Yankees can get a steal after Guardians slice reliever who bedeviled them in ALCS

The Los Angeles Dodgers have recently become the poster boy for being too wealthy for your own good, shopping Ryan Brasier and his perfectly competent arm just because they upgraded with Tanner Scott and ran out of room. But, after this week's action, it's safe to add the Cleveland Guardians to that mix -- at least, the New York Yankees would agree that the most recent victim of their pitching overflow is too talented to be on the open market.

It's certainly possible that the Yankees caught Pedro Avila from just the right angle in just the right light and, if the shadows had been any different, he would've looked like a journeyman.

Still, New York's experience with Avila in the 2024 ALCS was remarkably unpleasant. Seemingly every time they thought they'd earned a significant advantage by chasing a Guardians starter early, there was Avila, looming and ready to erase multiple innings with gusto. In all, the last man in Cleveland's bullpen appeared in three games, throwing four hitless (and shutout) innings while striking out three.

In the regular season, he bounced back to competence after heading over from San Diego early in the campaign, covering 74 2/3 innings with 73 Ks, a 3.25 ERA, and slightly-worse-but-still-great 3.76 FIP. He'd be a centerpiece swingman of nearly any team's staff. But for the Guardians? He was DFA'd to make room for Paul Sewald's arrival this week. While the Yankees almost definitely won't win a waiver claim for him, falling towards the back of the pecking order, they should preempt that by swinging a small trade for the righty before things get complicated.

Yankees can swing small trade for Guardians' Pedro Avila after DFA, exceptional playoff run

At this moment, the Yankees' 40-man roster sits at 39, though they have an infield vacancy that they should be embarrassed about if they don't fill it over the course of the next month. New York claimed both Roansy Contreras and Allan Winans on Thursday, packing the depth chart nearly to the brim.

Winans is a No. 7 starter and Contreras is a pure reclamation project, though. Avila would provide something that neither of them could summon: Alfredo Aceves-like mastery of multi-inning stretches, armed with the ability to unexpectedly beguile lineups, even those as strong as the 2024 pennant winners.

Sorry, Roansy. You might need to be dealt, alongside cash considerations, to pave a path for a minor move here.