Yankees Could Look to Arizona in Search for Starting Pitching Help

Zack Greinke

Just one season in, the six year $206.5 million contract Greinke signed last winter looks like a potential huge disaster. While the previous administration made it clear that Greinke would not be available this offseason, it seems likely the new front office could feel very differently.

The 32-year-old righty had the best season of any D’Backs starter with a 4.37 ERA and 4.12 FIP in 158.2 IP (2.3 rWAR), but nowhere near the Cy Young award runner-up he was the previous year. Greinke is a sabermetric darling who was expected to age well by nerds because of his apparent intelligence and use of analytics, but those skills did not help him last year.

In the past, this is exactly the kind of player the Yankees would have targeted, but now there is virtually zero chance that they will take on Greinke’s contract this offseason unless Arizona is interested taking on Jacoby Ellsbury in return.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Greinke and would love to see him in pinstripes. He’s one of the few players in baseball who will say exactly what he thinks and is a lot of fun to watch when he’s on. He seems like a solid bet to bounce-back to somewhere near his career norms next year, but I do understand why Hal Steinbrenner might not want to gamble $172 million on that happening.