Yankees Should Stay Far Away from These Three Free Agents

Jason Hammel

The Chicago Cubs made the very classy move of declining Jason Hammel’s $12 million 2017 option, which seemed like a lock to many analysts, allowing him to hit the free-agent market as one of the better available arms, rather than pick it up and shop him this winter. Cubs PBOp Theo Epstein explained:

"The intent was never to exercise the option and then trade Jason, so we will not consider that path. Instead, Jason will have the opportunity to enter free agency coming off an outstanding season and the ability to choose his next club."

Hammel turned in his second straight solid season for Chicago, pitching to a 3.83 ERA in 166.2 IP (30 GS), although his 4.48 FIP suggests that some luck played a role in his success. He had a 3.74 ERA and 3.68 FIP in 170.2 IP the previous year.

The veteran right-hander is not a bad pitcher by many means, but he’s probably best suited for the senior circuit at this point in his career. His last two stints in the American League, with Oakland in the second half of 2014 and 2013 in Baltimore, were pretty ugly.

If the Yankees were to give him the three-year $42 million that MLBTR predicts, they would be getting his age 34-through-36 seasons. As a flyball pitcher, Hammel is already a bad fit for Yankee Stadium, but if he begins to decline at all (and his slipping peripherals this year indicate that could be happening already) things could get ugly sooner rather than later.

At this point, I’d probably rather see what some of the Yankees young depth arms like Chad Green and Luis Cessa could do with a full season in the rotation rather than make a big commitment to Hammel. There seems to be a good chance the results wouldn’t be all that different.