The Yankees are reportedly open to nearly any scenario this winter, and according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, that includes trading Andrew Miller. While Heyman is careful to note that the scenario isn’t likely and the Yankees aren’t actively shopping their excellent closer, other clubs have said that Miller’s name is “out there a bit,” as Heyman puts it. Andy Martino of the New York Daily News applauds GM Brian Cashman’s open-mindedness (Twitter link). He speculates that the Yankees could flip Miller for immediate help and then trade prospects to acquire Craig Kimbrel from the Padres, leaving the 2016 club improved overall. The Yankees already have a dominant late-inning arm that could step into the ninth inning in place of Miller, of course, in Dellin Betances, though there’s certainly something to be said for having a pair of shutdown arms to handle the final two-plus innings of a game.
A few more notes from the relief market as the GM Meetings get underway…
- Preliminary interest in Darren O’Day is “steep,” tweets Heyman, who adds that the Tigers, Cubs, Nationals, Red Sox, Royals and Dodgers are all in at this stage. The 32-year-old O’Day is probably the top relief arm on the market, as he’s coming off a dominant stretch in which he posted a 1.92 ERA in 263 innings over a four-year stretch spanning 2012-15. O’Day landed 33rd on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent list, with Tim Dierkes projecting a three-year deal worth about $22.5MM.
- The Tigers will meet with the representatives for right-hander Joakim Soria at the GM Meetings this week, according to Tony Paul of the Detroit News (links to Twitter). The Tigers traded Soria to the Pirates at this summer’s non-waiver deadline, but that move was carried out by the since-departed Dave Dombrowski, and it stands to reason that new GM Al Avila, who is known to be seeking bullpen upgrades, could want Soria back in the ninth inning in Detroit. Paul adds that the Tigers’ preference between O’Day and Soria could come down to who is more willing to sign first, as the team will want to move onto other needs/targets relatively quickly.
- Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star tweets that Ryan Madson, who picked up a World Series ring and emphatically re-established himself as a quality big league setup man with the Royals this season, is seeking a multi-year deal on the free agent market. That’s not a huge surprise given the lack of elite relief arms on the free agent market this season and the strong results he delivered in 2015. Madson tallied a 2.13 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 63 1/3 innings with Kansas City this season. He struggled in the ALDS and ALCS before turning in three very strong World Series innings. Tim pegged Madson for a three-year deal in the $15MM range in the aforementioned Top 50 list.
The Yankees certainly can’t trade Miller without bringing on another elite arm. As good as he and Betances were last season, they barely got by with just the two of them. If anything, they should keep Miller AND go after Kimbrel.
Coming from a Yankees fan… I’d trade Miller and prospects for Strasburg or just trade Miller for prospects and sign Jordan Zimmermann
Three years of Miller for one year of Strasburg? Not a good deal for the Yankees. If they can get someone to overpay for Miller and a slightly better deal for Kimbrel they should pull the trigger. But the only reason to do those deals is if you net up. No reason to move an elite closer if you can’t make that happen.
Trading for prospects will do nothing for the Yankees. They don’t keep them around long enough
The Braves primary target this offseason should be getting Kimbrel back. They’ve openly stated fixing the bullpen is top priority this offseason. How about starting with the guy you traded away that wrecked it in the first place?
Braves are lucky he’s even available to get back. Ship Folty off. Guy isn’t gonna make it and Padres are stupid.
Braves aren’t competing yet so it would be pointless to trade away prospects for the future to get a good reliever when they aren’t even competing
No it wouldn’t. At some point they have to start adding pieces to get them back into contention.
If they plan on competing in 2017 like they claim, that’s only a yer off. They have holes everywhere still. They have to start filling them at some point.
Even before they dealt Kimbrel they said they viewed him as a key piece for the future.
How has that suddenly changed? They only dealt him because it was the only way to move BJ, not because they didn’t want him or need him.
His contract runs through 2018.
How long exactly would you like to wait before adding MLB talent to be competitive again if the goal is 2017? Gonna do it all at once next offseason (with a barren FA pool I might add)….lol ok. Good luck
Trading Miller shouldn’t be an option for Cashman, as jacoby noted above. If anything, Cash should look to add to the bullpen. Girardi is one of the best pen managers in the game. More options would lead to more wins. An innings-eater (Mike Leake) and another starter should be the focus.
I almost never understand trade speculation by the NY media. To get this straight: the Yankees could trade their closer for ‘immediate help’ (which = ???), then trade ‘prospects’ to replace their closer with a closer who puts up incredibly similar numbers but who makes slightly more money.
Why wouldn’t they just keep their closer and sign some ‘immediate help’, or just cut out the middle man and just trade ‘prospects’ for ‘immediate help’? Why trade Miller to then trade for Kimbrel?
Shhhh your making too much sense!
cashman wants to fleece AJ over in san diego. also- kimbrel is younger than miller. i get your logic though…
Replace “NY media” with “sports media” and you basically have a job description. Take a simple scenario and spin it to make it weird.
That’s not as interesting.
What is the point of trading Miller and acquiring Kimbrel? Could Heyman think of nothing else to write about?
My guess is Miller is available the way ANY player is available… only for the right price. If Miller’s name has been mentioned in trade talks it was probably with a team bringing him up and Cashman replying with “well what’s your offer.”
Can someone please explain how exactly the Mets are not listed as having primary interest in Darren O’Day? They are certainly in the market for a top bullpen arm this offseason. How can these writers, including MLBTR btw, just assume the mets won’t up their payroll, just because they haven’t recently. If the opportunity presents itself that makes sense, I believe they will. Signing Cespedes or Murphy is likely stupid money (see Keith Law). Signing the right top reliever for a much shorter term commitment is a much less risky and high priority move. If Omar had been running that team we’d have Michael Bourn in center and Stephen Drew at SS, and a much higher payroll, but definitely not NL pennant winners.
It hasn’t been reported here, but Marc Carig of Newsday reported that the Mets are interested in O’Day. As a cynical Mets fan, I would think that this is just bluster that they’re putting out there and they won’t spend for him.
Honestly, my dream offseason would be O’Day and some secondary pieces, but that’s just me.
Not really the Cubs MO to spend big money on bullpen arms, but with O’Day’s consistency over his career, I’d make that buy at $7M/per to lock down the back end of the ‘pen.