The Yankees briefly flirted with the idea of a Jacoby Ellsbury-Shin Soo Choo double signing – both for seven years; Choo at $140 million.
But Choo did not want to move that quickly, mainly because those close to him say that his first choice was the Rangers and he wanted to see what they would do. And, in the end, Texas got the on-base machine.
The sides agreed to a seven-year, $130 million deal pending a physical. Though the deal is for $10 million less than the Yanks were willing to do several weeks ago in conjunction with Ellsbury, the state of Texas has no tax and a person close to Choo said the Yankee offer would have had to reach $147 million to be the equivalent of that of the Rangers.
When Choo would not move on their timetable, the Yanks instead decided to ink Carlos Beltran for three years at $45 million.
In the past three years, Texas’ run scoring had dropped from 855 to 808 to 730 last year. So the Rangers were determined to energize their offense this offseason and have acquired the last seven years of Prince Fielder’s contract from Detroit (for Ian Kinsler) and Choo, whose $18.57 million average will be the eighth largest ever for an outfielder.
After the Fielder acquisition, it was believed Texas had one more significant move it would make to try to reclaim AL West dominance. The general feeling was it would be Choo, a trade for David Price or the signing of Masahiro Tanaka.
If the Choo move does indeed take the Rangers out of the big-game market then it is possible a significant bidder for Tanaka is gone, which could aid the Yankees if – big if – Tanaka is posted this offseason. It is possible that with a stronger buzz that Tanaka was not going to be posted, the Rangers shifted their attention in a stronger way to Choo.
The Reds’ definitive loss of Choo could motivate them now to push harder for a leadoff-hitting center fielder and they have had interest in Brett Gardner. The Yanks would love to find a package that would allow them to obtain Homer Bailey.