Yankees Rumors: Encarnacion Close to Making a Decision

Free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion is expected to choose his new club within the weeks and the New York Yankees are rumored to be one of the finalists for his services.

Edwin Encarnacion’s agent Paul Kinzer told Rick Westhead of TSN that he anticipates his client will be ready to sign a new contract “later this week or early next week.” The New York Yankees have been connected to Encarnacion several times in the early days of the offseason, but it isn’t known whether they have made a serious offer as of yet.

According to Kinzer, three team’s were waiting for MLB’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement to be settled before making their bid for the slugger, as it has major implications for how teams will do business going forward.

Westhead does report that two unnamed clubs have made “serious” offers for Encarnacion already and that his former club the Toronto Blue Jays are “showing Edwin the most love,” which is surprising given the fact that they’ve already signed another DH only type guy in Kendrys Morales.

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If I had to guess, I would say that the Jays were not serious about signing EE at this point, but are just putting on a show for PR purposes. Rob Bradford of WEEI hears that the Boston Red Sox are not actively pursuing Encarnacion either.

The Yankees, Rangers, and Astros seem like the three frontrunners for Encarnacion at the moment. There have been rumors that a few National League clubs could have interest in trying him as a full-time first baseman, but that seems like a stretch as he enters his decline years.

If I had to pick a favorite at the moment, it would probably be Houston. They reportedly were very aggressive in going after Yoenis Cespedes before he re-signed with the Mets and seem to be going all-in on 2017 after a disappointing 2016 campaign. They should have plenty of money to spend after basically a decade of penny-pinching in a pretty sizable market.

Next: Predicting the Yankees' Moves at the Winter Meetings

Since the Yankees are apparently operating on a pretty strict budget this winter, it probably makes sense for them to put their money into improving the pitching staff. I’d rather they spend big on arms like Aroldis Chapman and Rich Hill, and then pick up one of the many solid veteran bats available this winter on a one-year deal.