New York Yankees Rumors: Interest in Jose Reyes?

The trade deadline may have come and gone, but there are still New York Yankees rumors surrounding a former All-Star shortstop.

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Recently, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster trade that sent Jose Reyes and prospects to the Colorado Rockies for Troy Tulowitzki. The trade made a lot of sense for the Blue Jays, but for the Rockies it did not. Reyes is owed a lot of money, and for a team that is looking to rebuild, having Reyes doesn’t make much sense.

The Rockies were expected to try and move Reyes quickly after acquiring him, but nothing happened before the trade deadline. Colorado placed Reyes on waivers, and as expected, he cleared them. By clearing waivers, Reyes is eligible to be traded to any team in baseball.

According to Jon Heyman of CBSsports.com, the Yankees have contacted the Rockies about Reyes.

Reyes is certainly on the downside of his career, as this season he is batting .274 with four homeruns, 37 RBIs, 18 stolen bases, and a poor .310 on base percentage this season. While it is a down season for Reyes, he would be an upgrade over Stephen Drew or Brendan Ryan at second base.

It would be hard to imagine the Yankees moving Didi Gregorius from shortstop with his good play of later. If Reyes was acquired, he would likely be moving to second base. Reyes has been a shortstop for a majority of his career, but he did play some second base with the New York Mets in 2004.

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For most of his career, Reyes has been on losing teams, and the most important thing to him is to be on a winner now.

When Reyes was playing the Mets in New York, he spoke of his need to play for a contender, saying, “At this point, I just want to win. No matter what people say, or whatever people think. I’m at the point in my career where I want to win. If it’s here or someplace else, I don’t know. Next year, I mean, should be better. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my career playing on a last-place team. When I retire, I’m going to go home and say, ‘I played for what?’ You know, if I don’t win anything.”

The biggest thing about trading for Reyes will be the contract situation. Reyes is still owed about $55 million, which is a lot for a player on the downside of his career. Any interest from the Yankees seems to be just exploratory now, but it will be an interesting story to monitor.

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