Breaking: Yankees Trade Gonzalez Germen for Cash

The New York Yankees designated relief pitcher Gonzalez Germen for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster for the Chris Martin signing. As you may remember Germen was traded to the Yankees from the New York Mets for cash so basically this was a wash for the Yankees as New York traded Germen to the Texas Rangers for cash this afternoon.

Nothing to see here, moving on.

Yankees Acquire Chris Martin, DFA Gonzalez Germen

Correction: Yankees have acquired right-handed RELIEVER Chris Martin from the Rockies for cash. I wrote catcher earlier. Whiff by me.
— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) January 13, 2015

The New York Yankees have acquired big, and I mean big, right handed reliever Chris Martin from the Colorado Rockies for cash considerations. In a corresponding roster move the team has designated Gonzalez Germen for assignment. There is a great possibility that Germen clears waivers and will be back with the team anyway but that's always far from a given.

Germen was acquired and thought of as an upgrade over Preston Claiborne and now Martin is being thought of as an upgrade over both at 28 years old.

Yankees Lose Preston Claiborne to Miami Marlins

The New York Yankees have lost RHP reliever Preston Claiborne after he was claimed off waivers by the Miami Marlins. As you probably remember Claiborne was designated for assignment last week when the team acquired Gonzalez Germen from the New York Mets. Presumably Claiborne was designated with the hopes of clearing waivers and heading back to the club on another minor league deal but unfortunately that did not occur.

Basically New York traded Claiborne who had his struggles and injuries in New York but also shared his successes for an older and less of a sure thing in Germen. That doesn't make much sense to me but that's probably why I am a blogger and not a scout or a GM. Carry on.

Yankees Acquire Gonzalez Germen from Mets

Okay so this is about to get confusing. Hours after the Yankees acquired Domingo German from the Miami Marlins the team acquired relief pitcher Gonzalez Germen from the New York Mets. Preston Claiborne was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Germen, although I thought the roster was at 39 players anyway unless I missed something,  and the Yankees sent cash considerations back to their neighbors from Queens.

This marks the first time these two teams have swapped players since the Felix Heredia for Mike Stanton trade of 2004. Germen is basically a marginal upgrade over Claiborne and Claiborne will likely stick with the organization on a minor league deal anyway so the deal makes sense. Both players have one minor league option remaining as well if that counts for anything.

Germen strikes out a lot of guys, 22.7% of the time, but walks a lot of batter, 10.6 %, and gives up a ton of fly balls and home runs, think Phil Hughes, so who knows what to expect here.