As the New York Yankees continue to struggle to play .500 baseball and remain on the fringe of contention this season, they face the very real possibility of being sellers come the trade deadline.
The horror!
Sorry, with that out of the way, it’s time to face facts and realize that being sellers might be the best thing to happen to the Yanks this season. Is it better to struggle to win 83-85 games or sell off pieces to help the team down the road?
The answer is pretty obvious: the Yanks would be well served to listen to offers on most of their players. One player who should not be on the trade block is Nathan Eovaldi.
Yankees Must Resist Urge to Trade Nathan Eovaldi
Reports surfaced earlier in the week that the Chicago Cubs were interested in the young right-hander. While Brian Cashman should listen to any offer, it would be foolish to trade Eovaldi.
The Yankees acquired Eovaldi from the Miami Marlins prior to the start of the 2015 season. Eovaldi was viewed as a bit of a project, since he was coming off of a sub-par season with the Marlins, but there was no denying he had talent.
While he got off to a bit of a rough start to his Yankee career, Eovaldi really began establishing himself as something more than a back-end starter when he introduced a splitter to his repertoire last summer. As River Ave Blues points out, since he began throwing the splitter, batters are hitting only .255 against him with a .089 ISO, and he’s only allowed fifty-six hits so far this season.
Eovaldi is also just 26-years old, and may just now be putting all the pieces together. While some may argue that would be the exact reason to trade him, there is a counter argument: why in the world would you trade someone with this kind of potential?
And oh by the way, he regularly throws 100 mph.
This is the exact type of player most teams are beginning to lock up at an early age and never allow to see the light of free agency. Yes, this might be the best Eovaldi ever gets, but is there any guarantee the Yankees could really do better by rolling the dice on a bunch of prospects who may, or may not, ever make an impact on the big league roster?
Just to make sure nobody forgets, it’s worth it to reiterate that Eovaldi is still only 26.
If they Yankees are truly looking toward the future, it would make little to no sense to trade away a pitcher who has so much promise and is beginning to pay dividends at the MLB level. This in no way means that the Yankees shouldn’t entertain trade offers; in fact, they should shop all of their stud relievers (Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, and Aroldis Chapman), as well as Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira.
The whole reason the Yankees traded for Nathan Eovaldi was the hope he would develop into a good-to-great starter, and now that he’s beginning to pitch to his potential, it would be silly to trade him.
With so much money coming off the books in the next two seasons, and a very underrated farm system, this “rebuild” could be a very short one. The Yankees just need to make sure Nathan Eovaldi is there, too.
Main Photo:
