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| Gerrit Cole at 11-years old |
Here we sit not even two weeks into May and the hot stove and trade mill winds are already beginning to blow. The high-priced and big name players are already being rumored to have new homes once the calendar turns to August 1st and already the New York Yankees who are exceeding most everyone’s expectations are being thrown right in the middle of the rumors. See the rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh Pirates ace and former New York Yankees draft pick Gerrit Cole and the absolute stable of Yankees prospects it would potentially take to land him.
The asking price for Cole would be steep but one has to
wonder if it would be worth it knowing that you would have an ace on your staff
for at least two-and-a-half more seasons. Cole is not set to be a free agent
until the 2020 season and much like my arguments for Jose Quintana all winter
long this deal needs to be done and needs to be done now if Pittsburgh is
willing to pull the trigger.
While I would unlikely trade Clint Frazier or Gleyber Torres
you have to think the rest of the Yankees prospects would be fair game for a
player the caliber of Cole. Now notice I said prospects, Aaron Judge is not a
prospect. Aaron Judge is the starting right fielder for the MLB team. Luis
Severino is not a prospect. Luis Severino is the Yankees fourth starter. So on
and so forth. I’m talking a package of prospects from the group of Justus
Sheffield, Jorge Mateo, Domingo Acevedo, Dustin Fowler, Blake Rutherford and
hell maybe even Chance Adams. I like Cole that much. Two or maybe even three of
those guys plus a lower tiered guy would likely get the job done.
The Yankees would be getting back a 26-year old right-handed starter who has made seven starts
at the time of this writing with a 1-3 record and 3.14 ERA with 42 strikeouts
all for the low-low price of $3.75 million. The Yankees could send Jordan
Montgomery back to Triple-A or even to the bullpen while making Luis Severino
possibly the best fifth starter in all of Major League Baseball. This move
would also protect against the potential losses of Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia
and Michael Pineda after this season making this more of a no-brainer for New
York. Will they look two steps ahead and pull the trigger? Stay tuned.
If CC keeps stinking up the joint, how much longer do the Yankees hang with him? At this point, I trust Montgomery more than I do Sabathia. As for Cole, I would love for the Yankees to finally get their former unsigned #1 pick. But I suspect the starting point for any deal would include Clint Frazier. But I'd do it. In the long run, the Yankees have good outfield help coming with Blake Rutherford and Dustin Fowler.
ReplyDeleteagreed. I would be sticking with the youth movement over the balance of CC. it'll help us in the longrun (and what is seeming to be the shortrun also.).
DeleteTorres isn't going anywhere though. No one else is off limits. It stinks re: mateo, because his stock has taken such a hit, where he might be a THIRD piece... id try to avoid this, maybe save it for a previously high ranked/ broken prospect swap.