In the last 48 hours, the third place New York Yankees made a pair of moves designed, allegedly, to improve their chances of making the playoffs this season. In the first deal, the Bombers sent ineffective starting pitcher Vidal Nuno to the Diamondbacks. In the second, they designated multi-million dollar outfielder Alfonso Soriano for assignment. Let’s take a look.
To be honest, I like both of the moves. By ending Alfonso’s second stint in New York they’ve committed themselves to paying him millions of dollars to do something other than play baseball, but money isn’t the issue. Soriano is officially over the hill. He’s posted a wRC+ of 61 this season, which is objectively atrocious, and his WAR is at a career worst -1.0. Just by removing him from the roster for the second half of the season, the Yankees may be earning themselves an extra win in an incredibly competitive division. It’s the epitome of addition by subtraction.
Nuno, the farmhand who very effectively covered 20 innings in 2013, was out of his depth as a full time major league starter this season. He posted a 5.42 ERA across 17 games (14 starts) and, honestly, was completely unwatchable. While it’s true that Brandon McCarthy hasn’t really been that much better this season, he is, at the very least, a respectable big league starter and someone the fans can stomach watching every 5th day.
Of course, being tolerable to the fan base is hardly a reason to make a trade. The Yankees pulled the trigger on the McCarthy deal because his peripherals indicate he’ll be more successful in Yankee Stadium than Nuno was. He’s a harder thrower and much less prone to surrendering homers, a big deal in the Bronx Band Box. Over the course of the rest of the season, he’ll likely be worth a very valuable win or two.
Here’s the thing: a win here and a win there is nice– necessary even–but the 44-43 Yankees aren’t one or two marginal upgrades from winning this season. They need some serious help.
Coming in, the starting rotation of Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, and Michael Pineda seemed quite solid, especially after the revelation of Tanaka’s truly special abilities. Then, the walls came crashing down. Nova and Sabathia are lost for the season. Pineda, who was pitching well, embarrassed himself and his organization before hurting himself and missing the better part of three months. Kuroda has been fine but not the top of the rotation guy was the last two seasons. Guys like Chase Whitley and and David Phelps have done an admirable job filling in, but they are relievers and not effective enough to starte on a team with playoff aspirations. I’m worried about what’s going to happen on Whitley’s second time through the league.
To make matters worse, the Yankees haven’t exactly given their starters much margin for error. Now that the Yangervis Solarte train has derailed, the team is back to Brain Roberts at second and Kelly Johnson at third on a day to day basis. With the 40 year old Jeter/Brendan Ryan platoon at short, the once-vaunted Yankee infield isn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut.
If the Yankees are serious about making a run (and because they’re the Yankees, they are), they need to take some straightforward but drastic steps. It’s true they’re in third place and only one game over .500, but the first place Orioles are only 3.5 games ahead and the second place Jays have lost 4 in a row. A few simple, but necessary upgrades could go a long way to pushing the team back into October.
Fix Number 1: Find an Infielder
This whole Kelly Johnson thing has gone on long enough. Johnson was brought in to be stop gap for the year until the Yankees finally have to deal with the A-Rod situation. Johnson is valuable in the sense that he can play at first, third, or second but he is far from a starting caliber player right now, hitting .212 with a miserable wRC+ of 83. Other teams in the division have the likes of Manny Machado and Evan Longoria at third and the Yankees are running out Johnson.
I wrote a month or two ago about the perfect fit in the Yankees lineup–Martin Prado. The Diamondbacks are the second worst team in baseball and the McCarthy trade proves that a) they are open to dealing veterans and b) they can work with the Yankees.
Prado could step in right now and start at third, allowing the Yankees to platoon Johnson, the recently hot Brian Roberts and whatever combination of Brendan Ryan, Solarte, and Zelous Wheeler they’d like over at second. Prado is having an admittedly down year but that just makes him that much cheaper for the semi-prospect starved Yankees (and he’s still better than what they’ve got).
Fix Number 2: Find a Real Starting Pitcher….NOW
McCarthy helps, we talked about that already. Kuroda and Tanaka are solid or better. When Pineda gets back, the Yankees have to hope that he can pick up where he left off. But that still leaves a hole where that fifth guy should be. Even if they can make the playoffs riding the aforementioned starters, McCarthy might be better out of the bullpen come October (assuming he’s any good at all) and Chase Whitely should absolutely not be a playoff starter on any team.
Due to the general mediocracy of the MLB this season, there aren’t too many teams interested in selling parts. The Yankees aren’t in on the biggest prize, David Price, and weren’t after Jeff Samardzija either, but the A’s acquisition of Jason Hammel doesn’t help New York. The Yankees are after that kind of mid-level fill-in starter. They need a guy who can be effective now but won’t be too pricey.
One interesting name out there is newly minted All-Star Tyson Ross of the Padres. Ross has a sub 3.00 ERA over 18 starts and is owed less than $2 million this season. He might not be too easy to pry away from San Diego, but the Padres are going nowhere fast. They don’t currently have a GM and that’s a complication, but whoever they do hire will likely want to do some serious messing around and a deal involving Ross and struggling but talented third basemen Chase Headley might be possible. Such a deal would be a blockbuster and fill the Yanks two biggest needs.
Other interesting pitching names for the Yanks include Tom Koehler of the Marlins, Bartolo Colon of the Mets, Paul Maholm of the Dodgers, and Jorge De La Rosa of the Rockies.
Fix Number 3: Starlin Castro
You know when pitching isn’t a problem? When you can hit.
With their recent trade of Samardzija to the A’s for superprospect Addison Russell, the Cubbies are flush with young infielders in the persons of Russell, Javy Baez, and Kris Bryant. Baez and Russell are both projected to be All-Star caliber shortstops in the future.
Chicago’s incumbent shortstop is former All-Star Starlin Castro, a star in his own right who has been somewhat troublesome for Chicago in the past. Castro is having a very good season on a very bad team and Theo Epstein might be open to dealing him for the right package to open up a spot for the youngsters.
A player of Castro’s talent would require the Yankees to part with some big pieces, but given their need for offense now and a shortstop next season after Jeter retires, this might be the time to cash in some of those bigger name minor leaguers. Castro is certainly a worthy successor to The Captain.
The guy I have in mind for the trade is Gary Sanchez. Sanchez has the potential to be a superb catcher–but so did Jesus Montero–and with Brian McCann in the first year of a long term, big money deal, Sanchez might be expendable.
If the Yankees did get Castro, I bet it wouldn’t be too difficult to convince him to finish out the season at third base before taking over at short next spring. If this really did happen, Castro would be a huge shot in the arm to an offense and team that sorely needs it. The two roster moves this weekend were helpful, but it’s time to go all in on 2014 if the Yankees want to see some real results.
-Max Frankel
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