Yankees, Cory Wade agree to contract for 2012

January 11, 2012 by Mike Axisa 13 Comments

Via Jon Morosi, the Yankees and Cory Wade have agreed to a non-guaranteed one-year deal worth $500k for next season, or $20k over the league minimum. Wade was not a free agent and he fell a few weeks shy of qualifying for salary arbitration, so the Yankees were able to renew his contract at basically whatever salary they wanted. Wade did a fine job after being plucked off the scrap heap at midseason, pitching to a 2.04 ERA and a 3.76 FIP in 39.2 IP. He figures to again serve as one of Joe Girardi‘s primary pre-seventh inning relievers.

Aside: I don’t know for sure because this stuff is next to impossible to confirm, but it appears as though Wade has a minor league option remaining. If so, he can go to the minors without a hitch next year. Hooray for flexibility.

Cory Wade’s emergence

Happiest day of my month!
- Genghis
  
  Glad to hear your “little friend” finally showed up!
Rich in NJ

Yet another reason why they don’t need to re-sign Ayala.
Rainbow Connection

Cool.

Sorry – I don’t have any actual evidence to PROVE that this is, in fact, cool. I hope I don’t get flamed for typing that. Please accept my apologies in advance.
- nedro
  
  Sure. Just submit your notarized statement of contrition though the proper channels, and we’re good.
Jamey

I thought Wade was a great pickup, glad he’ll be back.
- Charles
  
  You’re right, Jamey, the problem was, IMHO, that he was effective, and because he was effective initially, Girardi overused him and by the end of the season, he’d been seen by everone in baseball and knew what was likely coming. Gritty player, and I agree to bring him back.
Monteroisdinero

Now if he could just teach a few other guys how to throw a 3-1 and 3-2 changeup for strikes we’ll be in business.
Jesse

Big fan of Cory and hope he has another great year.
thenamestsam

Really liked Wade last year and happy to have him back.

I think he’s inevitably going to be disappointing compared with last year where he stranded seemingly every single runner (Just looked it up, LOB% of 91.2% = WOW) but even if he regresses a lot towards his 3.8ish FIP that’s fine for a guy making the minimum salary with an option who’s only going to be (presumably) the 5th best right handed reliever when Joba returns. Plus I like having a guy who comes out of the pen throwing slow and slower as a contrast to all the other guys throwing hard. I have no idea if that has any actual benefit, but it seems like it might.
http://Riveraveblues Austinmac

I like Wade and far prefer him over Ayala. It seems unlikely Ayala would get a major league contract now with the last pen spot open for a left-hander.
- steve (different one)
  
  Wasn’t Wade already counted in the 5 spots though? CoLoRoSoMo?
  
  I don’t think this changes anything re: Ayala.
Craig

I am so happy to see Cory back in pin stripes