50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings: Mike Mussina

When you’ve won three World Series titles in a row, it might feel tempting to rest on your laurels and run it back with the same group that brought such an extended period of success. However, the Yankees’ five-game romp of the Mets in the 2000 Subway Series masked many of the holes on the roster, the team having barely limped to a first-place finish in the division and survived by the skin of their teeth in the Divisional and League Championship rounds. And as we all know, that’s just not how George Steinbrenner functioned at the helm of the organization.

Of all the areas of the team, the starting rotation was most in-need of reinforcements. David Cone had departed for the Red Sox in free agency as had mid-season pickup Denny Neagle to the Rockies. Dwight Gooden’s tenure was about to come to an end and Roger Clemens was entering his age-38 season with emerging signs of his decline from the form that enticed the Yankees to acquire him two years prior. The unit was still forecast to be solid, but as was their modus operandi during that era, they spent top dollar on the marquee free agent of that winter to keep their championship window wide open, signing ace Mike Mussina away from the division-rival Orioles.

Michael Cole Mussina
Signing Date: December 7, 2000
Contract: Six years, $88.5 million

When you think of the best starting pitchers of the 1990s, your mind likely first turns to the truly dominant names of the decade including Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Randy Johnson. However, Mussina’s name absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as that trio. Only five pitchers — Clemens, Martinez, Johnson, Greg Maddux and Kevin Brown — accrued more fWAR in the decade than Mussina’s 46.7 with the Orioles. He may not have sported the same gaudy strikeout abilities as some of those aforementioned names, but he was a command artist and a work horse who placed comfortably within the top-20 when it came to innings pitched, ERA, FIP, and BB/9.

Mussina was born on December 8, 1968, in Williamsport, PA, and was a superb three-sport athlete who declined an offer to play college football at Penn State University under Joe Paterno to pursue his baseball dreams. He played three seasons at Stanford University after turning down the Orioles’ draft offer in 1987 and was selected by Baltimore in the first round three years later. After making his pro debut with the Class AA Hagerstown Suns of the Eastern League in 1990, Mussina needed just one season in the minors — pitching to a 2.38 ERA in 189 innings — to convince the Orioles that he was ready for the big leagues.

After a successful debut cameo where he posted a 2.87 ERA in 12 games in 1991, Mussina burst onto the scene in his first full season in 1992, going 18-5 in 32 starts with a 2.54 ERA, 3.19 FIP, 5.3 fWAR, and 130 strikeouts in 241 innings. He would finish fourth in AL Cy Young voting after finishing with the second-lowest walks per nine and second-most shutouts among qualified starters. After struggling through shoulder and back injuries in 1993 and the strike-shortened season in 1994, Mussina began a run of remarkable consistency that singled him out as one of the best starting pitchers in the AL. From 1995 through his final season in Baltimore in 2000, Mussina rattled off six straight seasons of at least 200 innings and at least five fWAR, winning four consecutive Gold Glove Awards in the process.

That brought Mussina to his highly-anticipated free agency, with the ace pitcher making his intentions known at the trade deadline of his walk year. The Orioles owned the second-worst record in the AL and had been intent for months on extending their star pitcher for what Mussina deemed was a below-market price — a five-year, $60 million offer made in February and never improved. Mussina maintained that he would not waive his full no-trade protection at the deadline if the team refused to improve their offer, and once late-July rolled around without further talks, Mussina concluded that “I’ll be here the next two months. I know that much… Then, depending on what they want to do, I’ll be back or I won’t. But nothing’s going to happen before then.”

The trade deadline came and went with Mussina remaining in Baltimore, and after they finished the season with a losing record and no playoff baseball, the 31-year-old Mussina hit the market “resigned” himself to testing the free agent market. Baltimore’s lowball offer was never going to be enough to retain Mussina, but in truth, the seeds of his departure were planted three years prior. In 1997, Mussina, Cal Ripken Jr., and Brady Anderson were all entering the final years of their contracts. Around the same time, the Marlins had signed pitcher Alex Fernandez to a five-year, $35 million contract, setting the market for young pitchers at a $7 million AAV, leading Mussina to request four years at the same rate. Baltimore had no problem awarding the 33-year-old Anderson a five-year, $30 million deal and the 36-year-old Ripken a two-year, $15 million deal, but then tightened the purse strings once it was Mussina’s turn. He wound up settling for three years and just over $20 million, after which Mussina resolved not to give Baltimore another hometown discount in the future.

Perhaps sensing this opportunity, the Yankees launched a full-court press to sign Mussina away from their division rivals. Joe Torre called Mussina less than a week after the conclusion of their World Series win to make the Yankees’ desires be known. In the coming weeks, almost every player of the team called to woo Mussina to the Bronx. The team sent roses to his wife and mailed presents including a Yankees Barbie doll and teddy bear to Mussina’s Pennsylvania home for his kids. Ultimately, as Mussina put it, “It just came down to who really seemed to want me on their team the most,” which came in the form of a six-year, $88.5 million offer that Mussina officially signed on December 7, 2000.

At his introductory press conference, Yogi Berra presented Mussina with the No. 35 jersey, the former’s first number before donning the iconic No. 8. Mussina praised the Yankees’ efforts to sign him and shared his excitement to join his new team:

New York was the best fit for me. It came down to who I was most impressed with, and I was most impressed with the Yankees. Joe Torre called me not even a week after the World Series, before he went on vacation. To me, that was a pretty big gesture.

It’s been a long time since I wasn’t considered the No. 1 starter from the first game of spring training. We might go to the playoffs next year and I might not even get a chance to pitch. That’s how strong they are.

Mussina hit the ground running with the Yankees, allowing just five hits in 7.2 scoreless innings against the Royals on April 5th. He struggled a bit in his subsequent April starts but found his footing just in time for his first taste of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. In a classic pitchers’ duel against Pedro Martinez on May 24th, Mussina struck out 12 over eight innings of one-run ball as the Yankees vanquished their foes, 2-1. Those two starts certainly qualify as signature Yankees moments, but Mussina truly cemented himself among the fans in his debut season less than three months later at Fenway. On that cold early-autumn night, Mussina twirled one of the great near-perfectos in MLB history, striking out 13 in a complete game shutout that was a Carl Everett single with two outs in the ninth away from baseball immortality.

He’d strike out another baker’s dozen in a three-hit complete game shutout of the Orioles at the end of the month to finish his debut season in pinstripes with a 17-11 record in 34 starts, pitching to a 3.15 ERA with 214 strikeouts in 228.2 innings. His 6.9 fWAR, 2.92 FIP, and 18.9 percent K-BB% were tops among AL starters and he’d pick up his fifth Gold Glove, but would finish fifth in AL Cy Young voting as teammate Clemens would pick up the sixth of his career.

He started his Yankees postseason career off strong with seven shutout innings in a 1-0 ALDS Game 3 win over the 102-win A’s and six innings of two-run ball in a 3-2 ALCS Game 2 win over the 116-win Mariners. Game 1 of the World Series wasn’t so kind, as Mussina lasted just three innings after giving up five runs (three earned) to the Diamondbacks. He rebounded admirably with ten strikeouts across eight innings of two-run ball as the Yankees scored a 3-2 comeback victory in Game 5 to put themselves on the precipice of the four-peat. History had other ideas, but at least Mussina had built the confidence that he could do it on the game’s biggest stage.

Mussina remained a regular season ace in the 2002 and 2003 campaigns but established a reputation as an inconsistent playoff pitcher. He finished 2002 with an 18-10 record in 33 starts, with a 4.05 ERA and 182 strikeouts in 215.2 innings. That October, the Wild Card Angels upset the favorite Yankees in four games, Mussina getting tagged for four runs in four innings in his Game 3 start.

It was more of the same in 2003, Mussina going 17-8 in 31 starts, with a 3.40 ERA and 195 strikeouts across 214.2 innings. The first three games of that postseason weren’t any kinder to Mussina that the previous year as he took the loss in all three contests — ALDS Game 1 against the Twins and ALCS Games 1 and 4 against the Red Sox. However, that just set the stage for one of the all-time moments in Yankees playoff history, in which Mussina was one of several players to play an heroic role.

Clemens got ambushed by his former team for four runs in three-plus innings, exiting with runners on the corners and no outs. Despite having started Game 4 just three days prior, Mussina came on in relief and struck out Jason Varitek before getting Johnny Damon to bounce into the inning-ending double play. He’d pitch a scoreless fifth and sixth before handing the ball to Mariano Rivera, whose own three scoreless innings set up Aaron Boone’s dramatic 11th inning home run to send the Yankees to the World Series.

He carried the momentum of that relief appearance into his lone World Series start, striking out nine across seven innings of one-run ball to catalyze his team’s 6-1 victory over the Marlins in Game 3, but would not be given another opportunity as the Bombers fell to the Fish in six.

Injuries limited Mussina’s availability in the 2004 and 2005 seasons, and he failed to reach 200 innings for the first time since the strike-shortened 1994 campaign. The yo-yo act continued in his postseason appearances as well. He started twice in the 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox, carrying a perfect game into the seventh of the Yankees’ 10-7 Game 1 win before limiting Boston to two runs in six innings in Game 5, though the Yankees would go on to lose in heartbreaking fashion, 5-4 in 14 innings. It was a similar story the following season, Mussina shining in a Game 1 ALDS win over the Angels but then coughing up five runs in 2.2 innings to get bounced from the playoffs in the do-or-die Game 5.

In the final year of his contract, Mussina rebounded to go 15-7 in 32 starts, with a 3.51 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 172 strikeouts and 5.2 fWAR in 197.1 innings as a 37 year old. He and Torre also provided one of the memorable moments of Mussina’s career with two outs in the ninth inning of a complete-game victory over the Tigers.

This late-career resurgence convinced the Yankees to keep Mussina in the fold, declining their 2007 option and instead re-signing him to a two-year, $22.5 million contract. That season, they may have regretted their decision, as Mussina was briefly demoted from the rotation and finished with a 5.15 ERA in 152 innings, easily the worst full season of his career.

That left Mussina to enter his age-39 season as something of an albatross in the rotation, making what came next one of the greatest farewell seasons by a pitcher in MLB history. He picked up his 18th win of the season in his final Yankee Stadium start — six innings of one-run ball against the White Sox. A few weeks later, in the 34th and final start of his season he pitched six shutout innings at Fenway to complete the one and only 20-win season of his 18-year career to become the oldest 20-game winner in history. The crowning achievement of that season allowed him to cross the 200 inning mark for the first time since 2003 as he’d go on to pick up his seventh Gold Glove Award and finish second in AL Comeback Player of the Year voting. It would also be the final start of his career as the Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

At no point in his era was Mussina ever considered the best pitcher in his league or indeed on his own team after joining the Yankees. However, he accrued the most fWAR of any Yankees pitcher during his tenure and won at least ten games every year in pinstripes. Because he was signed at the tail-end of his prime and thus never quite achieved the same heights as his best days in Baltimore, and because of his inconsistent postseason performances, Mussina rarely placed among the Yankees’ fan favorites. Thus, his Yankees legacy is at least somewhat mixed — in Mussina, the Yankees signed one of the best pitchers of his generation and he continued a pitching career bound for Cooperstown in 2019, but he was unable to deliver continued postseason success building off of the winning teams that came just before his arrival. Nonetheless, he still stands out as one of the Yankees’ most successful signings in free agent history.

See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.