Yankees: 3 Aroldis Chapman trades Brian Cashman needs to explore immediately

2. Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies have the worst bullpen in the league and the Yankees can capitalize on that.

This was obvious. The Philadelphia Phillies’ bullpen was quite literally the reason this team failed to reach the postseason. On top of that, they’ll have issues this offseason retaining guys like Didi Gregorious and JT Realmuto, but adding a guy like Chapman would do wonders in providing stability at the back end of their bullpen.

Their 7.06 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, and .315 batting average against all ranked last in Major League Baseball. Yup, one of the worst bullpens in history, though the shortened 60-game season did them no favors.

Whatever the case, Chapman could be reunited with former manager Joe Girardi and help at least start providing an identity for the Phillies relief corps. To be honest, we have no clue what a return would look like here. Philadelphia took a huge blow when they sent Sixto Sanchez to Miami for Realmuto, since they could’ve really used a starter of that caliber. On top of that, if they have any top pitching prospects, they’re going to need to keep every last one of them.

Maybe the Yankees just look way ahead to the future and ask for a lefty like Kyle Young and try and get David Robertson back? The former Yankee has a $12 million team option for 2021 (the Phillies can agree to pick that up and then trade him), which would be $3 million cheaper than Chapman and help further bolster New York’s bullpen. Like we said, it’s hard to diagnose what Chapman could fetch in return since we don’t think the Yankees have a ton of leverage, but this is at least a reasonable starting point. If you think you can go higher, then by all means, but we’re not getting greedy here, as you can tell with our conservative prediction with the Twins.

Get rid of Chapman, acquired immediate bullpen help, save some money, and get a pitching prospect who will be ready in a couple of years.