When pondering what the Yankees can do this offseason to get over the American League Championship Series hump, there's one name that stands out.
Gerrit Cole.
The stud Astros pitcher is set to become a free agent this winter. Cole is coming off a tremendous season in which he went 20-5, led the American League with a 2.50 ERA and topped the majors with 326 strikeouts. He's 3-0 this postseason with a 0.40 ERA.
But will Cole end up in pinstripes? That's a topic WFAN's Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti discussed on Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show.
"When there's a team as good at Houston that has now beaten you, what, three out of the last five years in the postseason — with the wild-card game and then the two ALCSs — and then the Yankees are stringing together these 100-win seasons ... it makes for a really interesting thought process about the things to fix, right?" WFAN's Gregg Giannotti said on Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show. "Now obviously taking Cole off of that team and putting him on the Yankees is an obvious one, but I don't know. I don't know if he loves Houston so much and he feels like, 'Listen, this is a championship group that I don't want to leave.' Maybe he wants to go back to southern California and the Angels and then Arte Moreno is going to give him a scazillion dollars to go there. Or maybe the pull to the Yankees because he was Yankee fan when he was growing up is something that he wants. I don't know."
Esiason noted that if the Astros and Yankees, who were eliminated by Houston in the ALCS on Saturday night, offer Cole similar contracts, he would pocket at least $25 million to $30 million more by signing with Houston because Texas has no state income tax.
"That in itself is life-altering money," Esiason said. "I know that people don't think about that, but when you're talking about numbers at this level, it is a big portion of the thought process.
"If I'm him and I look at that Astros lineup and I look at the future of that team, I would want to stay there," Boomer added. "They're going to be good for the next three years minimum."
The Yankees also have to decide whether they're prepared to exceed the luxury tax threshold. Giannotti called Giancarlo Stanton's contract, which still has eight years and $234 million left on it, "a 7 billion-pound albatross." The Yankees are also faced with the prospects of signing Didi Gregorius, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Gary Sanchez and DJ LeMahieu to big-money deals in the coming years.
To listen to the open from Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show, click on the audio player above.
