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.
