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Yankees: 3 underrated options Yankees must target at 2020 deadline

By Adam Weinrib

Mike Minor #42 of the Texas Rangers pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the top of the fifth inning at Globe Life Field on August 28, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The day honoring Jackie Robinson, traditionally held on April 15, was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Mike Minor #42 of the Texas Rangers pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the top of the fifth inning at Globe Life Field on August 28, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The day honoring Jackie Robinson, traditionally held on April 15, was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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The New York Yankees need to make trade deadline upgrades. What about these three?

Though we’ve spent a lot of time criticizing the Yankees for their injury-riddled mediocrity (and rightfully so!),  the team gets an “incomplete” for their bizarre “first half” of 2020.

Most of the theoretical roster isn’t actually here on the field, and many of their trade deadline options either wouldn’t improve the team all that much, or would cost a significant amount considering uncertainty reigns in ’20. Who wants to surrender top prospects for a rental when the season could shut down at any moment?

Unfortunately, the Yanks aren’t getting to the mountaintop without making a few improvements, especially as injuries have laid their depth bare. Without a full rotation, middle infield, or bullpen, New York should weigh adding these three mostly-unmentioned targets by end of day today.

Yankees
Mike Minor #23 of the Texas Rangers pitches during the game against the Oakland Athletics at RingCentral Coliseum on August 6, 2020 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Rangers 6-4. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images) /

3. Mike Minor

The Yankees need a qualified lefty like Mike Minor starting games for them in 2020.

You may remember Mike Minor from his virtuoso performance in bothering Red Sox beat writers in 2019. His Rangers teammates let a foul pop up fall in a meaningless late-season game against Boston specifically so he could record his 200th K, Pete Abraham grunted blood on Twitter, and baseball marched on. Pretty hilarious.

But beyond his status as a notorious Boston troll, this story is notable because, well, Minor whiffed 200+ men last season in 208.1 innings. The 32-year-old Minor is coming off three fairly consistent seasons, and though 2019 was the crescendo, there’s a lot to like from his recent body of work. Prior to the eighth-place Cy Young finish he posted last year, Minor went 6-6 with a 2.55 mark out of the Kansas City bullpen in 2017, and had a 4.18 mark in his transition back into the rotation in Texas the next season.

Though Minor’s been bitten by the small sample size bug in ’20, his most recent start featured six shutout innings against the Dodgers, as strong an argument as any for his usefulness as the deadline approaches.

Lance Lynn is going to be grabbing the trade headlines in Texas, but Minor should be a willing swingman and a cheaper option as a semi-permanent bandage for a Yankees team treading dangerously close to “TBD” territory in their patchwork rotation.

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