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PINEDA for MONTERO: Did the Yankees make the right move?

The New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners have agreed upon one of the more unique trades in recent memory; exchanging top prospects/rookies Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero in a four-player deal.  In today’s Baseball market—which sees the biggest gap between big-market and small-market teams in all of professional sports—big-market teams usually exchange their top prospects for small-market teams’ proven veteran players whom they cannot afford to keep in the coming years.  Small market teams use this tactic to rebuild (although some seem to be in a perpetual rebuilding stage) and big-market teams use this tactic to obtain top players before they hit the free-agent market.  This trade however is an old fashioned exchange of young talent, power-hitter for power-pitcher.  But from the Yankees perspective, did they make the right move?

 

Argument for:

If you believe that pitching is more valuable than offense, then it’s easy to see that the Yankees made the right move trading Montero for Pineda.  Pineda is a young power pitcher who had a very impressive rookie season.  The additions of Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda add much needed depth behind Sabathia, making the Yankees rotation one of the strongest in Baseball.  It also allows the Yankees to be more patient with youngsters Manny Banuelos (age 20) and Dellin Betances (age 23).

This trade also suggests that the Yankees did not believe that Montero could be a major-league catcher, at least not anytime soon.  There is no doubt that Montero can and will be a productive major-league bat this coming season, but with Russell Martin back under contract in 2012, Montero would have actually struggled to find playing time outside of DH.  Rodriguez, who is aging quickly and under contract until 2017, projects to see a lot more DH-time this year which was bad news for Montero.  The reality was the Montero did not have a clear role on the 2012 Yankees.  Montero is too talented to remain in Triple-A yet too raw to be a full-time catcher on a team expected to win the World Series.  For the Yankees, trading Montero not only made sense but brought them the most value.

 

Argument against:

It is no secret that the Yankees offense is aging quickly, and was actually the main reason they lost in the Division Series to Detroit last October.  Derek Jeter, despite his great second half in 2011, is not the same player he was just two years prior.  Alex Rodriguez is aging even faster than Jeter, not uncommon for ex-steroid users.  Mark Teixeira is still a very productive player but has declined his past two years in pinstripes.

The core of the Yankees lineup is on the back-nine of their careers, with the exception of Cano.  Having Montero, who just turned 22 this past November, to slot behind Cano for the next decade would have been a luxury for the Yankees.  Giving up that type of player who also has the potential to catch makes this deal difficult to swallow.

 

Verdict:

This was a deal the Yankees absolutely had to make.  As the Yankees offense seems to be aging, their pitching core seems to be more youthful than ever; a welcomed reality for Yankees fans.