CBS Sport: Orioles close in to sign Yankees mega star in a blockbuster deal.
The Baltimore Orioles need a backup plan for 2025 because their top starter, Corbin Burnes, is expected to become a free agent. One possible choice in the next market is Gerrit Cole.
Kerry Miller ranked the Orioles eighth out of ten potential landing places for the New York Yankees starter in a Bleacher Report story published on August 30.
He likened the possible signing of Cole to the trading of Francisco Lindor by the New York Mets.
“Maybe signing Cole will be their first big splash—David Rubenstein’s ownership group took complete control of the club in the last calendar year,” Miller wrote. “It would be like the time when Steve Cohen took over the Mets and signed Francisco Lindor to a $341 million contract shortly after trading for him.”
The ownership group in Baltimore has changed, just like the Mets did when they acquired Lindor. Cole would make a splash for David Rubenstein and company in their first free agency cycle, perhaps not quite as big of a splash.
Although he hasn’t been at his best yet this season, the American League CY Young winner has been improving for the Yankees lately.
With six games pitched since the beginning of August, Cole has a 3-1 record and 1.85 ERA. In that time, he has pitched 34 innings, given up just two home runs, and struck out 40 of the 138 batters he has faced.
In 2020, Cole agreed to a $324 million, nine-year contract with the Yankees. However, he has an opt-out clause in his contract that would force him to become a free agency almost five years early this winter.
On August 27, ESPN’s Jeff Passan said that there’s a “strong expectation” that Cole will attempt to sign a bigger contract this winter.
After recovering from an elbow injury and performing well in the latter four years of his nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees, Passan wrote that Cole enters into this winter’s free agency with a strong anticipation that he will opt out of the remaining four years and $144 million.
However, he added that New York might add a tenth year to his contract to negate the opt-out.
“But any concern that Cole might find better riches elsewhere can be dispelled with this simple fact: The Yankees can void his original contract by adding a tenth year at $36 million if he opts out,” Passan continued.
