New York Yankees rumors: David Robertson likely to get a qualifying offer?

The first full-time New York Yankees’ closer in the times after Mariano Rivera has performed admirably thus far this season.

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David Robertson has 28 saves and a 2.81 ERA. Operating on a one-year, $5.22 million deal, Robertson will present a challenging decision for the Yankees this off-season.

As they try to decide how to treat that situation, they will have the potential protection of the now familiar and sometimes uncomfortable qualifying offer system. That ensures that the Yankees do not lose Robertson to free agency for nothing and potentially lays the groundwork for them to work out a long-term deal.

Buster Olney believes that issuing a qualifying offer to Robertson will be the correct course of action for the Yankees to pursue at season’s end.

It would also make Robertson the first to actually accept said qualifying offer, though the money he would be paid would be less troublesome to the Yankees than it might be a different team.

For his career Robertson, age 29, has a 2.77 ERA and a 12.1 K/9 clip. That projects him to remain an effective pitcher in the seasons to come, though as we know by now teams overvalue and/or overpay closers at their own risk.

This is all new territory for the Yankees, of course, because they did not have to worry about this spot for 19 years while they had the greatest closer of all time in place. It will be interesting to see how they navigate the off-season with Robertson.