The New York Yankees have been
quiet in the free agent market this offseason but that doesn't mean they have
been quiet. They have made a couple of
big offseason trades. The first one was
to get their second baseman, they traded Adam Warren and a PTBNL that became
Brendan Ryan for Starlin Castro. Castro
was expendable to the Cubs because of the younger prospects they had coming up
Addison Russell who took his SS job and by signing Ben Zobrist to play second. Castro has been in the majors for six years
and been a 3X all star. He is only 26
years old and fits the mold of what the Yankees want, young athletic players. He has a contract but it is reasonable.
He is a guy who struggled a lot of
last year but really took off when he was moved to second base. He should stabalize the position for sure and
allow Dustin Ackley and Rob Refsnyder to be more of platoon players and backups in case of
injury. It will be very fun to watch
Castro and Gregorius team up for years to come as the double play combo for the
New York Yankees. Castro also in being a
Yankee won't have to be the main guy like he was counted on for so long in
Chicago and I think that will help him.
I could see him hitting 28-290 with some more power then he has shown in
the past and solid defense at second base.
He has the potential to be an all star 2B and the Yankees will be
thrilled if that does happen.
The Yankees made an even bigger
deal before the holidays in landing all star closer Aroldis Chapman. They traded away four minor leaguers to get
him. Rookie Davis and Eric Jagielo and
then Tony Renda and Caleb Cotham. This was
a really good deal for the Yankees and the price dropped considerably because
of the domestic abuse investigation Chapman is going through. It is expected that he will serve some type
of suspension to start next season but probably not a really long one. If he does serve more than 42 days the
Yankees would get him an extra year as he is currently able to become a free
agent after this season. If the Yankees
hold on to Andrew Miller this will form arguably the best bullpen in the
history of baseball. The Yankees have
Miller, Chapman and Dellin Betances who were the only three relievers in all of
MLB last season to record 100+ strikeouts.
They also are the three leading K/9 inning guys in all of baseball. The starters go six innings and the game is
pretty much over, maybe even 5+ in some cases.
It should be a real treat to see the back end of this bullpen close out
games for now and maybe a few years to come.
The Yankees also made a minor
trade, sending Justin Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for a couple of minor league
pitchers who will add depth to AAA and possibly be in line to spot start this
season if any injuries occur. We will
wait and see on that but at least it adds depth and now with Chapman in the mix
the Yankees definitely didn't hurt their bullpen. It will also allow guys like James Pazos and
Jacob Lindgren two young homegrown relievers to have a shot in the bullpen this
upcoming season.
