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New York Yankees Editorial: What If The Trade Deadline Shapes Up This Way?

By Jason Evans |

The trade deadline is coming. Now the real one is August 31st, but if you don’t want to fight through waivers, the time to strike is going to be before Friday at 4pm ET. The Kansas City Royals just added Johnny Cueto to bolster their rotation for the stretch run and who knows if they will be done yet. It’s time for the New York Yankees to act.

Dave Cameron over at Fangraphs made his projections as to how the deadline will shake out and has the Yankees adding Ben Zobrist, Mat Latos and Jim Johnson.

While Brian Cashman keeps laying expectations for a quiet deadline, the Yankees are the best fit out there for Ben Zobrist, given their glaring hole at second base and the likelihood of winning their division. Few teams are capable of giving themselves a larger boost than the Yankees would get from swapping in Zobrist for Stephen Drew. On the pitching side of things, I’d imagine they’ll go with lower-tier options, and Mat Latos’ cost will be limited based on his struggles and personality, while a guy like Jim Johnson won’t cost a lot to add a piece who can bridge the gap to Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.

Zobrist would be a great fit on this team. Not only to put Drew as the utility infielder he should be at this point in his career, but Zobrist can play everywhere and much like Martin Prado last year, you can put Zobrist wherever you want to give guys rest and keep the team fresh. 

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We talked about Latos in this space over the weekend and if he’s healthy could slot in nicely as the third or possibly second member of the rotation. The Yankees and Marlins have made trades in the past so it’s not that far-fetched.

Another team the Yankees have made trades with is the Braves where Johnson plays. The Braves have former Yankees front-office personnel already on staff. Johnson would help set up for Miller, but I’m not sure he’d be the guy I’d go after.

Johnson’s strikeout rate is down, even from his awful season last year. He’s managed to leave 81.2% of baserunners on. That’s really high and screams regression is coming. His ERA is 2.15 but he has a FIP of over a run higher. On the plus side, his velocity is close to the levels of two seasons ago when he posted 50 saves.

All three players would help the team’s postseason chances, but all come with some risks to them. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees go out and add three players at these positions or have a quiet deadline like Brian Cashman has talked about.

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