A year ago the Yankees’ shares meeting resulted in staff members getting drastically cut and played a part in reliever David Robertson, who chaired the meeting and was an upcoming free agent, not being retained by the club.
At 2 p.m. Friday, the recently crowned AL East champions held a shares meeting that lasted 65 minutes. Last year’s meeting went beyond two hours.
“It was good. We took care of people. It was my first one here and it went really good,’’ said Zack Britton, who had a file of information and logged the meeting, but deferred to others who have been with the club longer to speak. “I thought we did a good job.’’
Last year’s meeting resulted in assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere not getting a full share, Zac Fieroh (an analytical analyst who traveled with the club) getting shut out and other staff members having their shares reduced from 2017 levels. It also led to a lecture from general manager Brian Cashman to the players at the start of this year’s spring training.
The Yankees were widely criticized for voting 45 full shares, which was 10th out of the 10 teams that made the playoffs in 2018. The average of the full shares was $43,081.55 from a pot of $2,866,130.59. Twenty-one partial shares and two case awards were doled out.
“A little bit,’’ Britton said when asked if talk of last year’s meeting surfaced Friday. “I wasn’t in [last year’s meeting]. We tried to move on to this year.’’
Players on the roster on June 1 and who are eligible for the postseason roster qualify to attend the meeting. Britton and J.A. Happ didn’t participate in last year’s meeting because they were acquired from the Orioles and Blue Jays, respectively, shortly before the Aug. 31 trade deadline.Players on the injured list from the start of the season to the end receive full shares. Jacoby Ellsbury and Ben Heller are in that category. Greg Bird, who played in 10 games and Dellin Betances (one game) and Luis Severino (one game) are in line for full shares.
Managers and coaches are historically rewarded with full shares, which made giving Piliterre a half share in 2018 alarming.