Yankees: How the Chasen Shreve trade could impact Justus Sheffield

Saturday night the Yankees made a surprising move to trade relievers Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos to the St. Louis Cardinals for Triple-A first basemen Luke Voit. The Yankees also acquired international bonus pool money in the deal and in the process opened up a spot on their 40-man roster.

Once the Yankees acquired J.A. Happ it was only a matter of time before Shreve lost his roster spot in some fashion. With Happ making his debut Sunday the Yankees had to clear up a spot on the roster for him and Shreve was the odd man out.

The addition of Happ along with the acquisition of Zach Britton made Shreve expendable so the Yankees pounced on the deal with St. Louis instead of having to designate him for assignment. Since they already had two lefties in their bullpen there was really no need for Shreve and the front office did him a favor by trading him to a team where he will get more opportunities to pitch.

Bringing in Voit, a 27-year old righthanded hitting first baseman wasn’t really a move that was made to impact the big league roster. Voit had good numbers with the Cardinals Triple-A affiliate, but don’t expect him to be with the Yankees any time soon. He’s a lot similar to Tyler Austin with what he brings to the table, but Austin hits much better against lefties which could lead to him getting a call-up before Voit.

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The real reason the Yankees made this move was not only to clear up the spot for Happ but also to clear up another spot on the 40-man roster. By including Gallegos in the trade now the Yankees have an opening and many believe that the spot will go to their top pitching prospect, Justus Sheffield.

Sheffield is getting closer and closer to making his big league debut and adding him to the 40-man roster would make it much easier to call him up. There’s no guarantee that he will be the move, but in order to protect him from next year’s Rule 5 draft, the Yankees are going to have to put him on the 40-man roster this offseason anyway.

That’s why they might as well do so now, especially since he has a chance to impact the big league club this season. As much as the Yankees have improved their pitching staff over the last week adding an exciting, power lefty arm like Sheffield to their pen or rotation could make them even better.

With each passing start, he makes for Triple-A Scranton Sheffield is proving that he is worthy of a big league call-up.

AAA numbers: 4-3, 2.37 ERA, 68.1 IP, 2 HR, 63 K’s, .206 BAA, 1.13 WHIP

There’s not much left for him to accomplish at that level and you’d have to think it’s only a matter of time before he gets the call.

It doesn’t have to be now because the pitching staff is a little crowded at the moment and the 25-man roster is set but in the case of an injury, Sheffield should be the first guy called up. If not, then at the very least he should be an option come September when teams can expand their rosters.