Alex Rodriguez would be pleased to hear this ...

... after a decade of slagging.


"The New York Yankees are seriously contemplating dropping the $153 Million Man, Jacoby Ellsbury, to the bottom of the batting order this season. Since Ellsbury has been a Yankee, he has nearly always hit in the first three spots of the lineup, despite being barely an average player. It seems as if his seven-year deal could go down as the worst free-agent signing in franchise history."

I believe you answered your own question. If Ellsbury has been average, then he's a lot better than many Yankee free agent signings.

Has Headley been average? Was McCann average? These are players on the 2016 Yankees. Not a huge research project. Just look around the locker room.

In 2016, Ellsbury was the fifth-best player on the whole team according to WAR.


"This season, the Yankees are paying Alex Rodriguez $21 million not to play, per the terms of his final 10-year, $275 million contract. Owner Hal Steinbrenner has shown the team will eat money if there is no better option."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Obviously, owner Hal Steinbrenner has not shown the team will eat money if there is no better option.

If so, the Yankees would have cut ARod years ago.

I can't recall any other example of Steinbrenner eating a major contract ... and he has had plenty of chances.

For example, what was Teixeira even doing on the team last year?



"Ellsbury's time with the Yankees has been downright boring, with few memorable highlights and benchings in pivotal games. He has built no equity with the team."

No doubt.

But I don't recall too many Yankee fans naming their kids after Steve Kemp or Dave Collins.


"Ellsbury’s seven-year, $153 million contract is vying for the worst in Yankees history. Its shear enormousness, an overreaction to the impending loss of Robinson Cano in the winter of 2013, will likely give it the edge over Ed Whitson's, Carl Pavano's and Kei Igawa's in Yankees free-agent infamy. (Not that anyone should feel bad for Ellsbury; who wouldn’t want to be overpaid?)"

No way.

Just account for inflation. That is all you have to do. It isn't a difficult concept.

The aforementioned Steve Kemp was the 4th-highest player in baseball in 1985. His WAR was 0.1 and he was sent to the minors before quickly being traded. Kemp's salary of $1.4 million doesn't sound like a lot 32 years later, but it's the 2017 equivalent of Miguel Cabrera's salary. Cabrera ain't exactly playing in the minors.

Similarly, Ellsbury is the 30th-highest paid player in baseball in 2017. Too much money, without question. Yet Ellsbury is still better than some of the people ahead of him on the list, believe it or not, even if he's merely average.

ARod is 31st for, you know, lots and lots of consulting.


"In his three seasons in the Bronx, he has hit .264 with a .326 on-base percentage -- far below his career totals of .297 and .439 coming into the contract. He has stolen just 80 bases -- 10 more than he stole in a single season, 2009, with the Boston Red Sox. He has hit 32 homers in three seasons as a Yankee, which is the same amount he swatted in 2011 in Boston, the one year that seemed to justify his big-bucks signing. Ellsbury chases balls down in center field, but he throws worse than a New York Jets quarterback.

On top of this, Ellsbury brings no buzz to the team. He is as invisible in the clubhouse as he is on the field. He is not a leader, typically the role of higher-paid players. When things went wrong, Derek Jeter was almost always there to answer the tough questions. It is part of the job for the top crop of Yankees to communicate to the fans. Ellsbury is rarely in the clubhouse, especially when the big-time players are being held accountable."

This is not a strong case at all.

1. "His Yankee totals are below his own career totals."

2. "He has speed on the basepaths and the outfield."

3. "No buzz in the clubhouse." Well, gee.

None of these observations explain how Ellsbury was a worse signing than, say, Pascual Perez, Jose Contreras, that weird pro-rated Roger Clemens nonsense which excited Suzyn Waldman quite a bit, or Mike Witt ... some obvious disasters who Marchand didn't even mention.

If you're worried about sheer size of the contract, then it is still nowhere near the worst when youl take inflation into account and look at ROI.


What Marchand is really doing is trying to figure out who to obsess about since ARod has retired.

We can all look forward to thousands upon thousands of anti-Ellsbury tweets while Marchand ignores similar observations about Brett Gardner and CC Sabathia.