Yankees: Jeter’s first mission – Trade Giancarlo to the Bombers

A Yankees icon has been granted his wish to own a major league team. Wouldn’t it be something if his first act as the CEO of the Marlins is to trade their best player, deciding to build his team from scratch to his former team? It’s not a stretch.

The Yankees first priority probably does not include adding a huge salary in a year when they are about to shed Alex Rodriguez and his $25 million, along with possibly Masahiro Tanaka‘s $21 million and CC Sabathia‘s $20 million.

But what if the player they could gain is Giancarlo Stanton?

Anyone following baseball in the last week or so knows that Stanton is lighting up the game with a barrage of home runs that place him well within the range of Don Mattingly‘s record of a home run in eight consecutive games.

These same fans would also know that Derek Jeter et. al. have been awarded the Miami Marlins franchise and sometime after the close of this season, Jeter will assume full duties as CEO of the team.

They would also know Stanton was placed on waivers and nary a team claimed him. But that was only due to a gentleman’s agreement pushed by Major League Baseball urging teams not to interfere with the sell/buy process underway.

Not a question of if, but when

The rumors are steady and probably true that Stanton’s days with the Marlins are dwindling down. However, a trade is not imminent, unless the current owner, Jeffrey Loria, wants to give Jeter a head start in clearing the $300 million owed to Stanton over the next ten years.

But if Loria were to interject something as huge as trading Stanton now, he would be risking the deal to sell the team. Why do that when he’s looking at a billion dollar payday when the deal if finalized in a couple of months.

As to who would be interested in Stanton, everyone, including the Yankees, whose dream of Aaron Judge and Stanton as corner outfielders would come true.

Stanton does have a full no-trade clause in his contract, but usually, players are flexible up to a point. The likelihood that Stanton would approve a trade, for instance, to the San Diego Padres or Detroit Tigers is non-existent.

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But the Yankees, that’s another story. And the same applies to teams like the Dodgers, Cubs, and even some are saying, the Phillies. All of these teams have the money to take on the salary commitment. It’s just a question as to how they want to spend it.

For the Yankees, acquiring Stanton probably means foregoing signing a top free agent pitcher over the winter in favor of bolstering the offense. Obviously, the argument could be made that if you’re going to be scoring eight or nine runs a game, who needs pitching? But still, it would be a giant step for the Yankees to take at this time.

Plus, the Marlins will only trade Stanton for a boatload of prospects to get their rebuilding off with a jumpstart. The Yankees have those prospects, but the question is the same one that’s been facing Brian Cashman all season. Hold ’em or fold ’em?

From Jeter’s perspective

The more intriguing aspect of all this, though, is Jeter. The learning curve facing him as CEO is huge, and if he thought playing twenty years with the Yankees was a challenge, wait until he sees the workload that awaits him.

As Yankees fans know though, Jeter is a fast learner and dead serious about whatever he is engaged in, and this will be no different.

Jeter’s pairing with Mattingly is a marriage made in heaven. Both were workmanlike in their approach to playing baseball, and they will be looking primarily for those types of players when building their team.

This means that if the Yankees were to offer Gleyber Torres, Justus Sheffield, Clint Frazier, and Miguel Andujar, for instance, as a package for Stanton, the deal would not be an automatic if any or all of those players fall out of bounds when it comes to the intangibles Jeter and Mattingly are looking for.

But on the question of whether or not the Yankees are interested in acquiring Stanton, sure they are. Who wouldn’t be interested?

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But for Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman, assuming that Cashman is still the GM after the season, this represents a monumental decision on their part from both a financial and player personnel perspective.

And a deal for Stanton would be a classic case of adding to the team by subtraction. The open and unanswered question, though, is, do you end up with a negative number after you subtract?

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