Yankees: 3 integral players whose contracts expire after this season

The New York Yankees could lose three critical players after the season to free agency, including two starting pitchers.

Free agency after the upcoming season could mean bad New York Yankees news this offseason. The club could see three or more top players walk.

One, Giancarlo Stanton, is most likely going nowhere. The oft-injured outfielder will make at least $29 million in the Bronx in each of the next seven seasons if he doesn’t opt-out of his current contract. With his history of poor baseball health, there is no way he gets more going into his age 31 season, and he has to know that.

The club holds an option for 2021 with long-tenured Yankee Brett Gardner. Whether they keep Gardner around or not depends mainly on how the Yankees’ other outfielders hold up this season health-wise and if the aging Gardner continues to provide consistent production.

That leaves the players whose contracts expire that play a significant role with this team. Filling these voids may not be easy.

Yankees whose contracts expire after 2020 – No. 3: James Paxton

James Paxton performed well in his first season with Yankees. He set a career-high in starts (29) and wins (15), and pitched the second-most innings in his career (150.2).

He is coming off back surgery in March, but Aaron Boone told MLB Network Radio that Paxton’s rehab has gone very well, and he is throwing bullpen sessions. If Major League Baseball can figure out the complicated logistics and play resumes as early as July, Paxton might be ready for the season.

Paxton is a player the Yankees might consider offering an extension to or trying to re-sign this offseason. He’ll be 32 next year, but if he can produce overall numbers in-line with his career numbers, and doesn’t show any residual effects from his back injury, then he might be a safe, less expensive option in the free-agent market.

Of course, it is hard to guess what the free-agent market maybe if the owners lose money in 2020. Contracts dollars may be a bit depressed.

If Paxton continues to be the pitcher he’s always been and can make it through the season healthy, he might reasonably expect a two- or three-year deal for somewhere between $15 million and $20 million. The Yankees are loaded this some pretty cumbersome contracts, so who knows what money might be available for Paxton this offseason.

Yankees whose contracts expire after 2020 – No. 2: Mashiro Tanaka

Masahiro Tanaka is a year older than Paxton, doesn’t put up quite as good of numbers, but is more durable. Tanaka only has one season below the 150 innings Paxton produced last year.

He hasn’t produced an ERA 4.00 since 2016, and he tied his career-low in strikeouts per nine innings with 7.4.

With some of his stats trending the wrong way, there is no way the Yankees will bring him back anywhere near his 2020 salary of $23 million. There is a lot of value in taking the ball every five days and being somewhat consistent, but Tanaka’s best years are probably behind him.

The Yankees are probably going to want to make a bigger splash in bolstering the rotation than merely re-signing Tanaka, but there may not be many affordable choices. Bringing back Tanaka for an extra year or two, at a much lower salary, might be the safer player, more affordable play.

If the Yankees are in contention this year, as they are sure to be whatever this season may look like, they may look for starting pitchers to acquire through trades, targeting those with an extra year or two left on their deals.

There is a chance the Yankees bring back either Paxton or Tanaka, but it is doubtful they bring back both.