What Does the David Price Deal Mean For Yankees?

The New York Yankees desperately need to upgrade in starting pitching, and the one free agent pitcher who was probably the best fit for them is no longer available. David Price made MLB headlines when he signed a 7-year, $217 million dollar contract with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday evening.

This brings up a plethora of questions for Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees, and the most obvious one is how will it effect them?

One thing that immediately stood out to me about this signing is that Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox are flat out crazy. After years of seeing the Yankees make their earth-shattering deals, and now seeing how it’s hurting them in the long run, the Red Sox have continued to make similar deals. Sure David Price has a player option after three years, but why would he turn down the remaining guaranteed $127 MM on his seven year deal? That would be ludicrous, meaning the Red Sox will be stuck paying Price through age 38, which might turn into a eerily similar situation to the Yankees and CC Sabathia.

So again, let me rephrase that. Why would Dave Dombrowski make this move?

My second initial thought was that this seemed like an act of desperation, and after giving it some thought, it still does.

For starters, in what world should David Price be making more money than Clayton Kershaw? Second, it was just one off season ago that Dave Dombrowski refused to go higher than $144 MM on Max Scherzer, who eventually got $210 MM from the Nationals, yet, now all of a sudden Dombrowski tops the Nats and offers Price a grand total of $217 MM over seven seasons? Something doesn’t quite add up, and it’s very possible that this signing was over Dombrowski’s head and came by direct order from Red Sox owner John Henry.

This also could have been a strategic move on the Red Sox part. It’s no secret that the Yankees are taking a back seat on the top tier of free agent pitchers and had their eyes set on the second tier of guys like Jeff Samardzija and Wei-Yin Chen. But after the insane contract that will make David Price the richest pitcher in baseball history until Zack Greinke signs within the week, the Red Sox have subsequently driven up the market for all free agent pitchers, meaning the tier two guys who the Yankees were interested in could command a price range that the Yankees aren’t comfortable going to.

Interestingly enough, over the course of the last 16 months Dombrowski has traded for David Price, traded him away to Toronto Blue Jays, and now signed him to a record setting deal – making his first big free agent splash as a member of the Red Sox front office.

After the Red Sox were openly saying they didn’t want to spend over a set amount of money following the Sandoval, Hanley, and Porcello signings in 2014, Dombrowski just shelled out and extra $30-32 million a year over the next seven seasons. Of course the Sandoval, Hanley and Porcello signings were all part of the mess left behind by Ben Cherington, but you have to figure one of the three is moved via trade to clear some salary space and get their payroll down, which is now North of $182 MM.

If this move is indicative of anything, it’s that Dombrowski just fired the Red Sox into ‘Win-Now’ mode, which means they’re probably looking to build on the David Price signing and the Craig Kimbrel trade in early November. Following the signing of ex-Yankee Chris Young to a two year deal worth $13 MM over the weekend, the Red Sox put themselves in a prime position to create a trade package around one of their young outfielders like Jackie Bradley Jr. or Rusney Castillo for major league ready talent. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see the Red Sox go out and acquire a pitcher like Carlos Carrasco or Shelby Miller – who the Yankees were linked to earlier in the off season.

Either way the American League East is starting to get a lot better this off-season. The Blue Jays made the first big move when they went out and traded for right-hander Jesse Chavez. The Red Sox wen’t out and traded for Craig Kimbrel and made the biggest move to date when they signed David Price. Late last night the Orioles struck a deal to acquire Mark Trumbo from the Seattle Mariners – and the Yankess… well they wen’t out and acquired a cheaper alternative to Chris Young when they traded for Aaron Hicks…

Your move Cashman.

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