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Timing is essential, in sport as in life. If the timing is right between Corey Kluber and the New York Yankees, with whom the longtime ace finalized a one-year, $ 11 million contract on Friday night, it will be good news for the long-term pitcher. – and maybe even better. for the short-term team.
Speaking of timing, in the larger context of this winter’s free agent market, Kluber’s free agency timing reveals an irony when considering the similar status of former Cleveland teammate Trevor Bauer. Kluber is almost five years older than Bauer, but for five full seasons (2014-18) Kluber was the most dominant starting pitcher in the American League, leading the Tour in wins (83) and WAR (31.7 ), according to Baseball- Reference. He won two Cy Young Awards and finished third in the poll two more times.
In each of those seasons, he was better than Bauer, with the questionable exception of Bauer’s breakout season in 2018, when the two star right-hangers made some of the American League’s top Cy Young contenders. Yet here we are, two seasons later, and it’s Bauer, not Kluber, who is the most coveted pitcher in the market. It was Kluber, not Bauer, who had to audition for the teams, throwing 30 reported shots in front of scouts and other interested parties earlier this week at a rally with 25 teams represented.
If anything, that should help ignite a fuse under Kluber. The same is true of the short duration of his new contract, which is in part a result of his own preference, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, as he hopes to prepare for a bigger salary next year. It has to be A-OK for the Yankees, who have acquired a pitcher who has pitched just 36 innings in the past two seasons. In 2020, which represents Kluber’s entire career with the Texas Rangers, he threw 18 shots, 12 less than he pitched at his storefront earlier this week.
For Kluber, the deal is a chance to prove that his exceptional career has a promising second act in the works. For the Yankees, it’s a low-risk, high-potential deal for a howler who was only recently in the elite of the elite, but whose recent spate of injuries makes years of madness just too much. risky.
So what kind of Klubot have the Bombers just acquired?
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