Billy Beane continued to shake up his roster this week when
he traded away recently acquired shortstop Yunel Escobar to the Washington
Nationals for relief pitcher Tyler Clippard. First and foremost this goes to
show you how valuable shortstops are these days, even average ones at best in
Escobar, as Clippard even in a down season is still one of the better set up
men in the National League. This acquisition was a good one for Beane in my
opinion and it solves the Nationals second base job but it also begs the
question, could the Yankees have landed Clippard?
As many of you know Clippard was originally drafted by the
New York Yankees and was the Phil Hughes of the farm system before Phil Hughes
was. Clippard was supposed to be the next big thing to come to New York, win 20
games and blow the competition away. A trade to the Nationals for Jonathan
Albaladejo and a move to the bullpen later T-Clip, as I used to call him,
finally found his niche and enjoyed a nice stretch setting up games in
Washington’s bullpen.
You have to wonder if Brian Cashman could have flipped Jose
Pirela or even Brendan Ryan, plus others, to Washington for Clippard. Pirela
and Ryan come with more team control than Escobar at a much lower price tag.
Ryan has two years left on his contract including his $1 million option for the
2016 season and Pirela has all six years of team control left to just two years
and $13 million of Escobar. Shoulda, woulda coulda I guess but you have to
think the Yankees could have pulled this trade off and really solidified the
bullpen for good with a trade for Clippard. Oh well, what could have been…..
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)