ICYMI: Taking a Stab at Predicting the 2017 Yankees Starting Lineup

When someone comes to me on Twitter and asks me to write an article about something I usually don’t decline. I’m a people person, a people person that is extremely appreciative of the following he has and the readers that interact with him, and I’m a person who likes to put the social aspect back into social media. I’m no different than you, I just have a blog. A friend of the blog, Rooney, came to me on twitter and asked me to take a stab at predicting the 2017 starting lineup for the New York Yankees. I’ll do him one better, I’ll take a stab at the 2017 starting lineups and the 2018 starting lineups (in a separate post later today). Rooney loves to throw these hypotheticals my way, he was the man who inspired my post detailing my plan if Robinson Cano left via free agency, Alex Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season and if Derek Jeter retired (which at the time we were only sure of the Jeter retirement), and frankly I enjoy doing them so here we go.


As we know the Yankees have a ton of money and contracts coming off the books after the 2016 and 2017 season including these major contracts (with their AAV’s in parenthesis) that will have to be replaced before 2017. For the sake of simplicity we are going to assume here that CC Sabathia does not retire and that his vesting option for the 2017 season triggers making him a warm body on the roster in 2016. Let’s take a look:

1B: Mark Teixeira ($22.5 million)

Best 1B available on free agent market: Michael Cuddyer, Kendrys Morales, Edwin Encarnacion, James Loney, Adam Lind, Pedro Alvarez and Michael Morse.

First baseman Mark Teixeira is easy to replace, barring a catastrophic injury or moronic (in my opinion) trade of Greg Bird you have to think that Bird will be the word in New York for the foreseeable future. The Yankees already began priming Bird for the position this season and will call him up at the first sign of trouble next season in my opinion. He showed he can slow the game down and not only handle Major League caliber pitching but dominate it at times. Exit Teixeira, Enter Bird.

RF: Carlos Beltran ($15 million)

Best RF available on free agent market: Jose Bautista, Josh Reddick, Mark Trumbo, Michael Saunders and Gregor Blanco.

The New York Yankees as a whole have changed, haven’t they? I’ve been asked to predict a lineup for the 2017 season and with big money coming off the books I’m not predicting major free agent signings. No, I’m predicting that players coming through the Yankees farm system and are given a shot to succeed with the club. Enter Aaron Judge. Yes, he struggled for much of the second half of the 2015 season in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders but if you look at the stats and match them up with the timeline of the season you can see that his stats went down after his mystery back injury that was “no big deal” was reported. Back injuries can be scary, especially for big guys like Judge, and they can affect your swing immensely. Judge has all offseason to rest and rehab the back and has all of 2016 to prove he belongs, but he doesn’t have to prove it to me. He’s starting in right field for me on Opening Day 2017.

SS: Brendan Ryan ($2 million)

Best SS available on free agent market: Alexei Ramirez, Erick Aybar, Daniel Descalso, Ruben Tejada, Justin Turner and Chris Volstad.

Ryan is listed as a shortstop but really he’s a bench piece and the backup to Didi Gregorius. I could predict that a Jorge Mateo, Tyler Wade, Abi Avelino or even Jose Pirela could take the spot and keep with the theme of this post but there’s too many question marks there. Instead I’ll take a wild pick of Alexei Ramirez, a veteran right-handed bat with some pop coming towards the end of his career, to take Ryan’s spot. I expect a trade to fill the position before I expect a Ramirez signing but for the sake of this post we will go with Ramirez on a modest $3 million base salary and AAV.

SP: Ivan Nova (arbitration eligible until 2017 but we’ll go with $4 million for an even numbers sake)

Best SP available on free agent market: Jered Weaver, John Danks, Jorge De La Rosa, RA Dickey, Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, Scott Feldman, Andrew Cashner, Jesse Chavez, Stephen Strasburg and Dillon Gee. 

Honestly I can see Nova being off the club before the 2017 season and his first shot at free agency comes around. Since that’s too hard to predict we’ll assume he makes it all season in pinstripes in 2016 and tests the free agency waters in 2017. Looking at the starting rotation I see Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia still under contract so I can’t see the Yankees spending heavily on a starter here. Andrew Cashner is the most attractive piece of the bunch in my opinion but the problem with that is you pay for that. Stephen Strasburg is more hype than promise at this point in his career but he has a full season to turn those thoughts around. Jesse Chavez is the most likely signing for the Yankees because he is quietly a great pitcher that won’t command the huge deal that many others would but in the end I can see the Yankees signing no one and, for lack of a better term, pocket the roughly $4 million from Nova and allocate it elsewhere.

Total players coming off the books: 4

Total money coming off the books: $43.5 million

Adding the likes of Bird, Judge and Ramirez to the already existing contracts of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorius, Brian McCann, Robert Refsnyder (I’m assuming he takes over and keeps the second base job), Alex Rodriguez and Chase Headley gives you a lineup that looks a little something like this.

Ellsbury

Refsnyder

Rodriguez

McCann

Bird

Headley

Gardner

Judge

Gregorius

I cannot see the Yankees eating the contract of Alex Rodriguez, especially after his comeback season of 2015, and I can’t see Alex walking away from his final season of his monster contract. Brett Gardner may be traded this offseason, that’s the trouble with doing these prediction posts so early in the offseason, and so could Refsnyder eventually but this is how it stands today. What are your predictions? Leave them below in the comments section or shoot us a tweet on Twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow. Just don't hit the like button on Twitter, this isn't Facebook.

Would Alexei Ramirez Be Any Better Than Brendan Ryan?

The Chicago White Sox announced this week that the team has declined the $10 million option on shortstop and former All-Star Alexei Ramirez. The team will instead pay the Cuban-born star a $1 million buyout thus making him a free agent. With the Yankees uncertainty on the bench and the team’s constant need to upgrade, even marginally, would Ramirez be worth signing and putting on the bench at the expense of a $1 million DFA in Brendan Ryan?

Ramirez is currently 34-years old and has played his entire MLB career with the Chicago White Sox after defecting from Cuba. Ramirez is a career .273 hitter with 109 career home runs and 542 RBI in eight seasons. Ramirez was an All-Star as recently as 2014 but age, Mother Nature, a bad White Sox team around him, a lack of motivation or a combination of the four key items here contributed to Ramirez falling off in 2015. Ramirez finished the season batting a career-low .249 with 10 home runs and 62 RBI leading the team to buy out his contract. Would Ramirez be an upgrade over Ryan?

The Yankees presumably have two things in mind this season while they are building their bench. They need defensive versatility, flexibility and ability while also looking to add some right-handed pop into the lineup somehow, someway. Ryan has been considered to be a defensive wizard over his career but I haven’t seen it the last two seasons with the ball club. Ramirez is not going to win you any Gold Glove Awards anytime soon but the offensive edge goes to Ramirez and it’s not even close. Ramirez can play shortstop and third base, the two positions the Yankees need backup help at the most, albeit not as well as Ryan but well enough to justify carrying his bat for 162 games.

Would Ramirez accept a bench role and a spot on the Yankees? That remains to be seen but I can’t see the Ryan contract of $1 million stopping the Yankees from upgrading if they can. If that upgrade brings Ramirez to the Bronx, great. If it doesn’t then Ryan isn’t half bad himself in a small sample size I guess. 

Taking a Stab at the 2017 Yankees Starting Lineup

When someone comes to me on Twitter and asks me to write an article about something I usually don’t decline. I’m a people person, a people person that is extremely appreciative of the following he has and the readers that interact with him, and I’m a person who likes to put the social aspect back into social media. I’m no different than you, I just have a blog. A friend of the blog, Rooney, came to me on twitter and asked me to take a stab at predicting the 2017 starting lineup for the New York Yankees. I’ll do him one better, I’ll take a stab at the 2017 starting lineups and the 2018 starting lineups (in a separate post later today). Rooney loves to throw these hypotheticals my way, he was the man who inspired my post detailing my plan ifRobinson Cano left via free agency, Alex Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season and if Derek Jeter retired (which at the time we were only sure of the Jeter retirement), and frankly I enjoy doing them so here we go.

As we know the Yankees have a ton of money and contracts coming off the books after the 2016 and 2017 season including these major contracts (with their AAV’s in parenthesis) that will have to be replaced before 2017. For the sake of simplicity we are going to assume here that CC Sabathia does not retire and that his vesting option for the 2017 season triggers making him a warm body on the roster in 2016. Let’s take a look:

1B: Mark Teixeira ($22.5 million)

Best 1B available on free agent market: Michael Cuddyer, Kendrys Morales, Edwin Encarnacion, James Loney, Adam Lind, Pedro Alvarez and Michael Morse.

First baseman Mark Teixeira is easy to replace, barring a catastrophic injury or moronic (in my opinion) trade of Greg Bird you have to think that Bird will be the word in New York for the foreseeable future. The Yankees already began priming Bird for the position this season and will call him up at the first sign of trouble next season in my opinion. He showed he can slow the game down and not only handle Major League caliber pitching but dominate it at times. Exit Teixeira, Enter Bird.

RF: Carlos Beltran ($15 million)

Best RF available on free agent market: Jose Bautista, Josh Reddick, Mark Trumbo, Michael Saunders and Gregor Blanco.

The New York Yankees as a whole have changed, haven’t they? I’ve been asked to predict a lineup for the 2017 season and with big money coming off the books I’m not predicting major free agent signings. No, I’m predicting that players coming through the Yankees farm system and are given a shot to succeed with the club. Enter Aaron Judge. Yes, he struggled for much of the second half of the 2015 season in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders but if you look at the stats and match them up with the timeline of the season you can see that his stats went down after his mystery back injury that was “no big deal” was reported. Back injuries can be scary, especially for big guys like Judge, and they can affect your swing immensely. Judge has all offseason to rest and rehab the back and has all of 2016 to prove he belongs, but he doesn’t have to prove it to me. He’s starting in right field for me on Opening Day 2017.

SS: Brendan Ryan ($2 million)

Best SS available on free agent market: Alexei Ramirez, Erick Aybar, Daniel Descalso, Ruben Tejada, Justin Turner and Chris Volstad.

Ryan is listed as a shortstop but really he’s a bench piece and the backup to Didi Gregorius. I could predict that a Jorge Mateo, Tyler Wade, Abi Avelino or even Jose Pirela could take the spot and keep with the theme of this post but there’s too many question marks there. Instead I’ll take a wild pick of Alexei Ramirez, a veteran right-handed bat with some pop coming towards the end of his career, to take Ryan’s spot. I expect a trade to fill the position before I expect a Ramirez signing but for the sake of this post we will go with Ramirez on a modest $3 million base salary and AAV.

SP: Ivan Nova (arbitration eligible until 2017 but we’ll go with $4 million for an even numbers sake)

Best SP available on free agent market: Jered Weaver, John Danks, Jorge De La Rosa, RA Dickey, Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, Scott Feldman, Andrew Cashner, Jesse Chavez, Stephen Strasburg and Dillon Gee. 

Honestly I can see Nova being off the club before the 2017 season and his first shot at free agency comes around. Since that’s too hard to predict we’ll assume he makes it all season in pinstripes in 2016 and tests the free agency waters in 2017. Looking at the starting rotation I see Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia still under contract so I can’t see the Yankees spending heavily on a starter here. Andrew Cashner is the most attractive piece of the bunch in my opinion but the problem with that is you pay for that. Stephen Strasburg is more hype than promise at this point in his career but he has a full season to turn those thoughts around. Jesse Chavez is the most likely signing for the Yankees because he is quietly a great pitcher that won’t command the huge deal that many others would but in the end I can see the Yankees signing no one and, for lack of a better term, pocket the roughly $4 million from Nova and allocate it elsewhere.

Total players coming off the books: 4

Total money coming off the books: $43.5 million

Adding the likes of Bird, Judge and Ramirez to the already existing contracts of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorius, Brian McCann, Robert Refsnyder (I’m assuming he takes over and keeps the second base job), Alex Rodriguez and Chase Headley gives you a lineup that looks a little something like this.

Ellsbury

Refsnyder

Rodriguez

McCann

Bird

Headley

Gardner

Judge

Gregorius

I cannot see the Yankees eating the contract of Alex Rodriguez, especially after his comeback season of 2015, and I can’t see Alex walking away from his final season of his monster contract. Brett Gardner may be traded this offseason, that’s the trouble with doing these prediction posts so early in the offseason, and so could Refsnyder eventually but this is how it stands today. What are your predictions? Leave them below in the comments section or shoot us a tweet on Twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow. Just don't hit the like button on Twitter, this isn't Facebook. 

ICYMI: Potential Yankees Trade Targets: Chicago White Sox

The New York Yankees are in the middle of a division race with the Tampa Bay Rays, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays in a division that could come down to who makes the best moves at this year's July 31st trading deadline. The trading deadline is where the pretenders and contenders are determined and the buyers and sellers do their things. The New York Yankees seem to be like they will be big time buyers at this year's trade deadline while teams like the Chicago White Sox will be sellers. Do the Yankees and White Sox matchup for a potential trade this summer?

First thing is first, what are the Yankees true needs this summer? The team could use an upgrade at second base, right field and of course pitching. New York's bench isn't great but adding Stephen Drew to the bench along with Chris Young the team has some home run potential off the bench joining Garrett Jones. Who is currently playing those positions for Chicago you ask?

Jeff Samardzija is posting a 5-4 record with a 4.56 ERA in his first 16 starts and at the time of this writing which is not really encouraging for the club. Samardzija has a much better record with much better peripherals in his career but you have to remember that the bulk of that career came in the National League Central, not the American League and definitely not the American League East. Samardzija has a live arm and has the fundamentals that you simply cannot teach but he's giving more hits up this season than Nathan Eovaldi and may not exactly be cut out for the AL.

Chicago may also move David Robertson after signing him to a bulky four year deal to close games with the White Sox. While it seems unlikely that the Yankees would have two huge contracts at the back end of their bullpen with Robertson and Andrew Miller but one can dream, can't they? Robertson has 16 saves a a 2.76 ERA to go with a 1.01 WHIP so adding him to Miller and Dellin Betances is every Yankees fan's dream.

No offense to Carlos Sanchez, Conor Gillaspie, Alexei Ramirez, Gordon Beckham and others but the White Sox infielders simply don't fit into what the Yankees need. None of them hit for an especially high average and most of them are no better, or worse, than Drew at this point in the season. The outfielders on the other hand are a different story as the team currently trots out Melky Cabrera, Adam Eaton and Avisail Garcia. Melky is hitting just .251 through his first 299 at bats with little power while Eaton is posting similar stats through a comparable sample size. Garcia on the other hand is hitting .273 with seven home runs through 253 at bats and would add a right handed bat to the Yankees outfield. Garcia sounds like a great addition to the team until you remember he's just 24 years old and has just 716 at bats to his name in his career making Chicago more likely to build around him rather than sell him off this July.

Chicago may unload some contracts this summer but I can't see many, or any, of them coming to New York unfortunately. While Melky and Eaton may be better than Beltran there isn't a reason right now to make a trade just for the sake of it. The same can be said for the infield as well as Chicago's infielders are struggling just as much as the Yankees are at key spots, namely second base, while the pitching will be the key to the White Sox selling plan. If the White Sox want to make Chris Sale available or Robertson available for cheap then I'm at least listening but if not I think I'll have to pass at this point.

Potential Yankees Trade Targets: Chicago White Sox

The New York Yankees are in the middle of a division race with the Tampa Bay Rays, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays in a division that could come down to who makes the best moves at this year's July 31st trading deadline. The trading deadline is where the pretenders and contenders are determined and the buyers and sellers do their things. The New York Yankees seem to be like they will be big time buyers at this year's trade deadline while teams like the Chicago White Sox will be sellers. Do the Yankees and White Sox matchup for a potential trade this summer?

First thing is first, what are the Yankees true needs this summer? The team could use an upgrade at second base, right field and of course pitching. New York's bench isn't great but adding Stephen Drew to the bench along with Chris Young the team has some home run potential off the bench joining Garrett Jones. Who is currently playing those positions for Chicago you ask?

Jeff Samardzija is posting a 5-4 record with a 4.56 ERA in his first 16 starts and at the time of this writing which is not really encouraging for the club. Samardzija has a much better record with much better peripherals in his career but you have to remember that the bulk of that career came in the National League Central, not the American League and definitely not the American League East. Samardzija has a live arm and has the fundamentals that you simply cannot teach but he's giving more hits up this season than Nathan Eovaldi and may not exactly be cut out for the AL.

Chicago may also move David Robertson after signing him to a bulky four year deal to close games with the White Sox. While it seems unlikely that the Yankees would have two huge contracts at the back end of their bullpen with Robertson and Andrew Miller but one can dream, can't they? Robertson has 16 saves a a 2.76 ERA to go with a 1.01 WHIP so adding him to Miller and Dellin Betances is every Yankees fan's dream.

No offense to Carlos Sanchez, Conor Gillaspie, Alexei Ramirez, Gordon Beckham and others but the White Sox infielders simply don't fit into what the Yankees need. None of them hit for an especially high average and most of them are no better, or worse, than Drew at this point in the season. The outfielders on the other hand are a different story as the team currently trots out Melky Cabrera, Adam Eaton and Avisail Garcia. Melky is hitting just .251 through his first 299 at bats with little power while Eaton is posting similar stats through a comparable sample size. Garcia on the other hand is hitting .273 with seven home runs through 253 at bats and would add a right handed bat to the Yankees outfield. Garcia sounds like a great addition to the team until you remember he's just 24 years old and has just 716 at bats to his name in his career making Chicago more likely to build around him rather than sell him off this July.

Chicago may unload some contracts this summer but I can't see many, or any, of them coming to New York unfortunately. While Melky and Eaton may be better than Beltran there isn't a reason right now to make a trade just for the sake of it. The same can be said for the infield as well as Chicago's infielders are struggling just as much as the Yankees are at key spots, namely second base, while the pitching will be the key to the White Sox selling plan. If the White Sox want to make Chris Sale available or Robertson available for cheap then I'm at least listening but if not I think I'll have to pass at this point.

Boston Making Things Extremely Difficult for the Yankees

The Boston Red Sox pulled a George Steinbrenner’s New York Yankees move when the team bought up the top hitting free agents on the market in Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. Looking at the market now, especially for the left side of the infield, New York may be almost forced to make a trade to compete. If Chase Headley decides to sign somewhere other than New York then the Yankees would truly be in trouble and may be forced to either gut the farm or miss the postseason for a third straight season.

After Headley the most enticing third base options are Mark Reynolds, Alberto Callaspo and Kelly Johnson. I would take a flyer on Reynolds but for the others I would give a very emphatic “no thank you.” Shortstop is not much better as the best available right now are Jed Lowrie, Stephen Drew and Asdrubal Cabrera. Lowrie is going to take advantage of a weak market to get way too much money for way too many years while Drew takes a pillow contract for one season. Cabrera is basically a second baseman at this point in his career although I’m sure Yankees fans wouldn’t notice his lack of range after watching Derek Jeter run around at age 40 last season.

Enter the Chicago Cubs who have Starlin Castro, Addison Russell, Javier Baez and others along with the Arizona Diamondbacks who have Didi Gregorious, Jake Lamb, Brandon Drury, Chris Owings and others. You can always throw in the Philadelphia Phillies willingness to trade Jimmy Rollins and Chicago’s willingness to move Alexei Ramirez into the fold for the Yankees as well. The problem for New York? Boston has a huge stable of major league ready prospects and established major league players, Yoenis Cespedes for example, that could be had without mortgaging the future prospects wise or money wise. Boston can have any player that they want, and that is available obviously, and could swoop in and steal any potential player in a trade that the Yankees could be targeting. Could you imagine Troy Tulowitzki in Fenway Park in 2015?

Boston has made things extremely difficult for the Yankees and this is going to be the first offseason in a long time that Yankees GM Brian Cashman is going to have to use his brain and not his checkbook to make the team better. Stay tuned and damn you Boston!

Trend Being Set As Cuban Players Become More Expensive

Over the past few seasons buying offense has come at a premium in Major League Baseball and teams have put a premium on acquiring talent coming out of Cuba. When the New York Yankees handed starting pitcher Jose Contreras a $32 million deal it was easily the largest deal ever handed to a native of Cuba and that record would stand for nine seasons until Yoenis Cespedes received $36 million in 2012. The price for Cuban free agents has gone up and up and since then and that could mean good things for Yasmany Tomas and Yoan Moncada in the coming weeks.

The trend upwards in the Cuban market continued last season when Jose Abreu signed a $68 million deal with the Chicago White Sox and continued upward when Rusney Castillo signed a $72.5 million deal with the Boston Red Sox 10 months later. With the 24 year old power hitting outfielder Tomas and 19 year old five tool infielder Moncada set to sign soon those numbers are likely to continue to climb.

The impact of these Cuban players in the game is undeniable as last year alone Abreu, Cespedes, Yasiel Puig and Alexei Ramirez were in last season’s All Star Game. The talent is fresh for the picking in Cuba lately and it is getting expensive, be wary. For every Abreu there is two Contreras’, Ariel Prieto, etc. right behind him. Buyer beware. 

Yankees Interested in Chicago SS Alexei Ramirez

The hot stove is warming up and the Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez is garnering a ton of interest from both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. It makes sense for both New York teams to be interested in almost any shortstop available this winter as the Mets have dealt with less than stellar results at the positions for years now while the Yankees have to replace Derek Jeter.

Alexei is coming off a season in which he slashed .273/.305/.408 with 15 home runs and 78 RBI in 2014 and is set to make $10 million in each of the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Ramirez has been durable during his career playing in at least 155 games in each of his last five seasons as he gracefully enters his age 34 season in 2015.

Reportedly the Chicago White Sox are looking for pitching in return for Ramirez, who has officially been made available by the team, and were also linked to the Yankees catching depth as recently as this season. Could the Yankees move one of Shane Greene/David Phelps/Bryan Mitchell and one of Austin Romine/John Ryan Murphy/ Francisco Cervelli to acquire Ramirez?

Stay tuned....

Quick Hit: Latest All Star Game Voting

As you can see Derek Jeter is in jeopardy of losing his starting All Star Game spot to Chicago's Alexei Ramirez. This is an absolute disgrace to the game if he does not start the game and I will be severely disappointed if he doesn't. I will not be because Jeter deserves it, he doesn't, but this voting has been a sham and a popularity contest for years and now is not the time to be changing that.

If Brian McCann can be second then Jeter should start, bottom line.

Kuroda doesn't get threw 5, Robertson surrenders walk-off homer as Yankees lose to White Sox Again

What a way to blow a game.

Despite getting a first inning three-run home run from Brian McCann and a two-run top of the seventh to retake the lead, the Yankees fell to the White Sox tonight in frustrating fashion, 6-5.

For most of this contest, the Bombers led by small margins, largely due to that line drive homer from McCann.

Still, they did eventually surrender those advantages, mainly because of a duo of errors by Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts that allowed the White Sox to pull within one.

In the bottom of the fifth, Chicago finally got to New York Starter Hiroki Kuroda, taking the lead on a two-run shot from Alexei Ramirez. Shortly afterwards, the struggling veteran was taken out after throwing his 100th pitch, failing to get the fifteenth out despite being charged with just two earned runs.

In their half of the seventh, the Yanks did find a way to take a 5-4 lead thanks to a wild pitch and an RBI Sac Fly from Jacoby Ellsbury, although, as you can see by the final score, it didn't last long, as Closer David Robertson went on to surrender a two-run walk-off homer to Adam Dunn that ended the game. 

The blown save, impressively, was Robertson's first of the year in ten tries, knocking the Yankees down to third place in the AL East.

Are We A Trade Match With The Whitesox - Infielders

The Yankees have had a lack luster amount of production from their infielders with big time players Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis, Mark Teixeira, and Francisco Cervelli all on the disabled list this season. The Chicago White Sox have some veterans available that could easily be upgrades over the current batch of Yankees including David Adams, Jayson Nix, Alberto Gonzalez, and even Lyle Overbay. With the White Sox ready to sell earlier than the July 31st trade deadline let's look at how the Yankees and White Sox may match up in a trade.

Gordon Beckham may be the best White Sox player this season when he put up a .317/.345/.394 triple slash with a .740 OPS. Beckham has been playing second base for the White Sox but is capable of playing third base and outfield in the past for the Sox. Beckham does not have the right handed power that the Yankees need as evident by his 0 home runs this season and 7 RBI's in 104 at bats this season. Beckham is a free agent after the season and is owed nearly $3,000,000 for this season so he would be a good target for the Yankees to look at this July.

Conor Gillaspie has put up a triple slash of .249/.306/.376 with an OPS of .682 this season while playing third base for the White Sox. Right off the bat the fact that he is left handed probably hurts his chances of being acquired by the Yankees even though he throws right handed. Gillaspie has put up 5 home runs and 19 RBI's in limited at bats this season but he has 8 doubles and a triple this season. He would not be a Plan A or even a Plan B for the Yankees in my opinion but he may be a back up plan in case we cannot acquire an insurance policy for Alex Rodriguez before then.

Alexei Ramirez may have the issue of being too good to be true for the Yankees to acquire this season. Alexei has put up a triple slash of .281/.307/.346 with an OPS of .654 in 306 at bats this season. Alexei has been the White Sox short stop all season, a position we are consistently throwing guys like Jayson Nix and Alberto Gonzalez out at, and hits from the right side of the plate, both pluses for the Yankees. Ramirez has also hit a home run with 17 RBI's with 18 stolen bases in 22 attempts this season, also pluses for the Yankees. The problem is we have this guy named Derek Jeter working his way back and Alexei is signed for  $7,000,000 this season and a total of $29,500,000 for the next three seasons including a club option for the 2016 season. I cannot see Alexei taking a lesser role to play for the Yankees, well he wouldn't be happy about it anyway, and that may be the only reason that the Yankees will not acquire Alexei Ramirez at this years trading deadline.

Tyler Flowers is not going anywhere as he seems to be the future of the Chicago White Sox behind the dish so get that idea out of your heads. Paul Konerko would be like a great dream for the Yankees but the White Sox have already said that they will not be trading him away. A power hitting right handed veteran at first base would really be an upgrade for us so that is really a shame that we cannot make a run at him. Adam Dunn makes $15,000,000 this season and next season and with a batting average of .200 to go with his 91 strike outs the Yankees would be down right foolish to make a run at him. Jeff Keppinger just signed a three year deal with the White Sox so I cannot see him being moved or us ponying up the prospect haul to acquire the infielder. Conor Gillaspie, Gordon Beckham, and Alexei Ramirez could be Yankees trade targets this July and all three would probably be upgrades for the Yankees. Will Brian Cashman pull the trigger? Who knows...