Not A Typical Salary Dump

"Sell, sell, sell!"

Ken Rosenthal was told by an American League executive that the Yankees are aggressively trying to trade Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes.

Although nothing is set in stone, word is that Joba could be dealt to a National League team soon.

I've said many times that, since Joba and Phil are in their walk years, trading them didn't make sense. Only a contender would be interested in such a player, and they aren't going to trade back anything of value. Unless they have a young player coming up, or a log-jam at a position, which I've only really seen in Colorado with Corey Dickerson.

But after giving it some thought, I think I see what's going on here...

The Yankees are looking to free up money before taking on a player from a team that wants to dump salary. So they are going to trade away Phil and Joba, while getting only salary relief in return. It's strange that the Yankees are wanting to free up money, but the team has been a lot more budget conscious lately.

Hughes and Chamberlain, by the trade deadline, would be owed around $4 million. But the Yankees aren't going to take that money and sit on it. No. The Yanks will use that "$4 million" to acquire a player or players whose team is simply trying to dump salary.

Some believe that team could be the Phillies, who would owe Michael Young and Carlos Ruiz about $4 million by the trade deadline (Texas gave Philly $10 million towards Young's 2013 salary of $16 million). But it still seems odd that Philadelphia, a team that's not hurting for cash, would make a salary-dump move like that.

UPDATE: Jon Heyman says that the Angels may be interested in Phil Hughes. The Yankees have said they are looking to trade Hughes for a bat, and a rival executive has gone on to say that Phil "could fetch quite a bit."

UPDATE 2: The Phillies are not one of the teams interested in Joba Chamberlain, says Ken Rosenthal.