Cole stays with Yankees on original 4-year deal
New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is remaining with the team on the four-year, $144-million deal he opted out of Saturday, general manager Brian Cashman confirmed Monday.
If New York voided his opt-out, Cole's deal would have become a five-year, $180-million pact. He signed his original nine-year, $324-million contract in December 2019.
Cashman confirmed that Cole originally exercised his opt-out before reversing course after negotiations involving owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine. He said that all parties wanted the right-hander to stay but that the Yankees weren't comfortable adding a fifth year.
"During our conversations we were having, it was something, at the moment, we weren't necessarily comfortable doing, but we wanted our player and our ace back, and he certainly didn't want to go, either," Cashman said, per SNY's Andy Martino.
He added: "Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener. That goes for us, too. I know we’d prefer to not be trying to look to how we’re trying to replace our ace. We’d rather augment that and try to add to our ace."
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Cashman added there are no ongoing extension talks. However, New York would apparently like to revisit talks to try to drive down Cole's average annual salary for luxury tax purposes, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
"Ultimately, we currently have in place ... the contract that we signed him to that takes him through, I think, what, 37? His Yankee career hopefully will finish with the Yankees," Cashman said, per Martino. "Whether that's at the end of this contract or anything in the future, we can still talk through that. But the most important thing is, the biggest first step is, we have our ace back, and we're excited about that."
The 34-year-old recorded a 3.41 ERA with 1.13 WHIP and 9.4 K/9 over 95 innings (17 starts) this year after making his season debut in mid-June due to an elbow injury.
Cole owns a 3.12 ERA with 1.03 WHIP and 915 strikeouts over 759 innings (125 starts) since joining the Yankees. The 2023 AL Cy Young winner has made three of his six All-Star appearances in pinstripes.