Sunday, July 20, 2014

Yankees Interested In Someone Better Than Whitley


The New York Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman have been open for business for the better part of a month now in the trading market. The Yankees have already added Brandon McCarthy and called up Shane Greene from the minor leagues and the weakest link in the rotation now looks to be Chase Whitley. Well it just so happens that the Yankees had some scouts in attendance for a starting pitcher that is better than Whitley, although he is extremely expensive. His name is Edwin Jackson, his team is the Chicago Cubs, and he is owed roughly $26 million for the next two plus seasons.

While the Yankees were in attendance to watch Jackson face the Arizona Diamondbacks and Edwin responded by throwing 5.1 innings and only gave up three earned runs. Jackson now sits at a 5.61 ERA with a 4.27 FIP, 1.563 WHIP, and a 3.95 xFIP. Jackson misses a lot of bats as evident of a 8.13 K/9 but walks a little too many with a 3.98 BB/9 ratio. All those stats aren't great but they are clearly better than what Whitley is likely to give the Yankees for the rest of the season.

The problem with Jackson is the Yankees may not have room for a struggling Jackson for the next two seasons. New York will presumably have CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, and Ivan Nova already in their rotation for the next two seasons. Shane Greene has shown he belongs in the rotation and New York also has a ton of pitching upside front-lined by Manny Banuelos. If Jackson were on a one year deal I may say go ahead and get him but he's not, so I won't.

2 comments:

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)