Yesterday, we read a bit about the Yankees and Royals not necessarily being good trade partners when it comes to Zack Greinke.
As the article states, this makes sense. Aside from Jesus Montero, the Yankees don’t have much in the way of up-the-middle talent, save for someone like David Adams, but he’s far from a package headliner. Eduardo Nunez could also be considered up the middle “talent” but he’s a throw in at best.
This does, however, sell Brett Gardner a bit short. He can most definitely play center field, and his name, according to Jerry Crasnick, came up in trade talks between the Yankees and Royals. Obviously, for a guy like Greinke, Gardner’s not going to be the headliner. But, let’s forget specific deals for a moment. Would you include Brett Gardner in a trade?
Because I would. Gardner definitely has value to the Yankees. He’s cheap and can provide good production which gives him good value. However, there’s a chance we never see a season quite this good out of Gardner ever again. I’m always a proponent of letting a guy go a year early rather than a year late. Granted, this strategy works more when discussing free agents. I guess we could call the trade version of this selling high.
Replacing Gardner could be an issue since there’s no one in line to simply take his job. The Yankees could opt to run a platoon for LF if Gardner left via trade, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to that. Unless you’re getting something great in a Gardner-inclusive package, you might as well just keep Gardner and sign a platoon partner for him/Curtis Granderson.
In a package for Greinke, I’d include Gardner because that could lessen the prospect load. However, if we’re trading Gardner straight up for someone or as a headliner, I wouldn’t do that. If Gardner is the headliner, chances are he’d more valuable to the Yankees than the player he’d be traded for would. Of course, if the Cardinals really want to turn Colby Rasmus into Brett Gardner, I’d be happy to do that swap, and drive Brett to the airport.
The chances that Brett Gardner gets traded are very small and there are two fundamental questions: Would you trade Brett Gardner? Yeah, sure. I’d definitely explore the option. Will Brett Gardner be traded? Probably not. And if he isn’t traded, I won’t be mad.
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31 Responses to Trading Brett
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I think trading Gardner is a REALLY bad move. How do we know he’ll never do what he did last year again? Power isn’t everything. The guy can play. He’s probably the fastest guy in baseball and walks a ton.Fouling off pitches until you walk is a skill. Don’t people remember saying Soriano was playing way over his head when he first played 2B for the Yankees? He swung at everything, can’t keep it up, ect. But he did, For $400K, there is no reason to trade a guy like Gardner unless it’s for a major upgrade in the rotation. Greinke isn’t enough becauase no one knows how he would do in NY. Gardner in a package for King Felix? No doubt. Greinke? No thanks.
The Yankee outfield defense is fantastic and a lot of that is because of Gardner. It wasn’t too long ago the Yankees were dealing w/ Johnny Damon not even reaching the cutoff man.
Soriano isn’t a great comparison because we got form underneath that just in time, he only had a few years left of elite status but was never worth his paycheck or terrible defense and now nobody can give him away.
The Yankees never signed Soriano to that idoitic contract. But his first year here people were saying he was going to fall off a cliff and he didn’t for a while.
We won the Russell Martin sweepstakes, so we got that going for us, which is nice.
I wouldn’t say Gardner is a keeper, period. But his ability to work walks and play D won’t necessarily be flukes, right? You need to assume that the PR side might come into play as well, if the Yanks ship their starting LF to land a pitcher surrounded by question marks (as much as the raw talent is there with Greinke). Since they only made a jab at Crawford and never really pursued him, they’d be left without a quality LF, and again a potentially shaky SP in the NY market.
Not to say don’t go do this or don’t go including Brett in deals — just no clear-cut path for the first time in awhile for the Yanks in their offseason pursuit of talent.
Trading Brett should not even be a thought in anyone’s mind. He is an EXTREMELY talented player who’s best years are definitely ahead. The man is a walking triple….He is definitely a potential Hall of famer, with Ricky Henderson abilities without the attitude…..No way no how should he be traded….He is a classic leadoff man,and great defensive player……..Yankees….Just say NO!!!!
He is definitely a potential Hall of famer, with Ricky Henderson abilities without the attitude
Rickey says, you do realize that Rickey Henderson was one of the best hitters of Rickey’s generation, right (114.1 fWAR and a career OPS +127/wOBA of .386)?
I mean, Rickey says, no matter how much you might like Brett Gardner, he’s absolutely positively nowhere near the talent of Rickey Henderson.
Sincerely,
Rickey Henderson
Yeah I like Brett but he isn’t on Rickey’s level at all! Ricky could actually hit and not just draw walks not to mention being the all time home run king for leading off.
Like I said I love Gardner but Hall of Fame? I don’t see it and Rick Henderson? He will never come close.
Chris i think he is pulling your leg..to get a reaction..rickey had what 1400 steals,500 more than anyone in history, most leadoff home runs..rickey …crawford is no rickey..
OK but maybe he is but maybe he isn’t, not everyone knows the history of the game off the top of their heads and either way I have an opinion on the subject so I don’t mind sharing it with someone else who might read even if the original poster might just be trolling.
I’ve really enjoyed having Brett. There was all the talk of…Boston has Jacoby and Tampa has Carl..the Yanks are old and slow. And then Bam! Double steal of home for Brett vs Boston last year in April. Gotta keep this dude.
That steal of home that had almost nothing to do with him though and more to do with Martinez not doing his job like Posada in the playoffs, a straight steal of home is all speed but stealing home when the catcher is throwing to 2nd is just strategy and planning by a manager.
It was impressive… Until it happened to us!
If Colby Rasmus’s father is right and the Cards want to change the kid’s swing, Rasmus will get vocal to get out of town. I’ll pay for the gas and you can drive BG to the airport. I’ll cough up BG, Betances, and Slade heathcott for Colby Rasmus in a heartbeat.
I want to keep Betances! The kid has the most upside out of any starter in out system so I really don’t want to trade him for a kid with a terrible attitude who thinks he can ask for trades in his second full year in the bigs.
However I do like Rasmus and under the right circumstances trade for him but those circumstances don’t involved the Killers.
I wouldn’t trade Bret, Betances, Brackman or Montero.I’d like to keep Warren and some of the other young pitchers but the diminutive ManBan, the middle infielders like Nunez, Jospeh, Adams, etc, Laird and everyone else Sayonora, for a top guy and I think Laird is going to be a top flite hitter..
Banuelos has a much more assured future in the MLB than either Betances or Brackman and out of the 2 he is the only one I would be willing to guarantee will pitch in the majors as either a closer or starter.
I like all 3 B’s but Banuelos seems to be best “pitcher” of the group and between Betances and Brackman neither one may ever be anything considering the control problems and lack of a 3rd pitch (although I have heard Betances’ change has improved).
IMO ranking the 3 Banuelos is the most assured, Brackman is the AJ Burnett probably won’t ever pitch as well as his stuff kind of guy and Betances has the furthest way to go but the most potential of the 3, that’s how I see it anyway.
i seen brakman pitch last year, he was lights out that day..his fastball was97
Yeah that’s why I get a very AJ Burnett feel with him he has a good fastball and a great curveball but he is basically a two pitch starter and if one of the pitches or the other isn’t on he isn’t going to have success that day a lot like AJ, the change is the key to his development if he proves more willing to learn and throw this pitch than Burnett was then he can really have some potential but that being said would you be mad if he turned into prime AJ? The Burnett we have now is not the one from earlier in his career and he has has been an effective starter for most of his big league career.
AJs stats vs sox and yanks have to be great pre yanks..AJ can have a hugh come back year if he gets his mechanics back in sync..and maybe fix his private life up..not happy home, not focused at work.. we need him to be that guy who pitched great vs the best teams again..there is nothing wrong with his arm..
When did I say there was something wrong with his arm?
Burnett is about to be 34 in January so he isn’t in his “prime” anymore and all I said was that Brackman could be that and that isn’t bad not sure where the “something wrong with arm” came into the picture.
I really have read nothing about his personal life being bad so I can’t comment on that since I simply have no idea.
With AJ it’s ALL about his mechanics when he repeats them and gets on top of the ball his curve ball his good bite to it and his fastball stays down at the bottom of the zone but when he starts flying open and moving his head his arms start flying all over the place and that’s when he gets wild.
The biggest drop off stat wise anyone can point out is that his K/9 was way down and his curveball had a negative rating for the first time in along time and it proved to just not be an effective pitch, now I don’t about this for sure but Cubs fans have said Rothschild is great at getting guys breaking stuff to snap off and be nastier so maybe he can help AJ tighten up those mechanical issues and get the curve back. However even if the curve does come back at the end of the day AJ is who AJ is and he is a guy who has great games where he looks un-hittable and games where he looks like he isn’t a major league starter the key is to just have more good games than bad games and last year he couldn’t do that and maybe the curve was a big reason in that.
His velocity was down some but not enough to really worry me just looks like normal age decline but he still has the ability to hit the mid 90′s so he’s fine.
chris ,this what i mean about you,why are you on the defense, i made an observation that his problem was not an injured arm..how did you get that you said it was his arm from my comment? it was my opinion…and last year he had some issues at home..a black eye last,before that scratches or what ever..it is an assumption on my part…if a bar fight or club house thing, tough to keep that under wraps..just relax…where do you hail from chris
Why do you keep taking everything so personal? It’s like you read every comment in this angry tone in your head and then apply a bunch of emotions into my writing that isn’t there, this is something you keep imagining.
It just makes sense that when I was talking about Brackman not pitching to the level of his stuff like AJ and then you reply to my comment and talk about how it isn’t an arm injury, I just assumed you got it out of my post because other wise it’s just a completely random comment on a different subject all together and that is why I didn’t follow.
Once again stop taking everything so personal it’s the internet and if you read my comments under a different tone in your head I believe you will see that you are reading a lot into them, but if you can’t separate emotions from talking on the internet about sports I don’t want to have to waste my time and energy trying not to offend you with every single disagreement or word.
I also don’t care for you calling me son, I am not a little boy and you are not my father…. I don’t want to be mean but it comes off like you are talking down to me or something and it’s not appreciated. Once again I’m not mad about anything and I’m not even taking it personal just asking you refrain from the nicknames in the future.
Thank you.
chris, you responded with a question, where did i say about his arm..who is confused chris..you assumed wrong and i corrected it..and did i address you in any post today as ‘son’.. it was not meant to slight,that’s the getto way..
I already addressed that…
You just brought up AJ’s last year and his arm out of nowhere I had never talked about that just Brackman in comparison to AJ so when you came out with a new subject I didn’t know you switched gears. As I said I had to assume you were coming with something you though you read in my post but it’s clear you were just changing subjects but I didn’t really follow as to how you jumped randomly to there.
I don’t know if it was today or last night but it’s been said several times and I’m just asking for you to stop it’s really not a big deal… However I am not “ghetto” and I see nothing about the life style to glorify just something to strive to get out of.
Once again just read my comments in a different tone and you will see there really is none of the intent you keep adding to it, I simply have a lot information in my head I try to get out and express so I don’t spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how my posts come off to other people, if you get offended by something I say trust me it’s not my intention.
Now can we please just all get back to talking baseball? I see no reason that we needed to spend as much time on a non issue like this as we have.
Thank you.
chris, that was nice to hear, how do you like prior coming to the yanks
It’s what I have been saying since yesterday hahah
He’s a no risk high reward signing and you can’t get much better than those and since he has agreed to be sent down if he doesn’t make the club there is no pressure to force him into the pen from the beginning of the year.
Speaking of bullpen pieces I really hope Romulo Sanchez gets an extended look in ST because he has some serious gas, his secondary offerings aren’t great and his control is hit or miss but he threw 3.1 IP of 1 H, 0 R ball out of the pen last year. He got abused in the system being made to start games last year because his only real role in the MLB is in the pen if he is allowed to have a chance he can’t be worse than Brian Bruney…. Who ironically just signed a minor league deal with the White Sox.
did you see joba’s picture.. looks like he is not getting in shape. put on a few more lbs.
Looked around the same to me his face is always fat and the beard made it look bigger but his gut looked about the same however no one said you couldn’t be big and in shape look at CC and if Jenks is any indication you can be fat and play baseball too haha.
I would consider trading Gardner if the person they’re trading for is someone like a Felix Hernandez (someone said it first earlier in this thread, agreed completely), where you have to consider shaking things up a little in order to bring a talent like that into the fold. ( I also agreed that a brain experiment with Zach Greinke doesn’t interest me.)
Short of that, not interested in moving a guy like Gardner. At that price, with that speed….the fact that he can have long at-bats and can put it in play, as long as he has that speed he is a keeper to me. And the fact that he has a good arm is just the cherry on top.
He needs to “put the ball in play more” though because between the walks and the strikeouts he’s doing a lot of standing around, I love the walks and it does show a good eye but he can’t keep striking out like he does having over 100 strikeouts in 400 ABs just doesn’t cut it, he’d be getting near Granderson territory if he leads off and he doesn’t have the power for that.
He needs to learn that every once in a while it’s OK to swing the bat with less than 2 strikes and just slap the ball on the ground like he can and has done before, in comparison to Gardner look at Juan Pierre the guy struck out 60 times in 600+ ABs when you compare that to Gardner and his 100+ in 400+ ABs it shows it’s not a great number for a leadoff man and Gardner was better than Pierre by far last year with OBP.
hey chris , what did you think of the story on AJ?