Cardinals insider entertains fan’s Miguel Andujar trade scenario with Yankees

How about a Miguel Andujar trade with the Cardinals, Yankees fans?

At this point, New York Yankees fans would be fairly shocked if Miguel Andujar is on the 2021 roster. After falling out of favor during the shortened 2020 campaign, which prompted his agent to make some scathing public comments about the Bombers, it’s just hard to envision this relationship being salvaged.

There’s no place for Andujar at the moment. Third base is taken by Gio Urshela. Clint Frazier is now the starting left fielder for good. Giancarlo Stanton is the Yankees’ DH until 2060. Unless there are a mountain of injuries, the former AL Rookie of the Year runner up will be riding the pine, which he doesn’t feel he deserves. No Alternate Site this time around, after all.

It’s just a matter of the Yankees sniffing out the best possible deal involving their young slugger, who could very well pan out to be a productive major league player one day. If his 2018 campaign was any indication, it’s that he can hit but needs some fine-tuning on defense. But that 2019 shoulder injury really killed his value, which has complicated things for everyone involved.

But it looks like a Cardinals fan out there thinks he’s worth a trade! Let’s take a look:

"Do you think the Yankees would entertain Carlos Martinez for Miguel Andujar straight up and the Cardinals eat some of the salary? Carlos has 1 year, and 2 club options for 2022 and 2023. Yankees get pitching, Cardinals get long term bat,” a fan asked Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.“The Cardinals will entertain any legitimate offer for Martinez although Andujar, partly because of a right shoulder injury, has done nothing for the Yankees the past two seasons,” Hummel responded. “He had a big power year in 2018 but is a defensive liability at third or in the outfield and you might want to know if the National League is going to have a DH before you invest in him. But there’s some food for thought here and Andujar is under club control for several more years.”"

Well … that’s something to think about.

The only problem here is the financials. Martinez will make $11.7 million in 2021 and then has team options for $17 million and $18 million in 2022 and 2023. Though both of those only carry a $500K buyout, Martinez doesn’t have a defined role as a pitcher.

While he began as a promising starter, the Cards transitioned him to the bullpen after a career year in 2017. After 1.5 years as a reliever, they moved him back into the rotation for the shortened 2020 campaign, and he was terrible in the five starts he made. Do the Yankees want to take an $11.7 million risk on that? Perhaps the Cards eat some of this salary? We’re not sure.

This is no doubt something to think about, because we’d venture to say paying the same price for Martinez as we did JA Happ is definitely a win, but the Yankees might have a better pitcher in mind if they’re going to make a trade and/or spend significant dollars.

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