According to George King and Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Devil Rays are willing to send Ty Wigginton to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. The Yanks are willing to trade Proctor because they believe Joba Chamberlain can jump up from Double A and fill in capably. Chamberlain is flat-out nasty.
Given his previous interest in Wilson Betemit, it looks like Brian Cashman is focused on adding a versatile player who is under control for several more years. A bonus for Wigginton is that he bats right-handed. Betemit is a switch-hitter but hasn’t done much from the right side.
It’s unclear how the Devil Rays would use Proctor, but I’m guessing they’d leave him in relief. Having a decent guy who can pitch 80 solid innings in the AL East for a few seasons is a stronger need than starting pitching right now. The Rays quietly have a ton of quality pitching in the Majors or in the pipeline. This is a team with a $24MM Opening Day payroll this year – imagine if they bumped it to $75MM and added three star players to complement the current group.
Another note from the column is that the Rockies like the idea of taking Kyle Farnsworth off the Yankees’ hands, but don’t want to pay too much of his remaining salary. Farnsy makes another $2.2MM this year and $5.5MM in ’08. In my opinion, the Rockies should go for it if the Yankees will eat half.
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