Yankees: Were they worried Didi Gregorius would accept qualifying offer?

Coming off 2018, when a record-low seven players received qualifying offers, 10 were handed the opportunity to re-sign with their respective clubs for one-year, $17.8 million. However, Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius wasn’t one of them.

Even though Didi Gregorius was diagnosed with a torn UCL in his throwing elbow back in October 2018, and wouldn’t return to action until June of the this year, there was little doubt then, that the Yankees would let their star shortstop leave via free agency at the conclusion of the 2019 season.

However, in the months that followed, Yanks GM Brian Cashman shrewdly acquired Gio Ursehla from the Blue Jays for $25k and signed the steal of the century in D.J. LeMahieu for two-years, $21 million.

Furthermore, in only his second big league season, Gleyber Torres blossomed into an MVP candidate, Luke Voit bashed the ball until a sports hernia derailed his production and even Mike Ford and Thairo Estrada turned a few heads.

Naturally, the Yankees were fortunate that the infield hit the way it did — especially since 2018 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Miguel Andujar was lost to a partially torn labrum and only suited up in only 12 contests.

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But therein lies the problem for Gregorius. Because the Yanks more than held down the fort until Didi’s return on June 7, anything less than replicating his breakout 2018 campaign would be seen as a severe loss in value heading into free agency.

And understandably so, Didi had a lot of rust to work off considering the amount of time he missed during rehab. In 82 games, the soon-to-be 30-year-old batted .238/.276/.441 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs.

While I’m sure both Didi and the Yanks would have hoped for a better stat line, Gregorius still came up clutch at times with his much-needed left-handed stick in the Yankees righty-heavy lineup.

Yet for all the progress Gregorius made in five seasons in New York, taking over a job not many people could have done so seamlessly (the shortstop position immediately following Derek Jeter), Didi became expendable to a club that won the 103 games on its way to its first AL East title since 2012 — and six hard-fought ALCS battles.

With the Yankees needing a top of the rotation type pitcher this winter, as well as shoring up center field until Aaron Hicks’ return and solidifying the bench, gambling that Didi wouldn’t take the one-year, $17.8M QO was something the Yanks weren’t comfortable doing. Not even the allure of draft pick compensation, should Gregorius sign elsewhere tempted the Yanks’ front office to hand over the QO. That speaks volumes.

Now the possibility remains that the Yankees and Gregorius can come to some sort of agreement, perhaps one-year, $10M — in order for Gregorius to boost his stock for a giant payday next offseason.

However, If you take into account what Sportrac estimates Gregorius could fetch on the open market — $13.4M AAV for as many as six years ($83.3M) there’s no way he returns to the Bronx — even if it is $4.4M less than the QO would have been.

The truth is there are plenty of teams in need of a quality shortstop, that when healthy, hits better than most. However, even without Didi, the Yanks still have an abundance of infielders — and that $17.8M is better served being spent on a No. 1 pitcher — even if it does take as much as $10M-plus more, per season to sign one.