Yankees: The rejuvenation of Jacoby Ellsbury, the team’s biggest mistake

The Yankees $153 million center fielder will never reach the point where it can be said he earned every penny of that money. But his recent resurgence just might tip the balance a bit based on his performance now, when the team needed him.

The Yankees, over the years, have made their share of mistakes in giving oversized contracts to free agents. Did they get their monies worth, for instance, in signing Mark Teixeira and Jason Giambi to contracts totaling $300 million? Or, can it be said they hit the jackpot when they signed Derek Jeter to a long-term deal?

These are subjective questions, all open to endless debate. But one contract that cannot be contested is the one the Yankees offered to Jacoby Ellsbury for $153 million, with an average salary of $22 million per season, a full no-trade clause, and extending seven years through 2021.

Few would argue that this contract has been a bust for the Yankees, as well as their fans who have struggled to watch the level of play offered by Ellsbury.

Players often have “career years” which end up skewing their actual career numbers. Ellsbury had his with the Boston Red Sox back in 2011 when he finished second in the MVP voting, made the All-Star team, hit .321, and led the American League in total bases with 364.

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Ellsbury played two more seasons with Boston, never coming close to matching those achievements, becoming a free agent in 2014. Boston only went through the motions in the bidding for his services. Which, in retrospect, might have been a red flag for the Yankees.

Instead, they went all-in and the rest, as they say, is history along with the realization that Ellsbury’s batting average with the Yankees stands at .264 over four years, while producing an average of only ten home runs and 50 driven in.

Released from purgatory?

But if you take all of that and you put it up against what Ellsbury has been contributing to the Yankees over the last month or so, does that change anything regarding how the team and fans view Ellsbury now?

Financially for the Yankees organization, no, never! But, how about for someone like Joe Girardi, who stuck with the guy, installing him in his lineup day after day, month after month. Is there some vindication now, when Girardi can look out to see the player he knew and believed was there.

The Ellsbury who, in his last fifteen games that just happen to coincide with the team’s recent surge, is batting .409 with a .527 on-base percentage, and a whopping 1.073 OPS. What about that player? What about those contributions when the team needed it most in 2017?

Most likely, the majority of Yankees fans are not able to forgive and forget. And besides, it’s been a team effort with contributions coming from all over, with Didi Gregorius, Todd Frazier, Chase Headley all putting up gaudy numbers, not to mention the over the top pitching the team has been getting.

Still, it’s refreshing to see Ellsbury’s name in the box score as a positive and not the negative player he has been.

Not quite heaven yet

The real test, of course, is yet to come in the playoffs when the whole season is on the line. Will Ellsbury be the boom Jeter always was or the bust Alex Rodriguez was in 2010 when he went 4 for 25 (.190), with no home runs and only two RBI against Texas in the ALCS?

Reggie Jackson put a stamp on his career with the Yankees in one playoff game when he hit home runs on three consecutive pitches against the Dodgers, each one a mightier blast than the previous one.

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In a fairy tale, the same would be the outcome for Jacoby Ellsbury, if only he can produce something similar to what Jackson accomplished on that October night at Yankee Stadium.

One thing we can be sure of, and it’s that Joe Girardi will have Ellsbury in the Yankees lineup, and the spot we created for him on the team’s bench only a few weeks ago, will be vacant or filled by another player.