James Shields is expected to sign with a team this week, but it doesn't appear that it will be the New York Yankees announcing the right-hander as a new edition.
According to the New York Post's Joel Sherman, the Yankees are "not in play" for Shields as they will not be looking to add a big free agent starting pitcher this offseason.
Like with Scherzer, I continue to hear #Yankees are not in play for significant fr-agt SP such as Shields
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) February 4, 2015
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Jon Heyman of CBS Sports added that the Yankees preferred Max Scherzer out of all the free agents, though they didn't aggressively pursue him. Scherzer ended up signing with the Washington Nationals on a seven-year $210 million pact.
yankees are not on shields, as @Joelsherman1 said. of big free agents, they preferred scherzer, & they didnt try for him. — Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) February 4, 2015
The Yankees have a lot of options for starters on their roster, but some of them come with question marks.
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C.C. Sabathia (knee), Masahiro Tanaka (partially torn UCL), Michael Pineda (almost never fully healthy with myriad injuries) and Ivan Nova (Tommy John surgery) either are all returning from or have dealt with injuries heading into 2015.
New York also has Nathan Eovaldi, Chris Capuano and Adam Warren in the fold.
Shields has been mulling his options and is expected to sign with someone this week, according to Fox Sports.
At the beginning of free agency, Shields was expected to garner at deal around $100 million, but as the offseason has progressed, his price tag has reportedly dipped to somewhere around $70-80 million, which could bring on more bidders.
The Yankees aren't expected to be among them.
Shields, 33, went 14-8 in 34 starts for the Royals last season with a 3.21 ERA in 227 innings pitched with 180 strikeouts as Kansas City won the American League pennant and made it to the World Series for the first time since 1985.
The Yankees are coming off of a season where they went 84-78 and missed the postseason for the second consecutive campaign.
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