OAKLAND, Calif. — If you’re shopping for the Yankees right now, where do you even begin?
You have a shortstop deficiency, but one of the greatest shortstops in baseball history is insisting that he will return after the All-Star break. Of course, that same guy insisted not long ago that he would be ready for Opening Day.
Your catcher situation is tenuous, yet you have a young man who seemed on the verge of figuring out things before getting injured. Besides, good luck finding upgrades at this position on the trade market.
And while your starting rotation has largely been a strength, someone once noted that you never can have too much pitching.
Last night’s 6-4 loss to the A’s, here at O.co Coliseum, didn’t provide a great deal of clarity. The Yankees’ bats were silenced by old pal Bartolo Colon for six innings and reliever Sean Doolittle for one more, and then they erupted for four runs, and nearly took the lead, as A’s left fielder Seth Smith caught Travis Hafner’s blast against the left field wall to end the game and strand two Yankees runners.
CC Sabathia, meanwhile, said, “I didn’t feel like I had my good stuff” as he got knocked around for six runs and eight hits, including two homers, over six innings. Sabathia now has a 4.07 ERA and has surrendered a team-worst 14 homers.
So if you’re general manager Brian Cashman, you begin by plugging the holes until the re-enforcements arrive as hoped. And if you’re the rest of us, you suspect it’s going to be another quiet July in the Bronx.
“We were told we’re getting back [Michael] Pineda, [Derek] Jeter, A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez], [Francisco] Cervelli and [Curtis] Granderson,” Cashman said yesterday in a telephone interview. “In the meantime, you don’t focus on getting a long-term answer that, at some point, you’re going to be filling.”
Now, you can’t assume that the rehabilitations of this quintet all will go smoothly. Nor can you naively think the Yankees are done sustaining injuries.
We can look back on recent history, however, and we can look ahead to the Yankees’ future. The Yankees’ last “big” in-season trade, by my standard, came for Bobby Abreu of the Phillies in 2006. Roger Clemens in 2007 served as a unique case because he was a free agent, therefore costing only money for one year.
Since then, the Yankees have picked up some big names — Ivan Rodriguez in 2008; Jerry Hairston Jr. in 2009; Lance Berkman and Kerry Wood in 2010; and Ichiro Suzuki last year — yet at small costs of a few bucks and some warm bodies, with all of these guys eligible for free agency at season’s end.
The Yankees still want to get their 2014 payroll below $189 million to avoid the luxury tax, which discourages them from dealing for a player with a substantial commitment for next year and beyond. Nevertheless, Cashman said yesterday, “If we feel [acquiring a player with money owed past this year] is something in that best interests, we’ll do it.”
The one area where the Yankees don’t have a re-enforcement coming is righty-hitting outfielder. Vernon Wells, after producing a fantastic April, has seven hits and a walk in his last 61 plate appearances, a brutal slash line of .117/.131.133.
“He has been everything you could have expected. He has slumped lately,” Cashman said of Wells. “Our initial interest in him was in a platoon circumstance.”
The return of Granderson, at least a few more weeks away, could help manage Wells’ playing time better. Wells owns an acceptable .300/.345/.450 slash line against lefty pitching, including a pinch-hit, RBI single last night against Oakland lefty Jerry Blevins. Of course, the problem with this logic is that Ichiro Suzuki hasn’t hit righties near well enough (.200/260/.281) to justify everyday work.
Lyle Overbay (.279/.324/.515) does, but the brand new right fielder hurt his team on defense last night, tentatively approaching Derek Norris’ second-inning flare — with Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira also pursuing it — and allowing it to fall in front of him for a run-scoring double.
The trade market might be deepest in starting pitchers (Miami’s Ricky Nolasco, the Cubs’ Matt Garza, Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo and possibly Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee); besides the Dodgers’ lefty-hitting Andre Ethier, who has $71.5 million owed him from 2014 through 2017 and Minnesota’s Justin Morneau, also a lefty hitter, the offensive upgrade options look sparse. Morneau’s teammate Josh Willingham and Colorado’s Michael Cuddyer both are better fits, as righty-hitting outfielders, although both have money coming in 2014 and Cuddyer’s Rockies are in contention.
The market obviously will grow clearer as we pass the All-Star break and bubble teams decide which direction to go. For now, though, the Yankees’ primary direction will be internal. Don’t be surprised if they largely maintain that course through July.