Yankees have asked about Blue Jays pitchers Marcus Stroman AND Ken Giles

According to reports, Marcus Stroman isn’t the only Blue Jays pitchers the Yankees have inquired about.

We’ve known for weeks now that Stroman is one of the starting pitchers the Yankees are interested in acquiring before the July 31st trade deadline. That still hasn’t changed but on Monday Blue Jays beat reporter Scott Mitchell tweeted out that New York could be interested in acquiring him in a package that also includes their closer, Ken Giles.

The Yankees already have one of the best bullpens in baseball so they don’t really need any help but there’s no such thing as having too many good relievers. Especially if injured All-Star Dellin Betances doesn’t return from injury at some point during the second half.

Acquiring a package of Stroman and Giles would definitely cost the Yankees a bigger haul in prospects but Mitchell also noted in his tweet that the Jays would prefer to deal the two pitchers separately.

Yankee fans might remember Giles from his time with Astros and the night he punched himself in the face after he gave up a go-ahead home run to Gary Sanchez last season. He was demoted to the minor leagues after the incident and traded to the Blue Jays before the trade deadline and since joining Toronto he’s been very good.

This season he has a 1.45 ERA in 31 IP with 53 K’s and a 1.00 WHIP. He’s striking out 15.4 hitters per 9 innings and he’s 13 for 14 in save opportunities. Those are great numbers but if I were GM Brian Cashman I’d focus more on only acquiring Stroman than the two of them together.

In order to acquire both players in a package, the Yankees would have to offer a lot to Toronto and I’m not sure it would be worth it considering Giles track record. I’m still not even sold that Stroman is the guy who would put them over the top in the postseason so giving up some of their top assets for both of them isn’t worth the risk.

As I mentioned Giles has quite the temper at times and his emotions can get the best of him so I don’t think the bright lights of New York would be the best fit for him. Also, during his time with Houston pitching in the playoffs on the game’s biggest stage, he was terrible when the pressure was at it’s highest.

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In 2017 he was their closer heading into the postseason but against the Yankees in the ALCS and the Dodgers in the WS, he struggled mightily. In seven appearances that October his playoff ERA was 11.74 and he had a WHIP of 2.21. Houston went to him often but by the end of their run, he simply couldn’t be relied upon to get big outs. So much so that the Astros ended up using their starters as relievers to hold onto leads and carry them to their first World Series title.

Even though that was Giles only postseason experience and he’s looked like a different pitcher since then the Yankees should stay away from him to avoid the potential headache. Their team as currently constructed has terrific chemistry and they should bring in someone who can mess with that.

As for Stroman, I’d still rather see the Yanks acquire Trevor Bauer instead but he certainly wouldn’t be a bad fallback option. Just as long as he comes to New York by himself.