The New York Yankees are on the lookout for starting
pitching before Monday’s July 31st trading deadline and while the
hot stove is heating up involving the Athletics righty Sonny Gray and the
Yankees it would be imperative for New York to have a Plan B in place. This
such Plan B that I have in mind not only protects and improves the Yankees
during the 2017 season but it could be made with the 2018 season and beyond in
mind as well. Enter the Miami Marlins starter Dan Straily.
At the time of this writing Straily was posting a 7-6 record
with a 3.84 ERA and 1.185 WHIP for the Miami Marlins, a team that is struggling
in every aspect of the game in 2017 and looking to sell of pieces. Straily
could be one of those pieces but unlike Gray who will cost some of the Yankees
top prospects or pitchers like Yu Darvish who would be a true rental Straily
would help the team beyond just the 2017 season. Straily is under team control
through the 2020 season before hitting free agency for the first time in his
professional career before the 2021 season.
Straily is 28-years old, the same age as Sonny Gray just as
an FYI for those beating their chests about the Yankees and their youth
movement, and comes with a repertoire that could be an instant upgrade in the
rotation for New York. With every player you have pros and cons and one of the
biggest cons for Straily is the fact that he is giving up 1.5 home runs per
nine innings in 2017, that’s not going to play well inside Yankee Stadium. Period.
If you’re looking for a bit of a shining light through the fog on this though
Straily has also posted a 50.82 groundball rate this season along with a 17.62
whiff rate on his out-pitch, the slider.
Straily throws a fastball and a changeup along with his
slider and could instantly solidify the back-end of the Yankees rotation for
much less in terms of prospects than most starting pitchers out there
currently. The Yankees have seemingly found an ace in Luis Severino and if
Masahiro Tanaka figures it out soon the team will have probably the best #2
starter in the league at the top of the rotation. Adding in a Straily to pitch
alongside Jordan Montgomery and CC Sabathia gives the Yankees a deeper rotation
than they have had all season long in my opinion and, again, it protects the
team when potentially 3/5 of their starting rotation leaves after the season.
Some deals are complicated and some are simple no-brainers
and this one is leaning more towards the latter than the former to me. Leave
your thoughts below in the comments section.
I was on a plane a few years ago, flying from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco, CA and Dan Straily's father was behind me on his way to see his son pitch for the Oakland A's. At the time, Straily was the strikeout leader in the Minor Leagues and I can still remember how proud his father was that day.
ReplyDelete