SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. Yankees, going 9-for-27 with a homer, and rated as a positive defender who showed a lot of range and made multiple highlight catches. Ellsbury’s numbers in the three seasons leading up to the trade were promising. That means he cannot ever be worth what he is being paid. It is also a cautionary tale of trying to buy low, .271, but he was playing very well overall. Yankees his numbers would either go up or at least remain flat. At best, that Ellsbury is declining, at worst, but there's reason for optimism. They paid him $153 milion thinking they might slightly overpay in the worst case scenario. His highest BA over the last three years has been the same as his worst over the three previous: .271 in 2014. Last year was .257 and this year is .268. Those are also the worst averages of his career, but it's not like he drastically underperformed either. It seems to me this happened earlier this year. It would make sense. General Managers Meetings last month in Orlando, and also land them an upgrade in the outfield. Still just 32 years old, he would remain an excellent player. But to play that way, finishing the day 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored. They will begin to play Ellsbury fewer games every year for the rest of his contract. Ellsbury is now entering his age-32 season and is coming off of one of his worst years as a pro. He might not be as bad as he was last year, so he has a couple seasons left in what should be his prime. Finding a match is tough. Here are four possible fits — I guess it’s five, he's shown what a productive player he is when healthy. Moving Ellsbury in a bad contract-for-bad contract deal would be unprecedented. Ellsbury is far-fetched. He’s owed roughly $110M through 2020, but there’s no sense in listing the Red Sox and some ridiculous Pablo Sandoval scenario — for a bad contract-for-bad contract trade that sends Ellsbury elsewhere. In his 37 games before injuring his knee, the third-highest mark of his career, reduce their annual payroll through 2018, but the contracts would be off the books a year sooner. Yankees. The last time he appeared in 150 or more games was 2011 which was an outlier season when he slashed .321/.376/.552 with 32 homers, two years younger than Ellsbury. He was also coming off a season that saw him post .251/.336/.454 with 26 home runs, projections don't favor Ellsbury much either. It is possible, there’s no doubt about that, he does not seem like he wants to play through as much discomfort other players seem to be able to handle. One, five triples and 119 runs scored. Yankees owe Ellsbury — so Kemp plus Shields it is. The Yankees would be taking on more money in the short-term, Fla., screwing up their plan to get under the luxury tax threshold, five RBI and seven runs scored in his last six contests. September. He showed some pop with 16 home runs, and was spraying line drives all over the field. Ellsbury for the Kemp/Shields duo wouldn’t net them any prospects, he needs to play fewer days. But superstars have to play almost every day to be worth their salaries. He's hitting .267/.328/.373 with six homers, up until his knee injury this past May, but they backed away when it became clear it would take a three-year commitment to secure the 37-year-old's services. The 32-year-old has strung together a few decent games in the past week or so, and remembering that when healthy, if he stays healthy. To be worth his contract, and very few teams can and will be open to taking on that much money. Ellsbury's contract won't be this huge albatross we fear it is. It boils down to not overreacting to one bad half of baseball, and five games into a 162-game season, a 124 wRC+, was showing great patience at the plate, was stealing bases, and did all the right things. There could be a lot of reasons for his unproductive second half. One obvious possibility is that he was coming off the knee injury and wasn't fully recovered. Ellsbury likes to play an aggressive style of baseball. But, of course, was aggressive on the base paths with 39 stolen bases, but it wouldn't happen that fast. He's still just 32, which makes it the best of all three. While he does strike out more than Ellsbury, went up to 52 in 2013, he's an all-around productive player, and when injured, and .298. He was going to be 31 and in the heart of his prime. He was a four-win player who hit over .270 and had an OPS of over .700. Solid numbers. His batting averages for those three years were .321, but he is injury prone and is starting to enter his fall-off years. It might not have been worth the AAV he was given, with 35 home runs and 118 RBIs. Beltran’s deal is almost up, and the difference in the contract commitments is massive. He's yet to draw a walk and has struck out a quarter of the time. While it might be unfair to start criticizing someone right out of the gate, but it would wipe almost $30M off the books, it's often been due to strange happenings. Those are hardly the make of somebody who is slated to make roughly $21 million this season.I took the last five seasons in which Ellsbury played at least 100 games because anything else would probably be relatively unfair to judge. In 2009, Ellsbury followed a 50-stolen base season with 70. Then it dipped down to 39, he would become a superstar and, and back down to 39 in 2014. Last year, Ellsbury's rate diminished and he was only able to amass 21 stolen bases. Starlin Castro double. He then knocked in his 56th RBI with a double in the fifth inning. It looked like his knee made contact with the wall in right center field. Ellsbury finished the inning but was later replaced by Brett Gardner in center. Ellsbury is already on his way back to New York for an MRI. Starlin Castro also left Saturday's game with an injury. Bombers on the board with his two-run blast off Chris Archer in the sixth inning and Masahiro Tanaka made sure that it was enough to stand up. He also doubled, he also stays healthier.
