Do Brandon McCarthy or Scott Kazmir Make Sense for the Yankees?

With the Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly looking to trade Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy, should the New York Yankees make a play for one of the brittle starters?

At several points during the recent Winter Meetings, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman expressed the opinion that because of the extreme buyer’s market for starting pitching, he couldn’t justify surrendering the talent it would take to land an arm via trade this offseason.

New York certainly doesn’t need to acquire a starting pitcher this offseason, but chances are if they don’t, their already slim chances of contending in 2017 will shrink considerably. Entering the spring with only 60% of your rotation filled out is not something playoff-bound teams typically do.

Since Cashman clearly doesn’t want to give up his top prospects, it might be worth taking a look at the salary dump market, although the Yankees financial constraints make this a tricky proposition as well.

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Two guys who could presumably wouldn’t require much of a return are Dodgers starters Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy. According to Buster Olney of ESPN at the outset of the Winter Meetings, Los Angeles would like to clear roster and payroll space by moving at least one of these two guys.

With Rich Hill back in the fold, the Dodgers have rotation depth to spare and would probably be pretty eager to get at least one of these expensive and brittle pitchers off the books.

Although Kazmir has been much more durable recently (he’s pitched 319.33 innings the last two seasons compared to McCarthy’s combined 63 IP), he’s also been bad, pitching to a 4.56 ERA and 4.48 FIP over 26 starts in 2016. In addition, he’s owed nearly twice as much money as McCarthy through 2018 ($35 million vs. $20 million), so believe it or not, McCarthy would probably be the better target.

After signing his lucrative four year $48 million deal with the Dodgers during the 2014-2015 offseason, McCarthy made just four starts with his new club before it was revealed he required Tommy John surgery, causing him to miss the rest of the 2015 campaign and the majority of 2016 as well.

He did come back and make nine pretty ugly starts for LA in the second half, but required yet another DL stint in mid-August because of a hip issue. It certainly wasn’t vintage McCarthy upon his return, but with a normal offseason to get right, it’s not that hard to see him being a useful pitcher again during his upcoming age-33 season.

While it’s an extremely small sample size, McCarthy was undeniably awesome during his 14-start stint in New York after being acquired at the 2014 trade deadline, pitching to a 2.89 ERA and 3.22 FIP in 90.1 IP in pinstripes.

Next: Best and Worst of the Yankees' Winter Meetings

Cashman recently said the team was tapped out financially after signing Aroldis Chapman, but maybe if they unload Brett Gardner, they’d be willing to put that money towards a salary dump arm like McCarthy?