Yankees & Mariners in Talks for Brett Gardner

According to reports the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners are having preliminary talks regarding New York’s left fielder Brett Gardner. Jerry Dipoto, the former Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim GM and current Seattle Mariners GM, and Yankees GM Brian Cashman have a history of working together meaning that a deal could be struck if the right players are offered up by both sides. Dipoto has reportedly been interested in Gardner’s services for quite some time and now has a plethora of options to offer Cashman for his left fielder, will Cashman bite on any of them?

No more is known other than what was posted in the above paragraph. There are no reports or even speculation of the players that could potentially join Gardner in a trade nor are there any reports of what Seattle may be offering in exchange for the Yankees left fielder. One name that has been thrown around by beat writers and bloggers though is left-handed pitcher James Paxton.

If the Yankees can grab Paxton for Gardner you have to think that New York pulls the trigger every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Gardner is owed roughly $38 million over the next three seasons including a buyout of his 2019 option while Paxton is still arbitration eligible and under team control until the 2020 season. Seattle has expressed a willingness to trade Paxton as recently as this winter so a deal could be in the makings.

If New York was to acquire Paxton they would be acquiring a 27-year old left-handed starting pitcher who has averaged a 3.16 ERA, 3.70 FIP and 1.255 WHIP in his three partial seasons in the big leagues. Paxton has never pitched more than 74.0 innings in the Major Leagues in any season so he’s still a relative unknown with a small sample size, which is why I am basically ignoring his 1.1 HR/9 ratio in 2015, but for New York you would have to think the risk is worth the potential reward, especially with a Yoenis Cespedes, Jason Heyward and Justin Upton still out there on the free agent market…