Quick Thoughts On The Brian McCann Signing

Here's a bit of broken news for you.  This just came in from the Twitter account of the always-dependable Ken Rosenthal:

Source: McCann deal with #Yankees is 5/85 with sixth-year vesting option that could bring it to 6/100.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 23, 2013

That's right, Mets fans.  Former Braves catcher Brian McCann is getting $17 million per season in a deal that could see him getting a total of $100 million from the Yankees through 2019.  Need I remind you, McCann will be 30 before Opening Day.  He's also a catcher.  And he's also been basically a singles hitter with an occasional homer thrown in to mix things up.  Want proof?

McCann has hit 20+ homers seven times in his career.  However, he's still looking for his first 25-HR campaign.  Despite the fact that a home run guarantees a run scored and at least one run batted in, McCann's runs have gone down every year since 2008 and his RBI total has decreased each year since 2009.  McCann's extra-base hits have also decreased annually since 2008, as have his total hits.

Year	Runs Scored	Runs Batted In	Extra-Base Hits	Total Hits
2008	68	87	66	153
2009	63	94	57	137
2010	63	77	46	129
2011	51	71	43	126
2012	44	67	34	101
2013	43	57	33	91

To put that into perspective, please note that in the 2012 and 2013 campaigns, Lucas Duda scored a total of 85 runs, drove in 90, collected 61 extra-base hits and pounded out 167 total hits.  (McCann had 87, 124, 67 and 192, respectively.)  And for those of you saying "but McCann's a catcher and gets less playing time", Duda had 719 at-bats in the majors between the two seasons, while McCann had 795.  Therefore, the Yankees just paid $85 million (and perhaps up to $100 million) to a player whose current offensive production isn't that far off from what Lucas Duda does at the plate for the Mets.

But hey, at least the Yankees know that if someone styles after hitting a home run off one of their own, Brian McCann will be there to block the plate as that hitter rounds third.  I guess that part of his game is priceless.

Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images