First base has become perhaps the greatest hole the New York Yankees still need to fill this summer, with Cody Bellinger filling the Juan Soto-shaped hole in the outfield and Max Fried and Devin Williams giving the pitching staff a huge boost. Bellinger may spend some time there during the season, but finding a longer-term solution is essential to assembling a strong lineup around Aaron Judge. In 2024, the position was a black hole for New York.
GM Brian Cashman, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be acting too urgently at the moment. At the Winter Meetings, it appeared that the Yankees were moving closer to a contract with Christian Walker, a former slugger for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but negotiations broke down.
For those who are unaware, the qualifying offer is a one-year contract offer priced at $21.05 million, which is the average wage of the top 125 highest-paid athletes in the sport. In essence, it’s a strategy to maintain a competitive balance and make sure that teams in smaller markets are compensated in some way when they lose their finest players to large spenders on the open market.
The Yankees will lose their fourth-round pick in the draft next summer since they previously signed Fried, a free agent who turned down the qualifying offer. They would have had to pay two more selections to sign Walker, and Cashman concluded that the difference between Walker and a less expensive option wasn’t worth ruining his draft plans for.
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