(SportsNetwork.com) – The New York Yankees reached an agreement with All-Star catcher Brian McCann on a five-year, $85 million contract, FoxSports.com reported Saturday.<\/p>\n
The pact also includes a vesting option for $15 million for the 2019 season, according to the report. CBSSports.com added that the deal also includes a full no-trade clause.<\/p>\n
McCann’s signing will become official once he passes a physical.<\/p>\n
Unanimously regarded as the top free agent catcher on this year’s market, McCann is a career .277 hitter who has reached the 20-home run mark in each of the last six seasons. The former Atlanta Brave has been named to the National League’s All-Star squad in seven of his eight full major league campaigns.<\/p>\n
McCann, who turns 30 in February, missed the first month of the 2013 season while recovering from a strained left oblique, but rebounded to put up 20 homers and 57 RBI while batting .256 in 102 games with the Braves.<\/p>\n
He joins a Yankees squad that endured great instability behind the plate this past year. Opening Day starter Francisco Cervelli played in only 17 games due to a broken hand and a suspension for his link to the Biogensis scandal, leaving the light-hitting combo of Chris Stewart and Austin Romine to handle the majority of the catching duties.<\/p>\n
Though McCann hasn’t appeared in more than 128 games in any of the last three seasons, he could very well benefit from a move to the American League, where the Yankees will have the option of using him as a designated hitter in spots. Playing half his games in Yankee Stadium, with its short right-field porch conducive to left-handed power hitters, may help boost his numbers as well.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how McCann’s addition will impact the Yankees’ chances of retaining second baseman Robinson Cano, who has reportedly been seeking a contract in the neighborhood of $300 million as the No. 1 available free agent of the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(SportsNetwork.com) – The New York Yankees reached an agreement with All-Star catcher Brian McCann on a five-year, $85 million contract, FoxSports.com reported Saturday. The pact also includes a vesting option for $15 million for the 2019 season, according to the report. CBSSports.com added that the deal also includes a full no-trade clause. McCann’s signing will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,58,60],"class_list":["post-8410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}