Warren and Wilson contributed to a …
Whole lotta W‘s for the Yankees last season. Warren as a starter,
and also as a long / short reliever out of the pen, while Wilson
was more than just a lefty specialist, he was for the most part
the 7th inning guy, and a reliable one at that.
Which leads to the question …
Why were both Warren and Wilson traded at the
Winter Meetings ??
Well … that’s a good question.
In my last column, I went into depth analyzing the Adam Warren for
Castro trade and in my opinion it was a trade that made sense
and will help both teams (provided that Starlin avoids mental lapses).
As far as the Justin Wilson trade to the Tigers which came next,
it is harder to understand at face value. Wilson was traded for a pair of minor league pitchers.
Luis Cessa was traded to the Tigers from the Mets as part of the Yoenis Cespedes deal.
He had a mid 2’s ERA at Double A but his ERA jumped to the 7.50 at Triple A
for both the Mets & Tigers. The other Tiger prospect Chad Green was an 11th round
pick in 2013 who had a 5 ERA at the Double A level last year.
In fairness both prospects have promise, but again the timing of this trade
has a very odd feel to it.
Some have pointed out that Wilson was in line to earn about $1.3M as a first year
arbitration-eligible player and the Yankees were saving money with the trade.
Wow !! If that’s the case we are really in trouble.
If Wilson was a Free Agent he would be getting around $6M /year
(Lefty Tony Sipp just re-signed with the Astros for 3 years / $18M ).
Joel Sherman in the NY Post has an interesting column today
with the headline … Yankees Trades are a Clear Signal: It’s Not about Next Season.
His opening line is ..
“The Yankees are not trying to win a championship in 2016” . All I can say is I
Wholeheartedly disagree. My gut says there are more moves to come,
specifically trying to trade for a young starter, similiar to the Eovaldi deal last year.
I must say I’m really not crazy about the Wilson trade at the moment,
but let’s see if those prospects get spun off as part of a deal for a starter.
I’m a big Jacob Lindgren fan. He had an elbow chip removed last year,
and now he has an opportunity to step into the role as the prominent Lefty
in the Yankee pen, as do Shreve and Pazos for that matter.
More moves to come ??
Well … We’ll have to Watch & Wait !!
As always,
GO NYY !!
