A few days after the Yankees acquired Javier Vazquez, Joel Sherman suggested that the Yankees may try and move some of their surplus starting pitching depth to a club seeking back end rotation help, with Chad Gaudin or Sergio Mitre most likely to go. At the time, Ben Kabak of RAB said the following:
On the basis of quality, Gaudin would command more interest and a higher return, but he will be owed nearly $4 million in 2010. Mitre should re-sign for around $1.5 million (Edit: Mitre only ended up with 850,000 in guaranteed money, with the chance to gain more in incentives) and would be a more attractive target for some cost-conscious teams. Less than a year removed from Tommy John surgery, Mitre struggled to find any consistency with the Yanks in 2009 while Gaudin was adequate as a long reliever and spot starter.
I was reminded of this discussion when I read Buster Olney’s column this morning, in which he suggests 10 holes around MLB that need to be filled, and noted two clubs that were searching for a 4th or 5th starter:
Dodgers, No. 4 and No. 5 starters. If the season started today, L.A.’s rotation would be Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and … well, they are looking for help. They’ve got some young internal candidates, but continue to hang in the conversations for veterans. The perception of some agents is that the Dodgers — who are in nickel-counting mode because of the impending divorce of the McCourts — want to wait until they wade through their mass of arbitration cases and get a clearer picture of exactly how many pennies they can spend on starting pitching.
Cardinals, starting pitcher and third base. St. Louis got its man in re-signing Matt Holliday, but they’ll have to save some nickels as they identify a third baseman and another starting pitcher. To be clear, the Cardinals appear to have a tremendous team in the making, but they don’t have a lot of organizational rotation depth behind the front foursome of Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse and Brad Penny. It is unclear whether the Cardinals will give a full shot to David Freese to be their third baseman after his repeated off-field troubles.
I would prefer to trade Mitre, but Gaudin likely has more value to the Dodgers, as he could likely be a #4 in the NL. Mitre may fit better in St. Louis, as they seem to be financially tapped out and would be attracted to Mitre’s small deal. Furthermore, I would like to trade one of these players for someone who can help the Yankees this season, either as a bench bat or as a bullpen option that fits the Yankees needs better than the pitcher that they are relinquishing.
Looking at the Dodgers roster, they have incredible depth in the bullpen, with Broxton, Kuo, Sherrill, Troncoso, and Belisario. The Yankees could not get any of the first three without adding prospects of considerable value, but Troncoso and Belisario are solid young relievers who have been relegated to 6th inning roles. A reliever of that caliber can make the Yankees more comfortable in deciding to send the loser of the Joba-Hughes competition to the minor leagues. There may be a match here than can serve the needs of both clubs.
A match with St. Louis seems a bit more difficult to find, but one intriguing name is Skip Schumaker. Schumaker possesses a solid bat for a utility man, with a career wRC+ of 107. He can play 2nd base and all of the outfield positions, although his UZR in very small samples has him as a poor fielder everywhere but left. He is not a spectacular player, but if you can get him in a deal built around Gaudin or Mitre, you should consider it.
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12 Responses to Trading Gaudin or Mitre
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I think the Yankees will try and move Gaudin if they can have Damon at a low price. In that case, it might just be a salary dump. But, if that’s not the case, trading Gaudin to the Dodgers or the Cards seem like a good idea. I’d prefer if they receive a reliever in exchange for him, like Belisario, though I’d be fine with a utility man, as well.
That makes sense. If you are ok offering 3-4M to one of the LF left on the market, why not get rid of Gaudin and offer 7-8M to Damon?
Yea, I think that makes sense, especially with Mitre around.
Are you all thinking what I’m thinking? St. Louis got their man, but they are in a crunch financially. They need back end of the rotation guys. The Yankees need a bench hitter. So… Mitre AND Gaudin for Pujols. It saves them money, and it gets the Yankees started on the whole “sign Pujols and DH him” thing that the writer from Chicago wrote about and ESPN picked up. It’s BRILLIANT!
In all seriousness, Skip Schumaker is their starting 2B I believe. I highly doubt they would deal him just to add a 5th starter who showed nothing last year. Even though it’s the National League, they could still bring up any Triple A pitcher for half what they would pay Mitre and get similiar production. I agree that coming back of TJ surgery, this should be a much better year for him. However, dealing off of what he showed, while his value is low, the Yankees would be hard pressed to get Schumaker. They spent all of last year converting him to 2B, I doubt they give up this quickly.
Regarding the Dodgers, you can forget Broxton unless you are offering Hughes. In case people haven’t looked at his numbers, he was been a BEAST last year. He would be great working the 8th as the eventual replacement for Mo, but we are talking about a superstar reliever. His numbers were OUTSTANDING. Kuo is always injured, and he is arbitration eligible I believe, so they might be able to get him. I still would love to see them do a Joba or Hughes plus something for Kemp or Ethier.
Yeah, as I said, Broxton and even Kuo and Sherrill will require a lot more. And Schumaker is the backup to Lugo and Brendan Ryan, who cover the middle infield.
Forgot about Lugo. I wasn’t trying to sound rude either about Broxton. I was just trying to invite people to look at just how fricken good he was last year. Also, there has been a lot of rumbling that Wang will wind up there on a one year deal, so Mitre might be the best option for the Dodgers as well. I do think that Belisario would be a great add.
I think I would rather hold onto the arms and use Pena as opposed to dealing for Schumaker just to make a deal. His defense is not good, and his bat is just OK. Doesn’t seem to improve the team at all, and I would rather have extra arms as opposed to extra utility infielders unless the financial savings will be put towards something useful, like a LF upgrade.
That’s fair, and I agree. He was just the only possible match I saw on the Cards.
What do you think it might take to get Ryan Ludwick (I know more then Gaudin)?
Ludwick had a rough year, I dont think it would be worth it to get him.
I wonder, though, if trading either is a good idea. Salary relief is one thing the Yanks don’t really need and you can never have enough starting pitching, even if it’s of the blah (Gauidin) or dogshit (Mitre) variety.
Our rotation has a career injury risk (Burnett), an old man (Pettitte) and two kids (Chamberlain/Hughes) that haven’t been the picture of health in their brief careers thus far.
While I do believe that you can always find the aforementioned blah or dogshit pitchers during the course of the year, I don’t see why moving them now would be so beneficial to us. I agree that snagging a potentially useful bullpen arm would make sense but couldn’t you just ask Gaudin or Mitre to fill that role? After all, bullpen performance is variable from year to year so last year’s Troncoso could be next year’s (fill in name of any reliever that’s ever disappointed anyone…).
If moving Gaudin/Mitre is just a means to clearing money for Damon’s return, I’m OK with that…but…I don’t see how the Yanks are suddenly so strapped that they’d have to trade from a position of weakness to bring Damon back.
Here’s another thought: Any deal made is contingent on keeping Hoffmann, so that he cannot be returned via Rule V stipulations.
I’ll take either of those guys for Mitre.