Jacoby Ellsbury Net Worth: How Much Is Outfielder Worth After Huge Yankees Buyout?

Jacoby Ellsbury has been among baseball’s highest-paid athletes for years. However, he was recently made unemployed by his former team, the New York Yankees. The Bombers elected to buy out the remaining year on the player’s contract after two years in which Ellsbury struggled with injuries.

His last appearance for the Yankees came in the 2017 postseason, in game four of the ALCS. Even that was just a pinch-running appearance and the next year, in August 2018, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee. Ellsbury suffered a few injuries relating to that surgery.

The buyout is worth $21 million for Jacoby Ellsbury’s 2020 contract plus an additional $5 million for the optional 2021 season. That $21 million will also count against the Yankees’ luxury tax bill next year.

Being that Ellsbury was already worth a lot of money having earned so much in his career already, his net worth is now staggering. Before the buyout, Celebrity Net Worth estimated he had made $128 million in MLB salary alone as of September 2018. That, of course, doesn’t count the $21.1 million he took home in 2019 despite not playing.

The same outlet reports Ellsbury’s net worth as $50 million. Well, he will have another $26 million, less taxes, to add to that total after the Yankees buyout. That total could climb higher depending on the free agent market.

Ellsbury is 36 and has been out of the game for two years now. However, the fact that the Yankees will pay his 2020 salary means that any other club could pay him the minor league minimum should he make their major league roster out of spring training.

Such a contract would, of course, be worth far less than a normal big-league deal. The decision to buyout Ellsbury came as somewhat of a surprise given that Yankees center-fielder Aaron Hicks will miss three months to start next season thanks to Tommy John's surgery.

However, GM Brian Cashman explained his organization’s logic, “Based on how things have played out, right now he's not someone that's in a position, health-wise, for me to be answering in the affirmative (that he’s a candidate for center field) at this time.”

MLB network’s Mark Feinsand reports that American League executives are split on their views of Jacoby Ellsbury. He claims one thinks the veteran could make a major league roster next year while another opines that Ellsbury will simply retire after his latest pay day.