The @Yankees have declined their 2020 club option for 1B/DH Edwin Encarnación.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) October 31, 2019
Additionally, OF Aaron Hicks’s scheduled right UCL reconstruction surgery on Wednesday went as expected. The surgery was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
Now that the World Series has finished, offseason business has gotten underway. And in no surprise, the Yankees chose to decline Edwin Encarnación‘s $20 million option for 2020. He’s now a free agent. Encarnación receives a $5 million buyout.
Though nobody expected EE to be a Yankee at any point this year, he served a valuable purpose this summer given the array of injuries the team suffered. He was terrible in the postseason, but who knows how healthy he was.
In 44 regular season games after the trade with Seattle, Encarnación hit .249/.325/.531 (121 wRC+) and belted 13 dingers. He finished the playoffs with a .161/.278/.258 batting line, which was propped up by a strong first two games of the ALDS.
With Luke Voit, Mike Ford, and Greg Bird on the 40-man roster, and all three (namely Voit and Bird) healthy for 2020, there really wasn’t any room for EE to remain in pinstripes. The parrot will play elsewhere next season.
Dan A
I’m in the non-tender Greg Bird camp.
RetroRob
I could see EE landing on the Red Sox is JD Martinez opts out. I’m not sure he will, however. The Red Sox probably hopes he does for the financial flexibility. Reminds me how crazy the current setup is in MLB where wealthy teams that are in a win-now window are restricted from making moves they can easily afford.
DJ Lemeddardhieu
And that’s the right move, Derek. Edwin did nothing but strike out in the ALCS. DJ, Judge and Torres would all get on base and Edwin, Gary and Stanton would all strike out. My good friend Big Dan was so right about Mike Ford. That kid is going to be the next Cecil Fielder. Hopefully Voit’s struggles in September were injury related.
I did chuckle when you said Greg Bird was healthy. He’s never been healthy a day in his life. A feather could fall from the sky land on his head and he’d suffer 2 concussions and then trip and break his leg. Bird should be traded this offseason for information on the whereabouts of Jacoby Ellsbury.
Derek
You’re the best, Eddard. And, yes I laughed while writing that too. Healthy in theory, at least.