Yankees could get free bullpen gift in Indians’ Brad Hand

The Yankees could pick up All-Star closer Brad Hand from the Indians for essentially nothing. What a country!

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like we were musing about ways the Yankees might be able to pluck Brad Hand away from the Cleveland Indians in trade.

Now? He’s pretty much just sitting on the open market! Man, 2020 sucks for MLB players. S-U-C-K-S, sucks.

In the wake of the Cardinals deciding they’d rather ditch Kolten Wong instead of pay his $12.5 million team option for 2021, the Indians have now placed Hand, their All-Star closer, on waivers, all to explicitly save $1 million. If unclaimed by the end of the weekend, his $10 million will simply be declined.

On the one hand, the Brett Gardner buyout just became a likelihood, and the Zack Britton option has been picked up, shrinking the budget a little bit. On the other Hand, it’s time to start low-balling the Indians in trade offers so they can save a million bucks!

Perhaps Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake can sell the front office on shelling out very little for Hand, who doesn’t even need to fix his form or anything? He was very recently great? What a country.

This offseason is going to be such an outright disaster that even if a team like the Yankees only makes a few facade moves to pretend they care as much about spending as they have in years past, they’ll look like gigantic winners and philanthropists. Don’t love that, but that’s reality.

The following thread indicates that the likelihood of a Hand trade before the supposed deadline is quite high, but that would also mean that Cleveland is resigned to not being able to pull an impressive package in exchange for their All-Star closer.

Whether through monetary value or in a trade package, it’s clear Hand will soon be handed over to the competition.

Bad for baseball. Disgusting in general. Good for the Yankees.

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