All 8 eligible Yankees avoid arbitration

January 16th, 2021

The Yankees avoided arbitration with all of their eligible players on Friday, reaching agreements on one-year deals with outfielder Aaron Judge, infielder Gleyber Torres, catcher Gary Sánchez, first baseman Luke Voit, infielder Gio Urshela, right-hander Chad Green, outfielder Clint Frazier and left-hander Jordan Montgomery, the team announced.

Terms of the deals were not announced, but sources told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand that Judge will earn $10.175 million in 2021 and Torres will earn $4 million. Feinsand reported the following salaries for 2021: Sánchez, $6.35 million; Voit, $4.7 million; Urshela, $4.65 million; Montgomery, $2.13 million; and Frazier, $2.1 million. The terms of Green's deal have not been reported.

The 28-year-old Judge appeared to be on an American League MVP Award-worthy track early in the pandemic-shortened season, mashing nine homers before sustaining a right calf injury, then reinjuring it on his first day back in the lineup.

Limited to 28 games, Judge batted .257/.336/.554 with 22 RBIs (140 wRC+). Judge’s 2020 salary was $8.5 million.

The 2017 AL Rookie of the Year and a two-time All-Star, Judge has slugged 119 home runs in 424 career Major League games. He is one of seven players drafted and signed by the Yankees to hit at least 100 home runs with the club, joining Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Mike Pagliarulo and Jorge Posada.

Torres, 21, was an All-Star in each of his first two seasons in 2018 and '19, hitting 62 homers and posting a 125 OPS+ over 267 games, but he scuffled throughout '20, batting .243/.356/.368 with three home runs in 42 games.

The Yankees have had only two recent cases advance to arbitration hearings. The most recent was right-hander Dellin Betances, who requested $5 million and was awarded $3 million in February 2017. Prior to Betances, the most recent Yankee to reach arbitration was righty Chien-Ming Wang in 2008.