How The Yankees Fell Short In Landing Justin Verlander

 The New York Yankees were ready to spend big to land former 2-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. It's been revealed that they offered him a $25M salary for 2022, equal to what he signed for with the Houston Astros. 

But the Astros were willing to go a second year at $25M, while the Yankees stopped short at one year, according to MLB insider Jon Heyman. That appears to have made the difference for the 39-year-old Verlander, who has said he wants to pitch into his mid-40s.

Yankees offered Verlander $25M 1-year deal. Solid offer but weren’t going to beat the $50M 2-year deal with opt out he got from Astros

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 20, 2021

Verlander has missed two full seasons since undergoing Tommy John surgery after just one start in 2020. But his last full season in the majors, with Houston in 2019, saw the then-36-year-old win the Cy Young award, the second of his career. 

The Yankees now will have to spend their money elsewhere; their needs are a-plenty, including starting pitching (still), shortstop, center field, and catcher. 

CF Starling Marte is still hot on their radar, while we're getting mixed messages about whether they're still looking to land one of the big-money superstar shortstops. Matthew Roberson of Newsday reported this week that the Yanks might prefer to wait for one of their top shortstop prospects, Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza, and just plug the gaping hole for 2022 with a short-term stopgap measure rather than spend $300M on one of the big names. 

Even without Verlander, there are trade options and free agents galore; there's no doubt this will still be an active winter in the Bronx.

Photo Credit: Mandi Wright via Imagn Content Services, LLC