We are just about closing in on the July 31 4pm trade deadline, so far general manager Brian Cashman has done a good job with the patchwork moves he’s made. As we’ve seen so far there really isn’t a juicy market of players this season, again thanks to the addition of the second wild card spot. It’s probably something we can look forward to seeing every time the trade deadline rolls around. Teams that are still just just hovering around are more hesitant to sell, especially with two months left to play.
Getting down to brass tacks, every deal so far has been very cost efficient and very effective thus far. That means Cashman is picking his battles carefully. According to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, Cashman believes the Yankees do have prospects other clubs consider “high-end talent.” What their actual values are certainly speculative, but it was enough for Cashman to pump the brakes on the rumored Ian Kennedy deal says CBSSports Jon Heyman. He felt that dealing prospects like 3B Eric Jagielo and left-hander Ian Clarkin for Kennedy was too costly. I wouldn’t mind a reunion with Kennedy, I just think the Padres are going to stick to their guns and not let him go cheaply.
The Brandon McCarthy and Chase Headley deals were a product of the Yankees doing their homework. Instead the scouting department is looking at more advanced metrics then traditional statistics you see in the box scores, and there’s nothing wrong with that. For McCarthy it was his cutter, something Yankee scouts noticed he wasn’t utilizing in Arizona. But since being traded the coaching staff has encouraged McCarthy to start using his cutter more, and it looks like its paying off. Since coming over in the July 6 trade, McCarthy has been 2-0 with 1.45 ERA in three starts. As for Chase Headley, it was all about the “hit velo” according to Cashman. For those of you not sure what he was talking about, he was referring to spike in the speed of the baseball coming off his bat. Headley was having decent July in San Diego, batting .323 with 6 extra base hits one homer and nine RBI. Putting those numbers aside, scouts looked at some of his advanced metrics and felt his bat would translate nicely in Yankee Stadium. So far Headley has had an eventful and productive few games since joining the team. He’s 8-for-22 and one home run in six games and had that memorable walk off hit in Tuesday’s extra innings affair against Texas. Let’s not forget his glove has also been pretty good.
What else can we expect from Cashman in the coming days? I expect some more small and low risk calculated moves. The blockbuster deal everyone is expecting is probably not going to happen, but instead they will continue to scout carefully around the league for players that won’t cost the team what little prospects they currently have. Doesn’t mean if the right deal presented itself Cashman wouldn’t pull the trigger, its more about quantity not quality this year. I’m not going to say that I we need more pitching instead of offense and vise versa, just continue to make moves that make sense regardless of what we are used to seeing from the Yankees.
As we just saw with the Chris Capuano acquisition, that there is no pinpointing what exact moves Cashman is going to make, regardless of what all the rumors say. If had to take a guess, I would say the Yankees are looking at possible upgrades at all positions. The Rockies have a few players that might work, left-handers Jorge De La Rosa and Brett Anderson are a possibility, along with C/1B Willan Rosario who’s a right-handed power bat. He hasn’t played much first base this year, but still could fit. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ second baseman Aaron Hill is another rumored target. Matt Kemp’s name has been floating around but ESPN New York reports the Yankees have no interest. The Phillies Marlon Byrd could work, but he is also a fit for a lot of other teams. Now the latest names to get thrown in the mix are Twins outfielder Josh Willingham and the Rangers Alex Rios, but stop right there with Rios, he has the Yankees on his no-trade list says FoxSports John Morosi There has been mild interest in the White Sox starter John Danks, but he has an ugly contact. He still might be the mix though, seeing how Cashman is scooping up left-handed pitching like crazy.
Just don’t expect a deal for David Price, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee , or even Troy Tulowitzki. Don’t take him being at Yankee stadium yesterday as any special sign, it was just a strange decision by Tulo, who said he was just there to see Jeter play one last time.
