Sunday, June 17, 2007

Yankees Should Swing Another Deal

The Yankees have gained a lot of ground on the AL East leading Red Sox, who now have a 8.5 game lead. The Yankees have a lot of pitching prospects at each level, and could swing a deal to land Mark Texeira. But why trade for Texeira, who will make a lot of money in the near future and require a bundle of prospects, when they could trade for Dmitri Young, who would only require a prospect or a reliever to acquire him. Not only would that be a good deal because he only has one year in his contract, but they have an old rotation with good Double-A pitchers along with two solid Triple-A pitchers that are near MLB ready. A lot will be determined about a potential trade if he can return in time from that quad injury which could have him out for as long as a month. And trading for Texeira would only force the Yankees to trade some of their best prospects and ultimately force them to spend more money in the off season to replace them, instead of looking to their minors. Now one would argue that the Yankees have the money to spend on the best players, but everyone knows that a good organization and team is built from the ground up. Look at the Marlins in 2003, Brewers today, or Braves the past 15 years. By bringing in Young, it would also clear the way for Andy Phillips, Shelly Duncan, or Eric Duncan. Players that come up through the system are all on the same page and it improve team chemistry when players have been together for three or four years. Imagine a rotation lead by Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Kei Igawa, and two of the following: Chase Wright, Russ Ohlendorf, Humberto Sanchez, Joba Chamberlain, Jeff Marquez, or Brett Smith. They could always trade a couple of them but they would have to trade their best to acquire Texeira.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No way! He has to many problems. I wouldn't wast anyone on him.

Anonymous said...

Why not Tex? He is 27, a very solid performer, and would be the long term solution at 1b for the Yanks. Money is not an issue for them.

Duncan has been underwhelming so far. Maybe he can grow up to be a Tex-like player, but he hasnt really shown anything close to that yet. So why take a lesser player for a few years with the hope that you end up with someone who would be, at best, like what you can get today?

The Yankees have more solid pitching prospects than they need in the minors. Wang, Hughes, Joba and Kennedy would be an awesome front four in a few years, and they have at least half a dozen others who could easily be #5s. It would make a lot of sense for them to trade a couple of them now to solve the first base issue for a decade.