TAMPA – After all this, Brett Gardner is still a Yankee.
Gardner and the Yankees have agreed to a one-year contract, according to a source, which will bring the left field player back to the Bronx less than a week before the position players are due to report for spring training.
Gardner, 37, is among the veteran free agents unable to close a deal this season, and although coach Aaron Boone has declared Clint Frazier the Yankees’ starting left field player and the team has added some depth of field to Greg Allen, Jay Bruce and Derek Dietrich, a meeting with Gardner was never out of the question.
Asked about Gardner not being part of the Yankees “up to this point” on Friday, Boone replied: “Up to this point”.
On Wednesday, Boone said of Gardner’s status: “You never know what can happen or happen. We’ll see.”
Gardner finished 2020 in good shape, going 13 to 33 with an OPS of 1,190 in the final 13 games of the regular season and was a significant factor in the playoffs.
The Yankees’ list of 40 players is full and they also agreed to a deal with southpaw Justin Wilson. Luis Severino, recovering from Tommy John’s surgery, can be placed on the 60-day injured list to open a vacancy, but the Yankees still need to make another move.