Following the Boston Red Sox’s signing of 3B Pablo Sandoval to a five-year contract worth approximately $100 million, and Hanley Ramirez to a four-year, $88 million deal, 3B Chase Headley is expected to get a sweet payday of his own this offseason, with sources to Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News saying that the switch-hitter is likely to get a deal in the four-year, $60-million range.
Although the New York Yankees are still pursuing the services of Headley, the team is reportedly ready to move on and not interested in getting into a bidding war for the 30-year old, who made significant improvement when traded to the Yankees from the San Diego Padres during this year’s trade deadline. The Bombers are ready to place Martin Prado in Headley’s place, should the services for the third-baseman become a commodity.
After his breakout season in 2012, Headley has struggled mightily to get back to the form that placed him on the national spotlight when he led the league in RBIs with 115. Injuries have made the task even harder for Headley, who had a poor 2013 season and started 2014 exactly where left off the previous year, although things changed when the University of Tennessee attendee was sent to the Bronx.
In 77 games with the Padres this past season, Headley recorded a horrific .229/.296/.355 slash line with 7 homers, 32 RBIs, and 28 runs, while with the Yankees, in only 55 games, his percentages went up quite a bit to .262/.371/.398, collecting 6 homers, 17 runs batted in, and 8 doubles.
At the beginning of the offseason, Headley was expected to get a contract for about 3 years, and not much more than $10M per season, but like every year, the market is volatile and changes in the blink of an eye, just like it did two days ago.
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