You can never have too much pitching.
Which makes this story a startling development for the New York Yankees.
On Monday, free-agent right-hander Anthony DeSclafani agreed to a three-year, $36 million contract with the San Francisco Giants and left-hander Aaron Loup agreed to a two-year, $17 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels.
On top of that, left-hander Alex Wood is finalizing a two-year deal with the Giants.
Here’s why MLB clubs should be scared after Monday’s news, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan:
San Francisco’s desire to jump the pitching market comes as a potential Dec. 2 lockout approaches and a finite amount of rotation-worthy pitching continues to come off the board. Those who have signed already include Justin Verlander, Noah Syndergaard, Eduardo Rodriguez and Andrew Heaney. The next week could see Cobb, left-hander Steven Matz, right-hander Jon Gray and right-hander Corey Kluber find deals.
Matz, the former New York Mets left-hander, could sign as soon as Wednesday.
Verlander (one year, $25 million with the Houston Astros), Syndergaard (one year, $21 million with the Angels), Rodriguez (5 years, $77 million with the Detroit Tigers) and Heaney (one-year, $8.5 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers) all came off the board last week.
So what does that mean for the remaining free-agent pitchers?
According to Passan, “the best pitchers in the class -- Max Scherzer, Robbie Ray, Kevin Gausman and Marcus Stroman -- could wait until after the lockout to sign.”
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.
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