SIMULATION: Yankees transactions at FanSided Winter Meetings

Sign Drew Smyly

To give you some insight into my logic here, we need to backtrack just a bit. Before swinging the deal for Hand, and re-signing Sabathia, I put my backup plan into motion.

I mentioned this a few slides ago — signing a low-cost alternative that can be a swingman, filling what I thought at the time were areas of opportunity.

Drew Smyly was just that. I’ve liked Smyly since he first came up with the Tigers, and during his two and a half years with the Rays, he constantly tormented the Yankees. In five seasons, Smyly’s already won a total of 31 games and has an 8.7 K/9.

At times, the 28-year-old left-hander looked like an ace in the making. But injuries and pitching for poor offensive teams haven’t done him much good.

After being traded to the Mariners early last year, Smyly underwent Tommy John surgery in June and isn’t expected back until sometime this summer.

Obviously, this 2 year, $10 million deal is a gamble. It’s exactly what we didn’t do with Nathan Eovaldi when he went through the same situation in 2016.

But Smyly, much like Mike Minor of the Royals has the pedigree, arsenal of pitches and flexibility to exceed expectations and come back stronger than before.

This move won’t have an immediate effect on our 40-man roster and bringing in Smyly now comes with no deadlines or strings attached.

This isn’t a particularly sexy transaction, but I love the possibility of it, and the financial flexibility and roster freedom it brings with it.

A year from now we could be talking about this as the steal of the winter!