New York Yankees a ‘Good Fit’ for Chris Davis?

For much of the off-season it looked like free-agent slugger Chris Davis would make his eventual return to Baltimore.

His left-handed power swing is tailor-made for Camden Yards, his offensive prowess is so desperately needed to anchor the Orioles lineup and Baltimore general manager Dan Duquette reportedly offered Davis a long-term deal that would pay him north of $150 million.

However, as the days went by Davis and the Orioles never reached an agreement, and according to Andrew Simon of MLB.com, Baltimore has pulled the offer from the table and has since moved on from Davis, adding both Mark Trumbo via trade and Korean slugger Hyun-soo Kim via international free-agency to replace their former clean-up hitter.

While I still believe the door isn’t completely closed on the Orioles and Chris Davis, super-agent Scott Boras has to now find his client other possible destinations.

However, despite his juggernaut offensive statistics, the market for Chris Davis isn’t as crowded as you would think. As Mike Petriello of MLB.com noted, if any team were to really pursue Davis, the team must be:

A reasonable contender, who
Can afford to add well over $100 million to their current pay roll, and
Needs a first baseman or right fielder.

Interestingly enough, one team who Petriello believes is a ‘good fit’ for Chris Davis and meets the three aforementioned requirements are the New York Yankees, but I’m not sure I agree.

Yes, Yankee Stadium is undoubtedly one of the more favorable ball parks in all of baseball for left-handed power hitters. As a matter of fact according to FanGraphs, only Coors Field in Colorado and ‘The House that Jeter Built’ in the Bronx yielded more left-handed hitting offense than Camden Yards over the past few seasons.

And yes the Yankees can certainly afford to add $100 million plus to their payroll, especially with over $60 million coming off the books after 2016 when Teixeira, Beltran and CC Sabathia likely play their last games in New York, but do they really want to add all that money for a few good years out of Chris Davis before having to suffer and pay him through his dog days? After all Chris Davis will turn 30 this March, and the Yankees have made this mistake way too many times in the past.

Now when it comes to roster room, the Yankees just don’t have the space. At first base the Yankees are set on starting the $22.5 million-dollar-man Mark Teixeria in the final year of his contract in 2016. Beyond 2016 Davis would be blocked by Yankees prospect Gregory Bird…unless the Yankees have some bizarre plan to add a first baseman like Davis and trade Bird for young pitching, which isn’t very likely. In left-field Davis would be blocked by veteran Carlos Beltran, who is poised to be replaced by Yankees prospect Aaron Judge whenever he’s done developing. Even at DH, Davis would be blocked by Alex Rodriguez, who is set to don the pinstripes until he turns 42 in 2017.

Sure the Yankees can try and trade to make room for Chris Davis, but who’s crazy enough to take on the lucrative contract and one-year of service time in order to acquire either Mark Teixeria or Carlos Beltran… probably nobody.

I like the enthusiasm from Mike Petriello, but signing Chris Davis to a long-term deal would go against the entire Yankees plan of getting younger and better.

What do you think Yankee fans? Let us know in the comments below.

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