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…..
No comments:
Post a Comment
Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)