The Yankees are bad for baseball...

[Copelius]

This is madness. Best case scenario, they'll get 5 years of value for this contract, because let's face it, when you have $324MM guaranteed, what is driving you to put in the extra work to be excellent in the last four years of your career?

With the opt out after 5, if he has tremendous success for the first 5 he will opt out and try to leverage additional years/money. At 8-9MM (and some analysts have it higher) per WAR, all he has to do is average 4 WAR per year for the next 9, which is not an easy feat but is within his realm of possibilities given his 13+ WAR for the past two years. He has averaged over 4 WAR in his first 7 years, which included a rather gradual learning curve with the Pirates before he caught on. 9 is a bit long for me but I like the deal overall. The Yankees salary has been flat to decreasing for the past nearly 20 years when adjusting to the rest of the league when their income has been outpacing the league. It is good to see them flex their financial muscle again.