After the 2024 season, the New York Yankees, led by star player Gerrit Cole, will have an interesting contract issue.
After the 2024 season, the New York Yankees and their star player Gerrit Cole will have an interesting contract issue.
Cole is approaching the fifth year of a nine-year contract for $324 that he signed prior to the 2020 campaign.
According to his contract, he will have the option to opt out after the 2024 season. There will be four years and $144 million remaining for that opt-out.
Naturally, Cole had the option to opt-out and reject the deal in favour of a larger salary.
The organisation may then reverse his opt-out choice and award him a fifth year at $36 million, giving him five years for $180 million in total.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote the following in a notebook:
Yankees star After this season, Gerrit Cole’s deal contains an opt-out, but the Yankees may waive it by adding a $36 million salary in 2029, increasing his total compensation to $360 million over ten years.
“We would anticipate that those things are going to happen,” said Scott Boras, Cole’s agent.
No one is going to sneeze at a five-year deal worth $180 million and maybe Cole will be happy to have that deal and likely end his career in New York, but perhaps he would have liked to chase an even bigger payday.
There’s also the possibility that Cole opts-out and the Yankees don’t offer the deal, allowing him to become a free agent after the 2024 season. While they of course would want Cole on the team, maybe they’d like the possible savings to make a run at locking up Juan Soto, who they just acquired.
Cole went 15-4 last season and won the Cy Young in the American League.
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