Yanks Go Yard Radio Show Rewind: Pitching Free Agent Breakdown

On last night’s episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, I started off the episode by giving my thoughts on the New York Yankees hiring Marcus Thames as the assistant hitting coach to Alan Cockrell, who became the full time hitting coach. For me, the hiring of Thames is a year overdue and he has worked well with young players such as Greg Bird and Rob Refsnyder from his time in the minor leagues. This is also the first episode we have done since the Royals defeated the Mets in five games to win their first World Series since 1985.

For this episode, the bulk of the focus was about the free agent pitchers that are on the market. This year, there is a good variety of pitchers available that could help any team. My guest for this show was Nick Stellini. Nick is a writer over at the Baseball Prospectus Bronx site and his latest piece was about how New York could use pitching, but doesn’t have anywhere to put it.

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First, Nick and I talked about the “big 3”pitching free agents (David Price, Zack Greinke, and Johnny Cueto). After passing up on Jon Lester and Max Scherzer last offseason, will the Yankees not sign any of these top pitchers and hear why both of us think David Price is the best fit for the Yankees out of these three. Another guy not to forget is Jordan Zimmermann, but Nick and I had differing viewpoints on Zimmermann fitting in with the Yankees.

More from Yankees News

• Aaron Judge’s influence on Carlos Rodón shows he’s more powerful than Yankees
• Yankees sign 2022 Red Sox reliever, invite him to spring training
• Yankees trade Lucas Luetge for 2 intriguing Braves prospects after DFA
• Never forget Miguel Andújar wrecked Yankees’ Nolan Arenado trade
• Diamondbacks outfielder’s comment on Carlos Rodón’s IG raises eyebrows

The next pitcher in our discussion was White Sox pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who was given a qualifying offer by Chicago today. Is Samardzija a perfect fit for the Yankees and at what price? We also talked about how Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron predicted the Yankees will give Samardzjia a five-year, $75 million contract. Then, we took a look at some other pitchers such as Marco Estrada and Wei-Yin Chen, who have AL East experience, but they also received a qualifying offer today.

Next: Should The Yankees Pursue Yoenis Cespedes?

After talking about the possibility of trading Gary Sanchez away for a starting pitcher, Nick and I took a break from talking about pitching to discuss the outfield. One of Cameron’s other projections was the Yankees signing Justin Upton. Would Upton be a fit in the Bronx and should the Yankees give up Brett Gardner if it means signing Upton?

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