New York Yankees don’t need an eighth starter
The New York Yankees are looking for another starting pitcher. EWB’s Andrew Elderbaum thinks the Bombers have enough and shouldn’t sacrifice young talent for more.
As we approach the halfway point of the season New York Yankees fans are clamoring for the team to trade cost-effective assets (Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar, Thairo Estrada) for a starting pitcher. Once again I find myself in the position of asking why. So why?
Right now the Yankees have James Paxton, J.A Happ, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Domingo German, Luis Severino, and eventually Jordan Montgomery. The Chad Green/Nestor Cortes combo has been fine in an odd fifth starter kind of way. Additionally, Chance Adams and Luis Cessa totally still exist. By my count that’s essentially two starting rotations worth of pitching.
Yes, there have been injuries, but they may be blessings in disguise. If German, Severino, and Montogomery are all available by August the Bronx Bombers are getting three quality starters back. Any innings concerns for them in the playoffs are avoided.
In the postseason, teams shorten their starting rotations. From Tanaka, Severino, Paxton, and Sabathia who gets moved to the pen? That doesn’t even include the expensive and average Happ (more on him in a moment) or the emerging German.
Would the New York Yankees replace any of them with Marcus Storman or Madison Bumgarner? Or give up Clint Frazier or Miguel Andujar to the team them paper over their rotation holes for the next few months?
There are constant third-grade level trade propositions floating around the internet like Happ, Giancarlo Stanton, and Frazier for Max Scherzer. Giancarlo Stanton’s contract is so brutal the Yankees essentially only gave up Starlin Castro and a few used athletic supporters for him.
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I’m sure Washington is salivating at the prospect of getting him and his four 2019 RBI. The Yankees also bet that J.A. Happ was the pitcher they had last year down the stretch rather than the .500 pitcher he has been his whole career when they signed him. Whoops, consider that a lost bet. He is fine as a fourth starter, but again nobody else is taking him and his contract.
If GM Brian Cashman can find a decent starter who he can pick up for some Sessa/Adams/Wade/Estrada combo that’s fine. Giving up on a player who hit .297 with almost 30 home runs as a 23-year-old like Andujar. Or someone that helped carry the team the way Frazier did when the New York Yankees were decimated by injuries, for someone who may not even pitch in the postseason is shortsighted and stupid.
There is a spot for Frazier as the everyday left fielder for this team next year with Stanton as a DH and the 36-year-old Edwin Encarnacion gone. As wonderful as Gio Urshela has been, the odds are this is a fluke season and he will turn back into a pumpkin that can play defense when midnight rolls. At that point, the Yankee Stadium faithful will all want Andujar back.
The New York Yankees line-up is already scary this year. Imagine replacing Brett Gardner‘s numbers with the .280 average, 27 homers, and 75 ribbies that Frazier was heading towards as well as Urshela with Andujar’s bat. The team would have a legitimate chance to have ten all-star caliber players vying for nine spots, with Lemahieu as a super sub.
By the way, Frazier and Andujar’s minuscule salaries would also free the team up to pursue starting pitchers to replace the retiring Sabathia this winter. Yankees fans are happy to throw all that away for the chance to watch Marcus Storman be no better than Happ or to get the honor of watching Madison Bumgarner’s career trickle away from the lights out pitcher he was before the dirt bike accident and line drive injuries, for a few months. Let’s hope Cashman isn’t so foolish as to do that.
dark. Next. Danny Green and Nets may have mutual interest
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.