During last off season, Yankee fans, Red Sox fans, national pundits and sportswriters everywhere all agreed on one thing. Sometime around the midseason trade deadline, the Yanks will make a deal for a starting pitcher, period. The reasoning was as follows. The Red Sox have a better starting five, the Yanks have the chips to make a deal happen, and someone, somewhere will become available. Somebody always does. But as we approach the deadline and look at who’s available, it becomes more and more clear that the Yankees will not be in the market for any of the pitchers currently on the trade block barring an injury to their staff. Brian Cashman was quoted saying this earlier in the week:
“I’d be shocked if I could trade for anything better than what I’m getting off the DL, both with starters in Colon and Hughes and in the bullpen with Soriano,” Cashman said.
Let’s start off by assuming that in a few weeks both Bartolo Colon and Phil Hughes will have returned healthy and effective to the Yankee rotation. Colon looked great again yesterday, and Hughes has shown good velocity deep in games in his rehab starts. At that point we’re all wondering where the Yanks will pitch all these guys and who will be the odd man out. MJR penned a piece exploring Phil Hughes’ return, and Rob Neyer recently posited that the Yanks will soon find themselves with an embarrassment of riches, having 7 quality starters for 5 rotation slots. And that’s just the proven pitchers with an MLB pedigree. In terms of depth, if Nova’s the odd man out in the rotation then he gives you a long man option who could return to the rotation in case of injury/ineffectiveness. Brian Gordon can fill in here and there and give the Yank offense a chance to win. Adam Warren is flat out rolling in AAA. Even Hector Noesi could give you a some innings in a pinch if you have a well rested bullpen behind him. Chad Jennings thinks the best available starters may be in-house, and I agree. Here’s your starting five after the All Star break:
1-CC Sabathia
2-Bartolo Colon
3-AJ Burnett
4-Phil Hughes
4-Nova/Garcia
Where’s the need for a starter? Colon was the 2nd best pitcher on the staff over the first few months of the season, and at times was arguably better than CC. Phil Hughes (when healthy) is a solid #2 or 3 starter on any team in baseball not named the Phillies. Good AJ can dominate, bad AJ gets killed, you’d have no issue making Burnett a game 4 starter in a playoff series (if its not elimination). If those guys are healthy and performing to the backs of their baseball cards, you can head into October feeling you match up well with anyone in the AL. The Sox may have a better 1-2, but the Yanks are more deep in quality starters and have a much better bullpen which could be even better once Soriano returns.
I don’t mean to dismiss the fact that everyone not named CC has some question marks on that staff. But the Yanks have the depth to weather those storms should they occur, and you could argue they have an ace in CC, and three #2s in Colon, Hughes and Burnett. Should a clear upgrade present itself via trade, we can all agree that Cash should pursue it. But will there be a sense of desperation on the part of the Yanks to get something done at the deadline? As things currently stand, I just don’t see it.
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9 Responses to Do the Yanks really need to trade for a starter?
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TIQ IQ
I guess you never know who will suddenly be made available at a trade deadline, but for sure, Cashman is not dealing from a position of desperation anymore. Now, if someone who is an upgrade is made available, Cashman can walk away if the other side is demanding the sun, the moon and the stars.
These guys can get us to the playoffs, but only 1 can keep us in the game against boston… I am hoping Hughes can be that guy but he was really bad at the end of last year…
If Colon is throwing the ball as well in October as he has so far this year, you don’t think he can match up with anyone on Boston?
I agree that there doesn’t seem to be a pressing need for more pitching at the moment. But the team sure could use a left and right handed bench guys. Chavez seems to get injured in some rather unique manners. I mean breathing seems hazardous to his health. And Jones just isn’t contributing enough.
I agree that depth is not a pressing need, but the Yankees still might “need” a frontline starter to match up in the playoffs. At present, a CC/Colon/AJ/Hughes lineup is not especially intimidating, so I could see them being interested in adding a #2 starter should one become available (which may not happen).
If an upgrade presents itself, I have no doubt they will be bidders. But the list I linked to doesn’t have anyone that represents a clear upgrade.
If we’re playing — and dealing — to win it all this year, I’d take the contrarian view that everybody but CC is on the table and potentially expendable in Cashman’s eyes for a major addition or two. I don’t think our SP depth makes us less likely to deal; I think that and the money they banked from Lee’s uncashed paycheck offers us opportunities for a megadeal to pry somebody loose not on the current list of obvious availables. A big bench bat, a big arm for the rotation, a shutdown LOOGY — we could sure use all of the above, and I don’t buy Cashman’s possum routine for one minute. If the team expects CC to stick around after he opts out, they’re going to have to prove to him they don’t expect him to anchor THIS pitching staff for five or six more years.
Either way CC will be anchoring our pitching staff for the next 5 years, and either way he won’t be anchoring this exact staff for that long. The point is there is no big trade peice that would be available. I think the Yankees would obviously love to try and trade for a Clayton Kershaw, or someone like that, but with all our top prospects having relatively poor seasons why would the Dodgers do that? The only interesting on would be if the Rockies decided they wanted to get out from under Jimenez because they don’t think this loss in velocity is temporary, but then why would we trade for an Ubaldo with dimenished velocity unless we thought it was coming back. If I had a guarantee from scouts/doctors I trusted that he would be the old Ubaldo again I’d trade Montero and Banuelos for him.
I’m sure we’ll add one, maybe two, small time role players but I just can’t see anyone of note out there. At this point guys like Kuroda, and Wandy aren’t better than Colon, and according to report the Yankees have no interest in Liriano. Maybe there is some huge untalked about deal going on under the scenes, but at this point I can’t see it.
With Swisher finally looking like Swish there’s no room in the lineup to add a big bat, and no lefty available would be anything more than a second LOOGY to Logan. I can’t see the Yankees having any interest in a Heath Bell type when they already have Robertson, and Soriano scheduled to be back before the end of the year. If they make a big splash I think by process of elimination it would have to be in the rotation, and to justify it I think it would have to be a top notch starter. This also isn’t really a good year for any of our prospects in terms of value. Banuelos is walking everyone, and now baseball america says he has lost a tick or two, Betances’ control problems are back and glaring, Montero’s bat has fallen off with his attitude, and the same can be said for Gary Sanchez. I always saw Josh Johnson as being the most likely big splash at the begining of the year, but with him being on the DL that’s out of the question.