The New York Yankees have reached a deal with 1B/DH Chris Carter on a one-year, $3 million contract for the 2017 season.
The New York Yankees have added some first base and designated hitter depth on Tuesday with the signing of the reigning NL home run leader, Chris Carter.Bob Nightengale was the first to report the signing, which is a one-year, $3 million contract, pending a physical.
Carter will receive a $500K signing bonus and can make an additional $100K for reaching 250, 300, 350, 400 and 450 plate appearances. They can also maintain him for 2018 by offering salary arbitration.
In 160 games a year ago, Carter slashed .222/.321/.499, maintained a .821 OPS and was tied with Nolan Arenado for the most home runs (41) in the National League. The righty also slugged the sixth-most home runs (131) in major league baseball since 2013.
While $3 million seems like a bargain for that production, it’s worth noting that Carter owns the second-most strikeouts in that same span including 206 a year ago.
The Yankees do have Greg Bird returning from injury and signed Matt Holliday to be the DH with the “depth” position covered up by 25-year old Tyler Austin — but seeing 41 home runs translate to Yankee Stadium (again, for $3 million) should be a sight.
Plus, after seeing the assembly line of first basemen trying to fill the hole lost in Mark Teixeira’s fall-off last year, a little depth couldn’t hurt.
Let’s get back to the power, though.
Last season, Carlos Beltran (who was traded in July) led the team with 22 home runs and the team, as a whole, failed to reach the 200 home run mark.
Over the last 17 seasons, the “Bombers” have hit over 200 total home runs in 13 seasons. In all 13 of those seasons, they clinched playoff berths while in the four sub-200 home run seasons (including 2016), they did not.
Yes, they have Holliday Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro coming off 20 home run seasons but overall, there wasn’t a ton of established power on this year’s roster.
