The Yankees recently avoided arbitration with pitchers Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan, easily saving the club a lot of money.
All three of the pitchers were signed to one-year deals with the club.
Hughes—$2.7 million
Joba—$1.4 million
Logan— $1.2 million
The latter two are good deals, but not as surprising as Hughes. To me, it would have made more sense for the Yankees to try to lock Hughes down on a multi-year deal now, before he gets even better and has more leverage to request a higher contract. Also, as of today, he is the No. 2 starter, and is therefore extremely important to the Yankee’s success.
Signing Joba to a smaller deal like this makes a lot of sense for numerous reasons. First, you save money. Second, keeping him on the roster is not a burden, because he isn’t making a whole lot of money. Third, it makes it that much easier to trade him if the Yankees decide they want to, because there isn’t a monster price tag weighing them down.
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