Marty’s musings: the Yankees are making moves

Finally some movement on the free agent front as the Yankees get busy. 

Welcome to ‘Marty’s Musings’, my weekly column of numbers summarizing the happenings in the baseball world. I am your guide for taking an analytic look at the news and notes throughout the game, and highlighting key pitching matchups.

After a long offseason during which very little has happened, the Yankees open the spigot a bit by making a couple of free agent moves.

News & Notes

25 - Teams that two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber worked out for last week, with the Yankees signing him to a one-year $11 million deal. Kluber has pitched a total of 36 innings over the last seasons. He’s a solid add for the pitch-starved Yankees who have not re-signed Masahiro Tanaka...yet. The question remains who is going to eat the most innings for New York?

3 - Relief pitchers who signed last week, letting the dominos fall on the bullpen front. Liam Hendriks signed-on as the White Sox closer, the Astros signed Pedro Baez, and the Phillies inked Archie Bradley. Hendriks’ $54 million four-year deal shows the Athletics missed an opportunity to at least secure an additional second-round pick via offering him a qualifying offer. Bradley didn’t even pitch 20 innings across two teams last year, but he improves what was an historically-terrible Phillies bullpen.

32 - Year old DJ LeMahieu signed a six-year $90 million contract with the Yankees. LeMahieu is not inked until he’s 38 years old, though his skillset is one that is likely to age better than others.

73 - Days until Opening Day 2021. It will be different, no doubt, but it looks like the season will start on time with limited capacity seating to begin the season.