Yankees Trade Partners: The Cleveland Indians

The duo of Randy Levine and Hal Steinbrenner may not want to be sellers at this year’s August 1^st trading deadline but I like to consider myself a realistic fan (emphasis on the word fan and not words such as insider, expert or journalist) so I am already preparing for at least a few trades to be made this summer. Looking around the Yankees have a lot of talent they can trade and looking even deeper there are a lot of teams that could benefit from one or multiple players currently employed by the pinstripes including the team the Yankees just beat up on before the All-Star break, the Cleveland Indians.

Two of the names thrown around most often in Yankees-related trade rumors are Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman and some of the major players said to be interested in their services include the Chicago Cubs, the Washington Nationals, the Texas Rangers, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants but one team I consider to be a sleeper for one or both of them is the Cleveland Indians. Buster Olney reiterated these same sentiments in a recent tweet which I used as inspiration for this post.

The Indians are in first place and running away with the division but their closer Cody Allen is one of only a few bright spots in that Cleveland bullpen. The Cleveland bullpen does not miss bats and seemingly make every game interesting, that would certainly change with either Chapman, Miller or both in their bullpen. The best part about it, at least for the Yankees anyway, is that Cleveland has the young talent and MLB ready talent to not only pull off a trade for one or the other but could probably put together a deal to acquire both if so motivated.

Before the 2016 season began the Indians farm system was ranked 6^th overall by Minor League Ball, 16^th by Baseball America and 15^th by Baseball Prospectus. That is after you consider the promotions of Francisco Lindor and others to the show which means there is still top talent there and the team is young enough on the field in their core where they could be willing and able to trade some of their top talent now to fill in the gaps. Who would that include? Your guess is as good as mine but it’s worth keeping a keen eye on as we inch closer to the trading deadline at the end of this month.