December 22, 2009

Deal Done

Joel Sherman has the trade deal details. Fan reaction is all over the place, some lamenting the loss of Melky, some afraid that Vazquez can’t pitch in the American League. Vazquez’s 2009 is certainly out of context with the rest of his career. I expect him to have a 4.50 ERA minimum with the Yankees in 2010, especially with balls flying out of Yankee Stadium.

It’s only for a year, however. As others pointed out, the Yankees can let him go as a Type A free agent and get draft picks, then maybe sign Cliff Lee. Or Boone Logan might actually turn out to be a decent pitcher. For this year, it allows them to move Joba Chamberlain into the rotation full time, and let Phil Hughes get his innings up by relieving when the rotation is healthy and starting when someone is injured. Essentially, Vazquez is an innings eating bridge to the 2011 season.

Tyler Kepner makes this observation as well:

Yanks use 6 prospects to get Granderson and Vazquez, yet keep Hughes, Joba, Montero, Melancon, Romine, McAllister. Not bad.

As for the Yankees needing another outfielder, I think they’ll be just fine with Granderson, Gardner and Swisher as the starting three.

For the Braves, the star of the trade is Arodys Vizcaino. He’s performed extremely well at a very young age. The disappointing thing here is that we won’t see A-Rod and Arodys on the same infield.

The deal gets the Braves down to five starting pitchers, so Derek Lowe is likely to stay with the team in 2010.

3 thoughts on “Deal Done

  1. Tom

    There is absolutely no way the Yankees are going to go into the season with Brett Gardner as a starting OF. Why would the team with the highest payroll and the highest expectations start one of the worst outfielders in the majors? I assume that Holliday will end up there in the next few days.

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  2. benjah

    haha! @Tom — i was just going to say that about the yankees starting that outfield. gardner will NOT start full time.

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