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New York Yankees: Jacoby Ellsbury Lands On Worst Contracts List

By Kenneth Teape

Sep 14, 2015; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury (22) on deck to bat against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 14, 2015; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury (22) on deck to bat against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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New York Yankees centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has landed on ESPN’s list for worst contracts in the MLB, being ranked No.13.

The New York Yankees have a glut of outfielders with not enough places to play them. With the amount of veterans that they have to try and fit into the lineup on a daily basis, the Yankees are blocking the path of younger players such as Aaron Judge.

One of those veteran players that the Yankees need to fit into their lineup is centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury signed a massive deal just over two years ago, agreeing to a seven-year, $153 million contract in early December 2013 and being signed away from the rival Boston Red Sox. It is a contract that will handcuff the Yankees for a while, as Ellsbury’s production and health are already beginning to teeter off and he is only entering the third year of the deal.

Dan Szymborski of ESPN certainly thinks the Ellsbury contract is a bad one, as he landed on Szymborski’s list of the 25 biggest albatross contracts currently in the MLB. Ellsbury comes in at No.13 on the list with $110.6 million guaranteed remaining on the deal and a surplus value of -7.6 wins.

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Using ZiPS projections, Szymborski calculated the difference between the projected long-term performance of every player in baseball, and how much a team is projected to pay for that performance, whether from a signed contract or from predicting arbitration-year salaries. Part of the process also included personal judgement, as the ZiPS projections were used as a baseline to help.

No matter what you use to look at it, the Ellsbury contract is not a pretty one. Here is what Szmborski had to say about Ellsbury and why he was ranked where he is.

"If the Yankees were to trade Ellsbury (they’re not), they’d likely have to throw in some cash to make the deal work, but again, we’re past the total loss part of this list. Despite the 32 homers in 2011, Ellsbury has never really been a power hitter, so while lefty power hitters tend to fare well in Yankee Stadium, Ellsbury’s line-drive swing could fare quite well for a team with a large outfield, like the Giants. Ellsbury’s Gold Glove days are behind him, though he remains at least a competent defensive center fielder, which means, at least theoretically, that flexibility keeps the number of suitors higher than some of the more limited players higher on this list.Ellsbury has a no-trade clause, but the situation that would lead the Yankees to want to trade him — the team absolutely imploding — is likely a situation that would make him amenable to waiving his no-trade clause. Most players end up waiving their no-trades for other considerations; players like Brandon Phillips are the exception."

There was a reason that the Yankees traded for centerfielder Aaron Hicks from the Minnesota Twins despite already having so many outfielders at their disposal. It is because the Yankees cannot count on Ellsbury to patrol centerfield on an everyday basis. Coming off an injury plagued year in which his defensive metrics sharply fell, it was smart to get a player that could step in late in games as a defensive replacement.

The Yankees would love to find a new home for Ellsbury, but that just does not seem like a realistic option at this point. They would get nowhere near value in a return package, and would have to pay off a majority of his salary for a team to even get interested. At that point, the Yankees would be better off just keeping him and hoping he bounces back this season.

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Ellsbury had a decent season in his first with the Yankees, but it is clear that he will not be the same player in Pinstripes as he was with the Red Sox. A player that relies on speed for his game as much as Ellsbury does do not normally age well, and we are already seeing that with him. This is a contract that could find itself on Szymborski’s list for years to come, only moving up in the rankings each year.

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