Yankees Notes: Pitching, Jackson, Severino, Uggla

The Yankees’ win-now ethos is “refreshing,” Andy Martino of New York Daily News writes. “Oh, he’s out there,” says another team’s GM of Yankees executive Brian Cashman. “He’s really trying to make something happen. I personally don’t think he has the pieces to get a big trade done, but he’s working at it.” After a rash of injuries, the Yankees continue to look for starting pitching, although Martino notes that there aren’t many possibilities, with Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel already off the market and David Price unlikely to be traded within the AL East. The Padres won’t deal Andrew Cashner, Martino writes, and might not trade Ian Kennedy either. That means New York might have to settle for smaller moves. Here are more notes on the Yankees:

• The Yankees would make sense as a possible destination for Cubs starter Edwin Jackson, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. The Yankees could afford to pay at least some of the approximately $26MM left on Jackson’s contract.
• Nonetheless, the Yankees are not close to any move to upgrade their pitching, although they continue to try, Martino tweets.
• Luis Severino has risen from obscurity to become one of the Yankees’ better prospects, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Sherman tells the story of how Will Kuntz, then the Yankees’ pro scouting director, went to a Yankees spring training minor league game and didn’t even know who Severino was before he clocked him at 95 MPH on his radar gun. The Yankees recently promoted Severino, now 20, to Double-A Trenton after he pitched well at Class A Charleston and dominated at Class A+ Tampa.
• Cashman says the Yankees have no interest in second baseman Dan Uggla, Martino tweets. That’s no surprise, of course, given that he’s hit .162/.241/.231 in 145 plate appearances this season. The Braves are responsible for the remainder of Uggla’s contract, since they released him.