Yankees: 3 NYY trade targets you probably haven’t considered

1. Caleb Smith

Could the Yankees end Caleb Smith’s Arizona tenure before it even really starts?

Maybe the Yankees can make sure Caleb Smith’s Diamondbacks tenure is an erroneously short one?

Smith, expected to be a Marlins stalwart, was unexpectedly traded for Starling Marte on Aug. 31, and went on to have a very solid September for a D-Backs team spiraling towards extended mediocrity.

Though Smith allows the gopher ball with regularity (a league-leading 33 in 2019, which is barf-worthy), he also misses bats at a very high rate with his sweeping slider and middling fastball (168 in 153.1 innings, even in a solid-not-great 2019).

Once a Yankee, Smith was traded in the Michael King deal, along with the Marlins’ current first baseman Garrett Cooper. Kind of a weird deal, and sort of an unnecessary dump by the Yanks, in retrospect.

Several Diamondbacks seem ripe for swiping this offseason, considering the team is just as significantly stuck in the mud as they were last offseason. Arizona won’t be a contender even if they collectively hit their peak next year, but they could approach .500 with their current core, which would be a disaster for a team that needs another draft boost or two.

Smith continues to look like someone who should outperform his surface numbers thanks to the swing-and-miss data, and he’d be a great fit for a No. 4 starter in the Bronx. Might’ve made sense just to keep him in 2017, but what do we know?

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