Yankees zeroing in on Padres All-Star reliever Brad Hand

According to the New York Post, the Padres’ special assistant to the GM has been canvassing the Yankees Triple-A club for potential players to swap in a trade involving highly coveted relief pitcher Brad Hand.

The Yankees win a game — we all want them to make a run. They drop a few and we say to stay the course and wait until next year. Well, I’m here to tell you that we can’t have it both ways.

Regardless of the fact that the Yanks have dropped 17 out of their last 24 contests, it appears general manager Brian Cashman isn’t being bashful when it comes to floating the idea that his club is open for business before the impending July 31 trade deadline.

Me personally, I’d like to see the organization shed as many veteran contracts as they possibly can — call up the kids and fight like hell to stay above water while playing exciting baseball. You know, like on Saturday when Clint “Red Thunder” Frazier hit his first career walk-off shot.

Should the team fail to heed my advice, then the other way I feel would be advantageous is to acquire controllable contracts of players just beginning to come into their professional prime, ie. Justin Bour and now Brad Hand.

From the report by George A. King III:

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Judging by the Padres sending David Post to watch the Yankees’ Triple-A club, there is a sense in the industry the Yankees are interested in left-handed reliever Brad Hand.Post, a special assistant to Padres general manager A.J. Preller, has been following Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard the woeful Padres being interested in working towards a deal with the Bombers. A few weeks back, Jon Heyman reported that San Diego had inquired about the availability of the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect, Gleyber Torres — this after he suffered a season-ending injury to his left elbow.

While it’s easy to simply laugh at the notion that the Pares have anything tempting enough to lure the Yanks into parting with Torres, perhaps a deal involving first baseman Wil Myers and Brad Hand would be a place to begin a real conversation.

No, I don’t want Yangervis Solarte back. We’ve seen the best he has to offer and it isn’t any better than what the Yankees currently have — majors or minors.

Is there any chance the Padres would take back Chase Headley‘s contract? How about Jacoby Ellsbury? Because then I’d certainly give the green light.

The 27-year-old Hand could very well be Andrew Miller Part Deux. And obviously, we’ve seen that the bullpen in the Bronx hasn’t quite been the same since Miller was dealt to Cleveland last season.

Signed through 2019, Hand, the first time NL All-Star isn’t afraid to take the ball for multiple frames, as he led the NL in appearances last season at 82, and already has 47 this time around.

Hand sports a 2.30 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP and a 60:13 K:BB ratio while dominating batters on both sides of the plate — holding lefties to a .192/.300/.365 slash line and righties to .203/.262/.293.

Throw in his 48.6 percent ground ball rate and cheap $1.375 million salary, and it’s clear to see why a number of clubs will be vying for his service.

Next: Pitching prospect Justus Sheffield to the 10-day DL

Though Yankee relievers still rank sixth in the majors in ERA at 3.72, something must be done to replace Tyler Clippard and at the same time lessen the workload on the backend of the ‘pen, namely Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman.