Miami Marlins Interested in Yankees Ivan Nova

According to Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe, the Miami Marlins have expressed interest in Yankees 28-year old right hander Ivan Nova.

The report didn’t indicate who the Miami Marlins were willing to deal in order to acquire Nova, but it’s been well documented that the Yankees are trying to deal Nova for a more younger and controllable starting pitcher.

To date, Nova has spent his entire major league career with the New York Yankees, but given the 2015 success of Luis Severino and Nathan Eovaldi as well as the majority of the organizations minor league pitchers, the Yankees could certainly afford to deal Nova for the right return.

The 2016 Yankees rotation figures to be Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and the $25 million dollar man CC Sabathia with prospects Bryan Mitchell and Luis Cessa set to compete for rotation spots in the minors.

In all likelihood, Ivan Nova will probably start 2016 in the Yankees bullpen as the teams long reliever, so his best chance of starting ball games again will likely come with a change of scenery.

Now despite the Marlins interest in Nova, it’s a given that they won’t surrender top tier talent in order to acquire him. Aside from his breakout campaign in 2010 in which he wen’t 16-4 with a 3.70 ERA, the rest of Nova’s career has been wildly inconsistent with a side of tommy john surgery that he hasn’t fully recovered from.

The good thing about Nova is that he’s projected to net between a team-friendly $4 and $5 million in his final year of salary arbitration this winter before becoming a free agent in 2017.

Marlins top pitching prospects Tyler Kolek, Jarlin Garcia and Kendry Flores are certainly off the table in trade discussion for Nova, but perhaps they might be willing to deal someone like Michael Mader or Colby Suggs if it’s straight up.

Of course Brian Cashman can get creative and package in some minor league prospects to try and sweeten the return from Miami, but I guess only time will tell.

With pitchers and catchers set to report to spring training on February 8th, it’ll be interesting to see if the Yankees still have Ivan Nova on their roster.

What do you think Yankee fans? Do you think the Marlins and Yankees can work out a trade for Ivan Nova?

Let us know in the comments below.