MLB rumors: Yankees, Red Sox see Nathan Eovaldi price tag climbing

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi is a free agent. He helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series and is in line for a big payday. Will New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman re-sign Eovaldi? Or will he look at free-agent left-handers Patrick Corbin, J.A. Happ and Dallas Keuchel?

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman knows he needs to upgrade his starting rotation for 2019.

He’s already been connected to free-agent left-handers Patrick Corbin, Dallas Keuchel and J.A. Happ.

The best right-hander on the market could be Nathan Eovaldi, who simply dominated batters in the 2018 playoffs. His effectiveness as a starter and as a reliever in the postseason in a big reason why the Red Sox won the 2018 World Series.

The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier takes a guess at how much it will cost to sign Eovaldi:

Take, for instance, Rich Hill. In 2015, the Red Sox plucked the lefthander out of independent ball after he’d been released by the Nationals. He reached the big leagues in September, dominated for a handful of starts, landed a one-year, $6 million deal with the A’s, and then, after 110 1/3  strong innings (12-5, 2.12 ERA) with the Dodgers and A’s in 2016 and three playoff starts, secured a three-year, $48 million deal to stay in Los Angeles.

Last year, righthander Tyler Chatwood — coming off an age-27 season in which he went 8-15 with a 4.69 ERA for the Rockies — landed a three-year, $38 million deal from the Cubs based on his relative youth, his solid numbers on the road, and Statcast-driven pitch data that suggested a world of untapped potential.

…

As ever, the market for starting pitchers should be robust. The precedents of Hill and Chatwood suggest that Eovaldi should be in line for at least a three-year deal, and even as a two-time recipient of Tommy John surgery (Chatwood and Hill each had one), it would come as little surprise if he lands a four-year deal.

It’s hard to imagine him getting less than Chatwood, suggesting that his floor is probably at least three years and roughly $40 million or four years and $52 million. Eovaldi doesn’t represent the same sort of strikeout potential as Hill, and his track record of dominance is over roughly two months. Hill had a season and a month of delivering standout results.

Those factors create questions about whether Eovaldi has the same baseline expectations as Hill when on the mound, but at the least, it’s close — and there’s a chance that Eovaldi may be capable of providing more durability once on the mound. But it’s not unreasonable to view Hill’s salary — $16 million a year — as a potential bar for Eovaldi to near or, depending on demand, clear, suggesting that in a best-case market scenario, he could be in line for four years and $60 million-$65 million.

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Eovaldi made a total of six appearances in the 2018 playoffs, including four out of the bullpen. He went 2-1 with a 1.61 ERA in the postseason, and regularly topped 100 mph on the radar gun.

Keep in mind Eovaldi once played for the Yankees, but was let go after his second Tommy John surgery in 2016.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.