This is the week during which MLB’s general managers gather to discuss a multitude of things, including potential trades.
Brian Cashman, the Yankees General Manager, did a good job of stirring the pot earlier this week when he made it known that he is “open to anything” when it comes to improving his ball team.
Yankees, Mariners Discussing Brett Gardner Trade
The Yankees finished the 2015 season in second place in the A.L. East with a record of 87-75, six games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. The majority of Yankees fans were angered by Cashman’s inaction while they watched the Blue Jays make a series of blockbuster trades prior to the July 31 trade deadline, which ultimately helped the Blue Jays catch fire in the second half of the season. The Blue Jays made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1993, when they last won the World Series. This time around, however, the Kansas City Royals knocked them out in six games of the American League Championship Series. The Yankees also made the postseason, but lost to the Houston Astros in a one game Wild Card.
Cashman would like to make up for his lack of transactions last summer while helping to improve his ball club. According to Joel Sherman, Cashman appears to be having discussions with newly anointed Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto about possibly dealing Brett Gardner.
Gardner is coming off a down year for him. In 151 games, he hit only sixteen homeruns, drove in sixty-six RBI, and only hit .259 for the year. Gardner was used mostly as a left fielder for the Yankees, while occasionally filling in at center field. There’s no argument that Gardner has been a valuable asset for the Yankees since he was a twenty-four-year old rookie in 2008. Now he’s thirty-two, however; three years remain on his contract, which happens to be for a very large salary that counts for $39.5 million on the Yankees books
Reports are that the Yankees are looking for high-end starting pitching that would be under team control, someone like Seattle lefty James Paxton.
Between 2013 and 2014, James Paxton has been one of the more interesting pitchers in baseball, posting a 3-0 record with a 1.50 ERA in four starts as a September call up in 2013 and a 6-4 record with a 3.04 ERA in 13 games started in 2014. In 2015, however, he was limited to just 13 starts after a string of injuries, yet the Yankees seem interested.
Dipoto has been on the job for less than two months and he has already been involved in a six-player deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, acquiring right-hander Nathan Karns.
This might be a situation Yankees fans would want to keep a close on eye on.
Source via Yankees Media Relations
