, including Edwin Encarnacion, after trading Brian McCann.

Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reveals that the New York Yankees are now a serious threat to sign one of the top available bats on the free agent market with the money they saved by trading Brian McCann to the Houston Astros on Thursday. Although New York will pay $5.5 million of McCann’s contract each of the next two seasons, they still will receive $23 million in salary relief from the trade.

That money is in addition to the roughly $60 million they cleared off the books with the departures of Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, and Ivan Nova.

It’s also worth remembering $46 million more is scheduled to come off with the expiration of CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez‘s deals after 2017. That’s a nice chunk of change the Yankees have to spend, even as they look to get under the luxury tax.

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The team may not be done moving salary either. Both Brett Gardner and Chase Headley are rumored to be available, and if Masahiro Tanaka opts out of his deal following next year, New York will have very few large commitments remaining.

With all that in mind, it’s not surprising that Heyman reports they are at least considering shelling out big money to bring in arguably the best power bat available this offseason, Edwin Encarnacion.

One of the most consistently productive power hitters in the American League over the past five years, Encarnacion has averaged 38.6 home runs and 110 RBI since his emergence as an elite bat in 2012. He’s compiled a .272/.367/.544 (146 wRC+) slash line in that span, striking out just 15.1% of the time and walking in 12.5% of his plate appearances.

Although Yankees fans are understandably gun-shy about signing players over 30 to big-money deals, Encarnacion has been remarkably consistent and healthy, with no signs of decline creeping into his game. Since 2012, he’s played in 727 of a possible 810 (89.8%) regular season games for the Blue Jays, including 160 last year.

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MLB Trade Rumors ranked EE the number two available free agent this winter, behind Yoenis Cespedes, and predicted he will land a contract of four years and $92 million. I would pay that in a heartbeat to have Encarnacion hitting behind Gary Sanchez the next few years.