One of the most compelling stories heading into the New York Yankees’ offseason is what they were going to do about first base.
The fact that New York’s .617 OPS from first baseman during the regular season was the worst in MLB by a long shot made moving on from Anthony Rizzo an obvious choice. Of course, the Yankees have since signed former MVP Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5 million deal, which was announced back on December 21.
Prior to the Yankees acquiring Goldschmidt, they had been linked to several prominent first baseman such as former Mets slugger Pete Alonso and Guardians standout Josh Naylor.
But perhaps the player they were linked to most was former Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker.
Walker has since signed with the Houston Astros. However, there wasn’t a clear indication of why the Yankees weren’t ultimately major players in signing him until ESPN’s Jorge Castillo conveyed their reasoning in a January 30 article.
“At the time of the trade for Bellinger, the Yankees were still shopping for a first baseman. They never had interest in signing Pete Alonso,” Castillo wrote.
“Christian Walker could have been a fit, but the Yankees decided they didn’t want to pay the penalty for signing a player who was given the qualifying offer.”
Since Walker rejected his qualifying offer with the Diamondbacks, that meant the Yankees would have had to forfeit two draft picks if they’d acquired him. Per a January 20 article from MLB.com’s Thomas Harrigan, “A team that exceeded the CBT threshold in the preceding season will lose its second- and fifth-highest selections in the following year’s Draft, as well as $1 million from its international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period.”
Given that the Yankees did indeed exceed the CBT threshold (aka the luxury tax), they would have had to forfeit two of their top five picks.
That’s a steep price to pay, especially when a player such as Goldschmidt — who did not receive a qualifying offer from the St. Louis Cardinals — was still available.