Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Nick Markakis Could Lead to Selling High on Brett Gardner


News broke earlier in the week on Twitter from Dave Gershman, former ESPN.com writer and scout, that the New York Yankees were in serious discussions with Nick Markakis on possibly a five year deal. It doesn’t seem very likely that the Yankees would add another left handed lead off type hitter into their outfield or a fifth outfielder all together but it’s the offseason so let’s have some fun and roll with it. Let’s say the reports are true and Markakis will leave the Orioles and become a Yankee, would this lead to the Yankees selling high on Brett Gardner and trading him for some infield help?

As I mentioned earlier the Yankees would have five outfielders if they signed Markakis including Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran and Chris Young. Now while it’s not out of the realm of possibility for New York to carry five outfielders, they did so for most of 2014, Alex Rodriguez being on the books really complicates things for the team. If the Yankees signed Markakis they would have two options, one more likely than the other, they could DH Beltran and make A Rod a $22 million bench player or they could trade Brett Gardner for some infield help, say Troy Tulowitzki for example, and play Markakis in left field.

This is interesting because, without comparing the two or daring to give Yankees GM Brian Cashman that much credit, this seems to be lining up (again, if true) to be a Billy Beane type trade for New York. Beane is known for shocking the world and trading a Josh Donaldson with four years of team control for prospects only to later flip those prospects for a Justin Upton for example. Could Cashman sign Markakis knowing once the ink was dry that he could flip Gardner for Starlin Castro or Tulowitzki or is this all just wishful thinking on my part?


Stay tuned to find out…..

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