Shopping list three months before Grapefruit League opener
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Dec 03, 2011 
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The Yankees are exactly three months from their Grapefruit League opener. They play the Phillies on March 3, and have plenty of time to change their roster between now and then.
With the Winter Meetings two days away, the Yankees to-do list hasn’t changed all that much. They’ve taken care of their top priority by assuring CC Sabathia will be back at the top of the rotation, and they’ve taken care of their greatest need by adding rotation depth with Freddy Garcia’s new contract.
Even so, pitching remains their focus.
“We’re going to continue to look for ways to reinforce it,” Brian Cashman said yesterday. “But we’re proud of what we’ve got and have high hopes for what’s coming.”
Still on the shopping list three months before the Grapefruit League opener:
Rotation depth
Cashman always says you can never have enough. Right now, the Yankees have a five-man rotation in place, with plenty of young arms ready to help if/when needed. But you can bet Cash & Co. will keep shopping for starters to add depth. Worst-case scenario, they find a long man in the process.
Left-handed relief
After back-to-back debacles with Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano, the Yankees might not be high on the idea of overspending or overcommitting for a lefty specialist. They have Boone Logan already, but clearly they’d like to have a second left-handed option in the pen.
Fourth outfielder
Chris Dickerson can play at the big league level, but the Yankees don’t really need another lefty in the outfield. What they need is a right-handed bat like Andruw Jones who can fill in at the corners and hit home runs against left-handed pitchers. You know who they might look at to fill that role? Andruw Jones.
Backup third baseman
Given Alex Rodriguez’s recent health problems, the Yankees need someone to fill some time at third base. Eduardo Nunez can do it, this roster spot seems custom-made for an Eric Chavez-type veteran who can handle the defense and provide a steady bat whenever Rodriguez needs a breather. Chavez might make sense again if the Yankees believe he can stay healthy.
No. 2 starter
Hard to say whether this is a priority or a luxury. At the right price, you can bet the Yankees would love to have a dominant No. 2 to slide behind Sabathia at the top of the rotation, but Cashman is certainly creating the impression that it’s not willing to give up the farm to make that happen. The Yankees will shop, but it will have to make sense to buy.
Associated Press photo
Looks like lots of upcoming fun for the Miami Marlins, should help them with their attempted free agent blitz.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne…..nce_120211
If the Yankees already have five starters and “plenty of young arms ready to help”, don’t they already have rotation depth? Improving the quality of the rotation by dealing from that depth would be more of a priority in my mind…
Mike Gonzalez has some negatives, but he manhandled left-handed batters. They seem to have a hard time picking up his release points, at least this past season. I remember he almost killed a Yankee earlier in the season. Dickerson didn’t quite see one of his pitches until too late and got nailed in the head.
Interested to see what the price point will be for him.
Re: rotation depth, what are the chances that they go after Hiroki Kuroda now that the Dodgers have signed Capuano? Would he be a good fit? He had a good year last year but how many 35-year-old + starters should they have (it worked out for the so well in the better part of the 2000s).
I have to give credit to Chad and others who do this for a living.
I have no idea how he can reel out several threads a day during this time of the offseason when absolutely nothing is going on in Yankeeland (or in MLB for that matter).
It’s doubtful that I could create even one thread per day. I would have run out of ideas before Thanksgiving.
Que sera sera .
I hope you’re ready for that deluge of PSU/Poterno posts coming in today to this site …
Chad pretty well summarized what Cashman is likely thinking. The winter meetings will not see the Yankees with a strong sense of urgency to make moves unless it’s the exact deal Cashman will accept. All of baseball knows about the good young pitching talent the Yankees have but Cashman is not about to give away any talent for the sake of making a deal.
If Cashman returns from Dallas next Thursday having done a few minor moves, it’s no surprise.
He still has the rest of the winter, the last week in March to see what shakes out from other teams and what leads up to the 7/31 trading deadline.
One of the best moves he made in 2011 was Cory Wade. Who saw that coming ?
Sign Jones and Chavez and call it a day? Certainly a team hat could potentially win the East, but I don’t know if it would be World Series caliber. With Mo in potentially has last year and Jeter nearing the end, I’d hope for a stronger push.
One unintended consequence of the new CBA is the higher stakes of trading away young players. If you’re the Yanks, and you trade away blue chip prospects, it’s gonna be a lot tougher to replenish the farm.
Back when they made the deal for Granderson, the risks were lessened because they knew they could replenish an Austin Jackson with later-round signability amateur draftees or they could throw lots of cash on IFAs. It’s not so easy now.
Re: rotation depth, what are the chances that they go after Hiroki Kuroda now that the Dodgers have signed Capuano? Would he be a good fit?
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Kuroda is not much better than what they have now. He’d be among several #3/#4 type starters. Certainly would provide greater depth, but not sure he makes the team better.
Nilsson,
It wasn’t unintended, in fact the way the CBA agreement has been designed is to prevent the finantial ability to play a role, they are pushing for baseball parity, so they are trying to constrain the big clubs. I don’t like it, because there can be no parity in sports in my opinion….You play to win, not to be equal, but unfortunately is the way that MLB is trying to go.
tucker -
Any team that makes the playoffs is “world series caliber”. The Cardinals just proved that. The Phillies just proved that being World Series caliber on paper doesn’t guarantee you even getting out of the first round.
dogface December 3rd, 2011 at 11:30 am
Re: rotation depth, what are the chances that they go after Hiroki Kuroda now that the Dodgers have signed Capuano? Would he be a good fit?
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Kuroda is not much better than what they have now. He’d be among several #3/#4 type starters. Certainly would provide greater depth, but not sure he makes the team better.
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Kuroda has made it a point that he doesn’t care to play anywhere else but the left coast.
In terms of rotation depth/potential number 2 starter, Atlanta is seeking “a young OF, SS, and other players” for Jurrjens.
Mason Williams, Eduardo Nunez, Warren/Phelps, and Whelan/non-top 10 prospect for Jurrjens. Mason Williams could be substituted out for Slade Heathcott if one of the 3rd or 4th players improve in quality. Of course this could be a case where Atlanta scouts could be particularly high on Heathcott for some reason and it might make sense to include him over Williams.
Sure its a decent amount to give up in terms of Mason Williams/Heathcott and overall depth, but most of the other players are unlikely to really get utilized/bring extensive value to the Yankees.
-Bullpen depth and 4th/5th starter pitching fodder are positions of strength for the Yankees and they’ve made it clear what they think about Warren/Phelps by not really giving them a full shot (which means even if they were given a shot their leash would be so short they wouldn’t have any significant chance of sticking in the bigs, better to just deal ‘em).
-Nunez is nothing more than a glorified utility man. His value is at his highest now, where the promise of future development can make a team like the Braves actually value him highly. Truth is his defensive shortcomings combined with his lake of plate discipline make him a distant shot at even becoming an MLB average SS, so why not trade him to a team that thinks his ceiling is higher.
With all of the injury concerns surrounding Jurrjens, he’s still has number 2/3 stuff, will only be 26, has a career 120+ ERA, and has a better than 50% shot of pitching like a #2. You give up a young, talented OF top prospect who has less than a 50% chance of making it and other pieces that the Yankees wouldn’t really use any day of the week.
Luis, my view is that Selig and a cohort of owners just wanted to contain the spending on amateur drafts and on international free agents. Simple as that. Selig threw in a bone for smaller market teams–the bonus lottery picks–but their top priority, short of implementing an actual hard cap, was this new system. So that it severely restricts teams from gaming it.
And whatever happens from the new system, they’re just willing to let it play out for the next 5 years.
“With all of the injury concerns surrounding Jurrjens, he’s still has number 2/3 stuff, will only be 26″ …
Yeah, but as you pointed out yourself, Jurrjens has injury issues. That would truly be a buyer-beware acquisition if I ever saw one. The fact that he has so much talent and is only 26 and the Braves would still consider trading him is a red flag for me.
You could go back 5 years ago and replace Jurrjens name with Ben Sheets and you would have pretty much the same pitcher – high upside, #2 type stuff, but an injury risk … Can you imagine if the Yankees traded 3 or 4 good prospects then for Sheets? We would all be saying how stupid Cashman was for not researching his medical reports more closely and trashing him for being stuck with a pitcher whose arm is essentially swiss cheese at this point in time.
I would rather get a pitcher who has less talent, but more reiliable “health wise” or not make a trade at all … either way I would stay away from Jurrjens and let some other team pay thru the nose to get him and then hold their collective breath that he doesnt break down at any moment.
yclept says:
December 3, 2011 at 11:37 am
tucker -
Any team that makes the playoffs is “world series caliber”. The Cardinals just proved that. The Phillies just proved that being World Series caliber on paper doesn’t guarantee you even getting out of the first round.
—
True, there are no guarantees. That doesn’t prevent you from trying to put together the best team on paper. I’d like to see them aggressively pursue a young outfielder with power at some point.
You’d have to give up prospects for such a deal. Both blue-chip prospects and second-tier prospects. There’s no sense hanging on to second-tier guys like Phelps, Warren and Mitchell unless you plan on giving them a chance. You need to keep one or two for rotation depth, but you probably don’t need all three. The AAA rotation becomes even more crowded this year with Betances and Banuelos. I’d be open to including the likes of Phelps or Warren in a deal if it lands a young slugging outfielder. Of course, you’d need to give up a lot more, but now is the time to explore a deal.
if chavez leaves, how about Casey Blake? He seems like he would be a good guy for that role.
Also if they end up trading Nunez, Mark DeRosa might be worth a look. He can’t play short, and may not remain healthy, but he is a solid, versatile player–kinda like a poor man’s Martin Prado (which I’m sure they would love to have).
“You could go back 5 years ago and replace Jurrjens name with Ben Sheets and you would have pretty much the same pitcher – high upside, #2 type stuff, but an injury risk … Can you imagine if the Yankees traded 3 or 4 good prospects then for Sheets?”
As injury prone as Sheets was those next 3-4 years he still produced a great amount of value after throwing 156 IP in 2005. From 06-08 he was able to produce 10.7 WAR and a 3.38 FIP over approximately 500 IP, even though 2 of those 3 seasons were somewhat curtailed by injury. In the case of pitchers, sometimes its worth it to get stellar performances in 1/2 or 2/3 of the total innings of a pitcher who will consistently give average performances. Especially since average performers/starters usually perform even more poorly against elite teams (teams they will be facing in the playoffs).
As a thought experiment, I ask you what would you rather have in the postseason:
A) 100% chance of a starter who you know will give you 5/6 IP and 4-5 ER (e.g. Mark Buerhle or some other consistent, average pitcher
or
B) 67% chance of a starter who will give you 6/7 IP 2-3 ER and if he’s injured a 33% chance of having a Warren type pitch and give you 6 IP 5-6 ER?
I would prefer the latter, especially because the difference between a Buerhle and Warren/Noesi performance against an elite team is probably less than I pointed out and you always want to take the chance of a dominant performance in the postseason because those win games.