Yankees: 3 previous desired trade targets who are performing horribly in 2021

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It’s hard to envision the New York Yankees being any worse to start 2021, but believe it or not, it could have been had they gone ahead and made one of the blockbuster trades the fan base was yearning for earlier in the offseason.

Remember we (and many others) were dying for them to acquire a bonafide No. 2 arm to slot behind Gerrit Cole?

Though the additions of Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon had their pros, there was simply too much risk inherited with their injury situations and time away from the game.

And it’s all very clearly been realized since neither of them have been able to pitch out of the fourth inning.

But at the end of the day, the Yankees paid for one year of Kluber and traded a bunch of nothing for Taillon. Sure, we’d like to have someone better and more reliable at this point, but the star targets fans actually preferred are off to a horrific start this year, too.

Imagine if general manager Brian Cashman gave up a prohibitive haul for one of these guys and the Yankees still had begun the season 5-10 or worse? The Bronx is certainly close to burning, but it’d definitely be torched if one of these guys were in pinstripes and stinking up the joint.

Here are three previous desired Yankees trade targets who are off to terrible starts in 2021.

Marco Gonzales #7 of the Seattle Mariners (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

3. Marco Gonzales

Yankees fans got all giddy when citing the trade history between Cashman and Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto, but recent history shows the Yankees were losers in the last transaction.

Though the James Paxton deal had the right intentions, it did not work out in the Yankees’ favor for the one reason everyone knew it wouldn’t — the left-hander’s troubling injury history. Now, Justus Sheffield looks like a very capable big-league left-hander the Yankees could use right now.

But during the offseason, many were angling for a Marco Gonzales trade. The veteran, who is also a lefty, is 38-26 with a 4.10 ERA and 1.28 WHIP since arriving in Seattle in 2017. And his stats have been much better than that the last two years. He eats innings, induces soft contact, and has been good for a 7.5 WAR since 2018.

Sounds like a good target to deepen the Yankees questionable rotation, right?

He certainly still could be (maybe at a discount at this year’s deadline!), but his start this year would have had fans losing their minds. Across his first three outings, Gonzales owns an 8.22 ERA and 1.76 WHIP. His 14 earned runs and six home runs allowed leads the league.

Gonzales will undoubtedly rebound, but the knee-jerk fans in New York would’ve deemed this a “bust” had the Yankees surrendered legitimate assets only to see this poor a debut in the Bronx.

Starting pitcher Luis Castillo #58 of the Cincinnati Reds (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

2. Luis Castillo

Once upon a time we really thought Cincinnati Reds starter Luis Castillo was the perfect acquisition for the Yankees. He has ace-type stuff. He’s young. He’s still under club control. Just trade two top-five prospects for him and be done with it, right? That’s certainly what we were angling for months ago.

But through three starts in 2021, Castillo’s velocity is somehow declining, and he owns a 7.04 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in his first three starts. He’s averaged just five innings pitched so far, which wouldn’t really be helping the Yankees’ rotation much at all right now. He does have one scoreless seven-inning outing against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, but he was absolutely tagged by the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.

That could be attributed to his velocity, which is the lowest it’s been since 2018. He has just 12 strikeouts in 15.1 innings pitched. That shouldn’t be the case for a an ever-improving 28-year-old, especially with last year’s abbreviated workload. And he’s got a top offense behind him!

Things will no doubt turn around for Castillo, who could still be a coveted target at this year’s trade deadline, but if Yankees fans were throwing baseballs on the field Friday night because they couldn’t deal with losing, we don’t even want to think about what would be happening if the team had traded a number of promising prospects only to watch Castillo get bludgeoned during this awful April.

Kyle Hendricks #28 of the Chicago Cubs (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images) /

1. Kyle Hendricks

Heading into this year, everyone figured Kyle Hendricks would be among the saviors keeping the Chicago Cubs afloat. He’s been the one constant in the rotation for years and the team had traded Yu Darvish. For the first time, it was Hendricks by himself atop the rotation.

He’s typically profiled as the perfect No. 2. His arsenal of pitches allows him to go deep into games and constantly throw hitters off balance. He isn’t overpowering, which would’ve been a perfect complement to Gerrit Cole. Hendricks is Mussina-esque in many ways.

But he was always going to cost a lot. He’s been nothing but effective since debuting since 2014 and the Cubs shrewdly inked him to a team-friendly extension not too long ago, which will see him make just $14 million per season through 2023 (with a vesting option for 2024).

That fits the Yankees’ current window perfectly, doesn’t it?!

Well, not this April window. Hendricks, who rarely surrenders home runs, leads the NL with five allowed through his first three starts (only 13 innings pitched). He was already scratched from a start due to an illness. He’s got a 6.92 ERA and wildly uncharacteristic 1.69 WHIP after his first three outings. The Cubs have lost every game he’s stepped on the mound.

Of all the desired trade candidates in the offseason pitching pool, Hendricks was expected to carry the heftiest price tag. Again, this would not have gone over well with the fan base when you bake in the rest of the struggles this team is currently enduring at the moment.

Though this will not continue for Hendricks — he’s simply too good to not find his footing before long — what would the bleacher creatures be doing right now if Cashman went for it all and sent Jasson Dominguez to the Cubs for the right-hander? Good God, please don’t answer that question.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Nick Nelson #79 of the New York Yankees reacts in the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on April 16, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

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