I feel like I’m on Obsessive Option Watch right now, and I guess understandably so.
With a number of surprising decisions already tied to options, and our own pining for the Cubs not to do something crazy with Anthony Rizzo, I’m heartened to learn that at least one high-dollar option decision has proceeded according to expectation.
Can confirm that the #Yankees have picked up Zack Britton's option for 2022, valued at $14 million.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) October 29, 2020
There’s a tricky part there, and your eyes may have glossed over it: this option isn’t for next season, it’s for the season after that. Britton’s contract was kinda funky, and the Yankees had to decide THIS offseason whether they wanted to lock Britton in for 2021 AND 2022, otherwise he had the right to opt out of his deal right now – he was under contract through at least next year at $13 million.
Your initial reaction might be, “Yeah, they picked it up for 2022, but that doesn’t tell us much about this season’s market,” and I would respond, “Hey, just let me explain, all right?”
The thing is, the Yankees would pick up this option only if they were very certain they wanted Britton for both of the next two years, AND they thought he might opt out, AND they didn’t want him to just opt out and be off the books. In other words, if the Yankees had declined this option, they apparently were afraid that Britton would just walk away from his $13 million final year in 2021. So the Yankees believe that Britton believes the market would be even kinder to him than that. Seems like a decent sign, yes? After all, the Yankees effectively just signed Britton, today, to a two-year, $27 million deal.
The elite groundballing lefty will pitch next season at age 33, and has been dominant for the Yankees the last two years. In a normal environment, this option decision would be a clear no-brainer. As things stand, it made you ask questions.
I tend to think this is a pretty nice vote by the Yankees that, at a minimum, the baseballing world will be sufficiently back to normal after next season that they didn’t want to risk losing out on Britton in 2020 at $14 million. That’s a very forward-looking bet, and, even for a deep-pocketed club like the Yankees, it feels like a good sign.