New York Yankees Winter Meetings recap

The 2015 MLB Winter Meetings have come and gone this past week.  There was a flurry of activity including a lot of rumors as always.  The Yankees were busy as well, they weren't left out although they aren't being the old Yankees by going out and throwing money around to high priced free agents.  They did make a couple of trades during the winter meetings which got them younger to add to a trade they made earlier in the off-season. 

The Yankees traded swingman Adam Warren and  PTBNL which is expected to be backup SS Brendan Ryan for 2B and backup SS Starlin Castro.  The Yankees were trying to get him as far back as last July and were able to acquire him after the Chicago Cubs signed Ben Zobrist to be their new 2B.  Castro is just 25 years old and will be 26 during next season.  He has played six seasons in the major leagues already and is a 3X All Star.  He had a down year last year but was moving off of his SS position and to be fair he was much better once he switched to 2B.  He has a lot of talent and he still hit 265 last season, Yankees 2B last season hit a combined 222.  Castro defense has been much better at 2B, he is a young, athletic and exciting player that is a career 281 hitter with a 725 OPS.  It would appear that the Yankees have definitely upgraded at 2B.  Rob Refsnyder will now either be traded or be AAA dept.  Dustin Ackley can be more of a super utility guy now which is good and Castro will also be the backup SS for when Didi Gregorius needs some time off. 

The other move that the Yankees made was kind of curious.  They traded left handed reliever and seventh inning guy Justin Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for two minor league starting pitchers.  The Yankees state that they need more upper level pitching depth but I wonder if there is more to come after this.  The pitchers that the Yankees picked up were Luis Cessa and Chad Green.  The truth is Wilson was good but he did walk too many guys and the Yankees do have young replacements such as Jacob Lindgren or James Pazos that could step in and take his spot. 

I am sure the Yankees aren't done and I am sure the bullpen will be fine as long as they keep Betances and Miller for the last couple of innings.  They do need some more depth in the starting rotation though.  It has the potential to be good but there are just too many question marks with Tanaka, Sabathia, Pineda.  I am sure having Severino for a full season will help and Eovaldi is good but the first three aren't very durable.  If they are the Yankees can probably win the division or at least be one of the wild cards again and may be better off this year, they are not a finished product though and let's see what they do the rest of the winter.