Here’s a look at the AL and NL East..
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman understands the usefulness of dealing from a surplus in order to strengthen other areas, as Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News writes. Most recently, Cashman sent backup catcher John Ryan Murphy to the Twins for outfielder Aaron Hicks, who Cashman feels could become an everyday player. “We’ve just had a collection of catchers,” Cashman says. “It’s happenstance. You can trade from that area. The players get developed and some make it and some don’t. When you have that, it’s easier to consider the trade options to fill up another area of need. The players in your system are there for you to use at the major-league level or to acquire things you may lack.” McCarron also discusses 23-year-old Gary Sanchez, who could some day be Brian McCann’s successor. Of course, he could also be traded some day to address a weakness, just like Murphy.
- The Marlins appear committed to first baseman Justin Bour, but they also want him to get in better shape, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. Therefore, Miami will consider some inexpensive right-handed hitting platoon options this winter. Bour, 27, slashed .262/.321/.479 with 23 homers across 446 plate appearances in his rookie season.
- More from Jackson, who writes that the Marlins want to add two veteran starters in part because they don’t want to have to bank on a youngster like Justin Nicolino, Adam Conley or Jose Urena to be the fifth starter. Still, those younger pitchers will be given a chance to compete with a veteran for the No. 5 slot.
Yankees need pitching, period. They won’t make it anywhere without pitching. Dude the offense can score 8 runs some games but when they only score 4 they need a staff and bullpen to keep them in the game. Simple
They need to trade Capps, Prado or Fernandez for Adam Warren , Pineda
Most teams deal surplus or redundant pieces to plug holes. Cashman is not on to anything new here
And cashman can’t live via the trade this winter with all these top tier pitchers available. $45 mil comes off next year and $48 mil the next year. He and Hal have to get an ace in this crop while they are able to be had. Get young, fine, but we are the freaking Yankees and cannot afford these mediocre yrs especially as we are in the middle of the best free agent class ever!
Hal wants to get under the LT threshold. He won’t be spending all that comes off. He does not seem to care much about winning so long as attendance stays above 3 million. Severino might be better than anything on the market anyways, not that he couldn’t have both
Yea it’s a joke. I don’t miss the days of trading away all our top prospects but I do miss the days of being in on all the top free agents. Freaking CC and A rod have scared management straight apparently.
Good, Yanks don’t need to be giving out ridiculous contracts to aging players. Guys like Kuroda worked out much better than CC, similar production on short deals. The only long term contract the Yanks have recently given out that on a FA that was worth it was Mussina, and even he didn’t win a championship. Hopefully he can rid himself of a couple bad contracts this off-season and continue to get younger, Hicks was a great pickup IMO.