Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics are no strangers to
jumping the gun and setting the tone and the market around this time every
single season and the 2015 season will be no exception. Yesterday the Athletics
made one of probably many trades this season when they sent left-handed pitcher
Scott Kazmir to the Houston Astros for a pair of minor league players. This
news is both good and bad for the Yankees as New York has shown at least
minimal interest in acquiring Kazmir before the deadline and he is now off
their board. The good news for the Yankees is that this presumably takes one
more team out of the running for Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto and David Price.
It is far from set in stone that New York will even acquire
a starting pitcher at this year’s trading deadline and if they did it would
have to be on their terms. New York is not going to part with Luis Severino and
they’re not going to part with Aaron Judge so the Yankees are unlikely to
acquire a big-time starting pitcher anyway or a rental. Taking Houston out of
the mix, who was said to be interested in all three of the aforementioned
pitchers, can do one of two things. It can raise the price initially as supply
and demand fluctuates but it also lowers the pool of interested teams.
Let’s fathom this for a second, Cueto is going to be traded
and so is Price because they have expiring contracts but Hamels may not since
he is due so much money for so many years on the wrong side of 30 years old.
Cueto and Price will now become uber-expensive but honestly unless a team comes
out of left field and shocks Ruben Amaro Jr. with an overpayment I believe
Hamels just got less expensive. The amount of teams that have legitimate
prospects and the ability to absorb a large contract just got smaller with
Houston’s acquisition of Kazmir.
Will this push Hamels into the Yankees arm in a deal
centered around Robert Refsnysder, Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird? Maybe, maybe not
but the acquisition of Kazmir by the Astros and the subsequent acquisitions of
Cueto and Price could continue to drive the price down for the Yankees and
drive Hamels from Philadelphia up to the Bronx just in time for another World
Series run.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)