Yankees & Dodgers May be Trade Partners

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost one of their best starting pitchers this offseason in Zack Greinke but the team replaces him the way they replace everything and everyone, by throwing money at free agents. The Dodgers gave $16 million a season for three years to left-hander Scott Kazmir giving the team an all left-handed starting rotation that includes Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brett Anderson and Alex Wood. The Dodgers needed a right-handed arm to add to their rotation and they went a long way to add one, all the way to Japan in fact. The Dodgers added Kenta Maeda to their already talented rotation leaving Los Angeles seemingly with too many pitchers and not enough rotation spots for them all, could that benefit the Yankees?

Kershaw, LOL, but Ryu, Anderson or Wood could be made available by Los Angeles. Then again the team could always convert one of them into a relief pitcher and add them to their bullpen but for the sake of this post let's assume Los Angeles makes one of them available. Which would interest the Yankees? New York is said to be interested in a left-handed pitcher that they consider cheap and controllable with two or three years of team control left as the ideal candidate.

Is that Ryu? No, not really. Ryu is only 28-years old so he is considered young but $7.833 million is considered expensive in many households whether it's for the next three seasons or not. Anderson is on a one-year deal after accepting a qualifying offer this winter and is a huge risk, the Yankees have enough risks and question marks in their rotation already, while Wood may be the most attractive piece of them all. Wood is 24-years old and is not a free agent until after the 2019 season. Wood is still going through the arbitration process and would likely be the most ideal for New York. Although there is something that comes hand-in-hand with being young, cheap and controllable. You get expensive.

I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system and I'm not an expert on their MLB team either to be honest so what the team would want in exchange for Wood is anyone's guess. Since the team attempted to sign Aroldis Chapman you would think the bullpen would be a concern for the Dodgers but I'm not sure I would be comfortable trading away Andrew Miller truth be told. The team may also need a second baseman to pair with Chase Utley so maybe a Robert Refsnyder would be attractive to them? I know one thing for sure though, they don't need any outfield help leaving Brett Gardner still in the Bronx for now.

I'm not sure if the Yankees have the pieces they are willing to give up for Wood and I'm not even sure that LA would make Wood available after signing Maeda, remember that, but if they did I think New York should be interested. Wood checks a lot of boxes for the Yankees and he likely makes the team a whole lot better than it is right now, and that's all that matters to me.