The Giants and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski have avoided arbitration, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He will make $9.25M in his final season before he is slated to become a free agent. That’s narrowly below the $9.5M salary projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.
Yastrzemski, 34, was a borderline non-tender candidate. That’s not so much a reflection of poor play on his part, simply that his salary had climbed to roughly match his value. The Giants could have considered moving on, using the savings to pursue marquee players, with the ability to sign someone roughly around Yastrzemski’s level later in the winter if they missed on the big guys.
But instead, they will stick with the proverbial bird in the hand, keeping Yas for one more go. Over the past six years, he has proven to be a fairly consistently above-average player, even if he’s something below a true star. In 694 contests, he has slashed .239/.322/.457 for a wRC+ of 112. In each full season, his wRC+ finished somewhere between 99 and 120. His home run total has always been between 15 and 25 in those full campaigns.
On top of that, his defense has been pretty steadily better than par. When combined with his solid work at the plate, he has been worth between 1.5 and 2.5 wins above replacement in each season of his career, per the calculations of FanGraphs.
A solid two-WAR player for $9.25M is neither a bargain nor an egregious overpay. The Giants are evidently content with that equal value proposition, so Yastrzemski will stick around for one more year, barring a trade. The Giants are reportedly open to a swap, though the return won’t be massive with his salary roughly matching his expected production.
The club has Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos likely to be in the other two outfield slots next year, with Grant McCray, Jerar Encarnación, Marco Luciano, Blake Sabol, Wade Meckler and Luis Matos also in the mix. Perhaps they will pursue other players in the offseason who could make a Yastrzemski seem more possible, or perhaps the club will want to make room some of those incumbent players.
