Bronx Bomber Ball

On Friday morning, the Yankees avoided a potentially messy arbitration hearing with their ace by agreeing to a four-year contract with Luis Severino that will buy out all four of his arbitration-eligible seasons.The deal, first reported by Joel Sherman, is for $40 million guaranteed and comes with a $15 million option for a fifth year, or a $2.75 million buyout. Should the deal go to term, Severino will be paid out $52.25 million over five seasons. Severino package: Sign $2M. 2019: $4M. 2020: $10M
2021: $10.25M. 2022: $11M
2023 (club option): $15M with $2.75M buyout. So can max out at $52.25M #Yankees — Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) February 15, 2019

Severino was the lone Yankee not to settle on a contract prior to arbitration, seeking $5.25 million for this upcoming season, while the team countered with a $4.4 million figure.  When all is said and done, Severino will earn $6 million in 2019 ($4 million base + $2 million signing bonus), but will be on a team-friendly, guaranteed deal …

Earlier today, Major League Baseball announced the results of this year’s Hall of Fame voting, and two former Yankees received the call to Cooperstown: Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera. These two pitching greats, along with Edgar Martinez and the late Roy Halladay, will officially be enshrined later this year on Sunday, July 21.

The Yankees have reached an agreement with right-handed free-agent reliever Adam Ottavino, as first reported by Robert Murray of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports the deal is expected to be for three-years, $27 million. Ottavino becomes the third former Rockie to sign with the Yanks in the past few weeks, joining DJ LeMahieu and Troy Tulowitzki.

Mel Stottlemyre, who spent 11 seasons in the Bronx as a starting pitcher and another ten as pitching coach under Joe Torre, passed away on Monday after battling cancer for nearly two decades. He was 77.

News broke today from Padres’ reporter Dennis Lin of the Athletic that the San Diego Padres are interested in acquiring Indians’ RHP Corey Kluber. This makes sense as the Padres have a plethora of young talent to deal, but also a strong core of players they can build around. However, there is a twist. The report of the Padres’ interest also included that the Padres would be interested in flipping him for a third baseman to anchor their infield. Kluber would instantly help the Friars, but with his window of solid years left closing, the match is not perfect.

Major League Baseball’s deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to exchange salary figures for the upcoming season was this past Friday, January the 11th. The Yankees had nine eligible players on the roster and were able to come to terms with eight of them – the lone exception being ace RHP Luis Severino.