Yankees: Why Zack Britton deal doesn’t mean NYY can trade for Trey Mancini

The New York Yankees need outfield help. The Baltimore Orioles employ the current MLB leader in RBI, who just happens to play the outfield. The Orioles are quite bad. Is there a match here?

Ooh, boy. We wish we could tell you differently, but it sure doesn’t seem like it, per one insider’s updated notions.

Sure, the Yankees and Orioles just worked out a deadline deal a few years back that brought Zack Britton to the Bronx, and you’d think that an analytical team like the O’s would be able to take emotions out of the equation and accept the best deal, regardless of where it’s presented.

According to those in the know, though, Baltimore might just be a combination of analytical and petty, instead of one or the other.

Sure, Baltimore would deal Mancini to the Yankees.

It’d just cost more, as MLB insiders believe the O’s would impose a “Yankees Tax” on Brian Cashman and ask for the type of overpay they wouldn’t beg for from anyone else. So that’s not going to happen, especially in 2021, with such a razor-thin margin before the luxury tax mandate.

Yankees Rumors: A Trey Mancini trade with the Orioles is a pipe dream.

In order to complete trades this summer, Cashman is going to ask teams for some concessions, especially monetarily. The Orioles don’t seem likely to consider those types of things, according to SNY’s Andy Martino.

End of story.

"SNY’s Andy Martino reports, “Sources tell us the Yankees have been poking around for marginal outfield upgrades. … One intriguing option who might be available from Baltimore this summer is Trey Mancini, a free agent after next season. … (But) don’t hold your breath on Mancini becoming a Yankee. … There has long been a quiet freeze between the clubs in which Baltimore is perceived to ask for more from a division rival than other teams. The 2018 Zack Britton trade was the exception, not the rule.”"

A “quiet freeze,” huh? Sounds awesome. Isn’t awesome.

Of course, there’s also the little nugget where Mancini, while wonderful, isn’t a perfect fulfillment of the Yankees’ needs. They could use the league’s RBI leader in a vacuum, but he’s a righty bat who can play first base or the corner outfield positions. He could theoretically give Luke Voit, Aaron Judge and Clint Frazier breathers, yes, but he couldn’t displace Brett Gardner in center for long stretches, and he couldn’t vary the lineup and take advantage of the short porch (though he’s targeted it oppo quite a few times in his life).

Watch him drill this cement mixer from Michael Pineda and you’ll get the itch, but we promise you it’s not going to happen at an elevated cost.

Now, the real moral of the story is a Mancini trade is probably coming, which is great news for Bombers fans who’d like to root for the Comeback Player of the Year without him residing in the division.

Try the National League, O’s? Lots of good teams over there who’d love to talk to you.

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