Potential September Additions at First Base?

The New York Yankees have been dealing with the deep bone bruise to Mark Teixeira for the better part of a month now and have no end in sight unfortunately. The Yankees have lost their, at the time of the injury, leading RBI man and leading home run hitter in the middle of their lineup along with a perennial Gold Glove Award contending first baseman in the infield. New York held onto their top first base prospect Greg Bird at the trading deadline and have been using him daily at the position but could the team be thinking of adding a right-handed platoon partner?

Just because the August 31st trading deadline has come and passed it doesn't mean that trades cannot go down for the remainder of the season. Players can still be passed through waivers and traded for the remainder of the season but any player traded during the month of September or October would be ineligible for postseason play. That wouldn't be a big issue for New York if they believe that Teixeira will be back before the end of the 2015 regular season so a potential trade may at least be in the works for a right-handed bat at first base.

Two names that are especially interesting are Houston Astros first baseman Chris Carter and Miami Marlins first baseman/third baseman Casey McGehee. Both of these players have already cleared waivers and could not stop trades to the Big Apple while both have right-handed bats that could platoon with Bird at first but both candidates are far from perfect or ideal.

Carter is batting .182 at the time of this post going live but he his saving grace has been the fact that he has hit 18 home runs and drove in 52 RBI. Carter strikes out a lot and his splits against right-handed pitching and left-handed pitching are almost identical, they are terrible. Carter is an all or nothing option at the plate and may not be any better than what the Yankees currently have in Bird.

McGehee has been bounced around this season between the Minor Leagues and the Major Leagues with the San Francisco Giants before being designated for assignment by the club. McGehee has not benefited from the change of scenery in Miami and adds absolutely nothing in the power department. If there is one saving grace for McGehee it's that his batting average is 67 points higher against left-handed pitching than against right-handed pitching making him an ideal platoon candidate.

The thing you have to keep in mind is acquiring both of these players is going to cost something either in terms of players, cash or both. Both players would also have to be added to the 40 man roster presumably costing the Yankees another player. Rosters are expanded right now so the loss would be minimal at this point but when I look at the Yankees 40 man roster I don't see an obvious candidate to go and that may keep GM Brian Cashman from a trade this month.