The Winter Meetings begin on Monday and that's when a number of trades will go down, or at least the foundation of trade talks will begin to materialize. The New York Yankees are one team exploring the trade market and rumors suggest they'll be looking for a starter.
Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com enumerated the top five priorities for Yankees' general manager Brian Cashman as the annual meetings approach. Improving the starting rotation was the paramount topic.
As ESPN's Buster Olney also notes:
NYY have talked w/lots of teams about lots of different players, but all seems centered around trying to acquire young starting pitching.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 3, 2015
With so much uncertainty in the starting rotation due to the health issues regarding Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi, the trade market could be Cashman's best way to add a young, healthy and cost-effective arm.
"The Yankees have young Bryan Mitchell to call up from Triple-A, but look for Cashman to explore a trade for a young pitcher -- maybe someone like a Shelby Miller or a Carlos Carrasco -- in exchange for a package of say, Brett Gardner and Nova," Matthews writes.
It's basically a foregone conclusion that the Yankees are going to pass on the top pitching free agents, and perhaps even the second-tier ones. While the trade market is seemingly the next option for them to add depth and security to their rotation, acquiring a cost-controlled starter won't be an easy task, especially if Cashman is indeed interested in going after Miller or Carrasco.
First off, neither will be cheap, and the Yankees don't have an awful lot to trade if they're unwilling to move top young players Luis Severino, Greg Bird and Aaron Judge. Secondly, David Price's recent $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox perhaps set a new market standard for young, controllable starting pitchers.
"All of this serves to heighten the market value of cheap, young, controllable pitchers, which is why the Atlanta Braves are currently open for business with Shelby Miller, and why the Indians are asking for a ton in return for Carlos Carrasco, who is guaranteed about $20 million under the terms of a deal that has him under team control through 2020," ESPN Insider Buster Olney said of Price's mammoth deal.
Additionally, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported earlier this week that the Braves asked the Yankees for Severino in any deal for Miller, which is something Cashman likely won't do.
According to Olney, the Indians were in discussions with the San Francisco Giants regarding Carrasco and Cleveland reportedly asked for Brandon Belt and Joe Panik in return, which is an astronomical request for a pitcher with a career 4.08 ERA.
Perhaps the asking prices will lower as these clubs have attempted to set the bar high to ensure they get a decent return. However, the Yankees probably won't meet those current asking prices and Cashman will have a lot of work to do if he plans on talking down rival GMs in an attempt to acquire their young starters.
