Will Yanks Make Any Trades?

Joel Sherman of the New York Post discusses the Yankees’ trade prospects in a blog post today.  The Yankees have a 3-5% chance of making the playoffs this year, according to Baseball Prospectus.

Sherman suggests Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, and Carl Pavano as players with a slight chance of being dealt.  No-trade clauses would present an obstacle for most of these players, however.

As Sherman notes, Abreu is locked in as a Type A free agent.  For the Yankees to receive draft picks for him this winter, they’d have to offer him arbitration and have him decline and sign elsewhere.  Many Yankees fans made a strong case to me yesterday that the team will offer arbitration, because another year of Abreu at $16MM+ would be an acceptable risk.  It’s a good point, since Abreu is having a better season than he did in ’07.

A pitching-starved team could take on Pavano if he approves it, but he is still owed over $4MM.  The Yanks would have to assume pretty much all of that.