Wednesday, January 25, 2012

How Cashman Can Dazzle Us All

The Yankees now have 7 starters vying for 5 spots in the rotation, while they also have an opening at the DH position. We could just use the DH spot to rest the AARP members of our team, but the most ideal situation would be to have a serviceable hitter for 350 - 400 at bats as our DH, who won't be insulted by getting benched while we give some of our other players a day off from playing the field. The free agent market has a few interesting possibilities including former Yankees Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui. Matsui is more of a true DH in that he really can't play defense, but he would be cheaper than Damon who actually hit better and had more pop than Matsui last season. Damon was also good for 19 steals. Damon may be a great signing, but Cashman appears to have his hands tied financially. Apparently the Yankees were serious when they said they were looking to decrease payroll, and stick to a budget. It was news to me seeing as just one year ago they committed more than $30 million to a setup man, but that's beyond the point. So without being able to offer a $3-$4 million deal to Damon for one year what could the Yankees do? Well its time for Cashman to dazzle us again, and I suggest he do it with Burnett. If Cashman can turn Burnett into a permanent DH good for 20+ homeruns, I'd be more than impressed! In fact, if Cashman traded Burnett for some minor league prospects, ate half his salary, and used the other half he saved to sign a player like Damon, I would also be impressed! But mostly, I'd just be impressed if he could convince someone to take that contract. If that's not possible, what are people's feelings on trading Hughes?

4 comments:

Rob B said...

If you had asked me about trading Hughes a year ago, I would have said no. Now?

He's expendable. He can be easily replaced in the rotation, and he's not really needed in the 'pen either.

But I'd still rather see them unload Burnett somehow. Chances are that won't happen, though

Joey said...

I wouldn't be apposed to trading Hughes if we could get someone who can help the team for the next few years. Maybe an outfielder that can take swishers spot next year and move Swish to dh. It would be amazing to package hughes, banuelos and another big prospect(Sanchez, Williams) for Justin Upton.

I also wonder if cashman fails to get rid of Aj if he would consider an attempt to get rid of soriano's contract in exchange for a DH. It would open up a spot for the younger and cheaper Hughes in the bullpen. One in which he could take a prominent role.

The Yankees haven't had this many obvious trade chips in a while. I'm hoping Cashman does something big with them.

DC Yankee said...

Do you think it is at all possible to work out a trade with the Angels for one of their DH's?

Fernando Alejandro said...

These are some interesting possibilities. Kendrys Morales from the Angels catches my eye, but they too have an overflow of starting pitchers and probably aren't interested in an overpriced set up guy. Without a doubt, the two contracts that look the worst are AJ's and Soriano's, but we can't expect to get much for either of those guys unless we eat half their contracts. AJ as a starter at $8 million, and Soriano as a closer at $5 million may not be too bad.

I like Justin Upton, but I'm not ready to trade our top prospects for him. Especially our pitching and catching prospects. Outfielders are easy to replace, pitchers and catchers are not.

I wonder if there's another team in need of a starter who has a surplus of bats.