The Blue Jays addition of Drew Storen will give the club the opportunity to stretch out Aaron Sanchez or Roberto Osuna as a starter, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. Toronto turned to both Sanchez and Osuna as relievers out of necessity in 2015, but they have previously been viewed as starting pitcher prospects. As GM Ross Atkins notes, there aren’t many success stories of players transitioning from the bullpen to the rotation (Carlos Carrasco comes to mind). Atkins hypothesizes that differences in how pitches are used and developed in a one-inning role are to be blamed. While Storen does give the Blue Jays some depth in the bullpen, they probably can’t afford to remove both Sanchez and Osuna from the bullpen.
Here’s more from Toronto and their division rival Yankees:
- Even after adding Storen, Atkins continues to hunt for help in the bullpen and elsewhere on the roster, writes Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. “We haven’t let up for one second,” said Atkins. Acquiring additional bullpen depth would make it easier for the club to move one or both of Sanchez and Osuna out of the major league bullpen. They were linked to Fernando Rodney prior to the Storen trade.
- Chad Jennings of LoHud profiles three Yankees who have spent the offseason on the trade block. New York wanted to trade outfielder Brett Gardner for starting pitching. Gardner’s role with the club is largely redundant. However, the exorbitant price of pitching and slow developing free agent outfield market have made it difficult for GM Brian Cashman to line up a trade. Jennings figures the Yankees should hang onto Gardner unless he can return a “good, cost-controlled starter.”
- After high profile trades involving Craig Kimbrel and Ken Giles, the Yankees had some hope of receiving starting pitcher reinforcements for Andrew Miller. At this point, it appears as if the demand for elite closers via trade consisted of just two teams. While Kimbrel and Giles were dealt mostly for prospects, the Yankees had more interest in established talent. To me, this smells like a doomed proposition. Any team willing to pay top dollar for elite relief probably doesn’t want to trade away quality starting pitching. Now that the Yankees have added Aroldis Chapman, the plan may be to simply survive the early innings and let the bullpen slam the door. As such, Miller will probably stay put.
- The Yankees have also shopped Ivan Nova without finding a match. Nova is coming off a lousy, injury-addled season in which he posted a 5.08 ERA in 94 innings. He’s also in his final season of club control. Jennings views Nova as the best sixth starter on the roster, making him valuable depth. However, Jennings would happily trade Nova with a second player for a better pitcher.
AL East Notes? You forgot 3/5 of the teams in the AL East.
lol the ones who count…
shark and chris sale would be pretty good examples of transitioning….
Woody f’n’ Williams
You took my two…
Johan Santana
When do the Walker Paxton our Felix for Gardner trade tasks start again? Seems like every time Gardner is Yale’s about a trade for staying pitching Yankee fans think they will get one of them. Even after Felix signed his 100% no trade clause they talked about him wanting to leave Seattle to go to NY. We sent you a pretty good pitcher and got crap back but you broke the pitcher. It was s typical Z trade trade at the wrong time and grrr the wrong players. Most of his trades were cut or traded within a couple years or if still here not performing. Keep paying millions to old injured guys and passing the luxury tax and stop drooling over our pitching.
The Yankees are not drooling over ‘Seattle’s pitching. Walker and Paxton need to actually stay healthy and turn in a productive season before anyone will drool over them again. Felix is getting old. His decline is imminent. The Mariners broke Pineda. They traded the Yankees broken goods. Or, do you think his great first half and bad second half of 2011 was a fluke? They over used his arm until it almost fell off and I don’t know why. They had zero chance of making the playoffs that year. In fact, I think they were one of the worst teams in baseball in 2011. They should seriously rethink how they use rookie pitchers out there seeing as how Pineda now Walker and Paxton have had nothing but problems staying healthy. Oh, one last thing. Try proofreading your posts before you publish them. I am pretty far from being grammar police but yours is absolutely unreadable..
By your logic Pineda was doomed to get hurt regardless of how much any team pitched him. Plus you make it seem like the Yankees didn’t get even with Jesus That Burger is Delicious Montero in that deal. Other than that I agree with you.
Considering Gardner has more value than paxton, you shouldn’t be complaining…
Generic Gardner for XXXXXX comment. Get it done, Cashman.
Atkins’ comments seem to shed light on why they are rumored to be shopping Dickey now. If they want Sanchez and Osuna in the rotation ASAP to avoid potentially damaging their development, Dickey is the obvious (really only) candidate to go at this point. In hindsight, it seems like the Happ signing was an unnecessary expense if they’re now forced to move Dickey’s short, reasonable contract because the rotation is too crammed.
If the Arizona-Atlanta trade from December 8th at the MLB winter meetings is the template for getting a trade deal done, then a great deal between Atlanta and the New York Yankees would be something like: The Braves can send pitchers Julio Teheran (Better than Miller) and Jose A. Ramirez (Received in trade from Mariners earlier this year, better than Gabe Speir) to the New York Yankees for a package of Gary Sanchez (not quite as solid as Inciarte 3.9 WAR) and prospects Aaron Judge, OF, #1NYY and #17MLB (not quite Dansby Swanson, #10MLB) and James Kaprielian, P, #3NYY and MLB Not Ranked (no where near as highly rated as Aaron Blair #61MLB).
If the Yankees want to keep Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner can be substituted but Nick Swisher and MIchael Bourn need to be added to equalize the cost and value. So its Teheran and Ramirez for Sanchez, Judge and Kaprielian or
Teheran, Swisher and Bourn for Sanchez, Gardner and Kaprielian.
@Trademeister – why would the Yankees do that trade? Teheran is not better than Miller, and why would the Yankees want Ramirez back? Teheran probably wouldn’t even crack the current rotation of Tanaka/CC/Pineda/Eovaldi/Severino, or at the most fight for a 5th spot/fill in for an injury.
And then to trade Gary Sanchez, a catcher, who should not be compared to Inciarte, a speedy OF, then our top #1 prospect in Aaron Judge, and then throw in the only near ready SP the Yankees have in the MILB? What does it matter how they compared to Braves current prospects, this trade makes no sense for the Yankees. If the Yankees trade Judge, it would be for a top young SP, like Carrasco, Salazar, Ross, etc.
And then the other option is throw in Gardner to take back Swisher and Bourn? In what world do the Yankees need 2 more backup OF?
Not saying anything about the trade because people can make trades all day it’s fun to speculate on returns, but man I don’t know if you even know who Teheran is? He would be the Yankees 2nd starting pitcher just behind Tanaka (barely). To think he couldn’t crack your rotation is laughable. He’s 24 signed to a team friendly contract till ’20 I believe also. Like I said maybe its a dumb deal, I’m not gonna pretend to know about the Yankees/Braves farm systems but you’re selling Teheran short
Seriously? You think CC is better then Teheran? This isn’t 2009.
Of course not – Teheran is better than CC, no questions asked. With that said, the Yankees didn’t move CC to the bullpen last year, they aren’t going to do it this year either. If they roll with him, it’ll be in the rotation. I don’t agree with it, but it’s what will likely happen.
Teheran is better than every Yankee Pitcher. He would be their Ace. Kaprielian is fresh off rookie ball and has shown nothing. On your inability to compare catchers with outfielders, that just about says it all. Can you say WAR.
Sure, I’ve heard of WAR, so let’s use it for a second. He would be the Yankees 5th person in their rotation if we go by WAR.
Teheran 2015 WAR: 1.5
Yankees Pitchers War:
Eovaldi: 2.2
Tanaka: 3.0
Severino: 1.9 (in 60 Innings!)
Pineda: 1.7
CC: 1.0
Adam Warren: 2.7 (I know he is gone but just to point out that if he were here still, Teheran wouldn’t even crack the top 5.
So yes, he is better than CC. But the Yankees won’t move him to the pen or release him, so he is pretty much stuck there.
Now as for Inciarte vs Gary Sanchez, of course Inciarte is better than Sanchez. My question is why are we even comparing the two? One is a prospect who has barely touched the Majors, vs. Inciarte who has been a great OF over the past few years, definitely not disputing that. I just don’t understand why he is being added to the trade with the comparison that he isn’t as good as Inciarte in terms of WAR? What does that have to do with anything?
The article is about trading Brett Gardner for Starting Pitching!.
Julio Teheran is on a five year $40 Million contract at 24 years old and already 8.6 WAR. That makes him twice as good as he is! Who you got like that???
Considering Severino put up 1.9 WAR in 60 innings last year, I’ll take him over Teheran going forward considering he will cost 1.5MM over the next 3 years total, and he’s 21.
Teheran also regressed a lot last year. His ERA went up more than a point, his WHIP increased 30%, his ERA + was 93 (below average), FIP went up nearly a point,
Not saying Teheran doesn’t have value, but if I was a betting man, I’ll take Severino.
I don’t think you understand how the Yankees do trades. Look at the Castro and Chapman trades. Did you see what they gave up in those deals?
Now look at your proposed “deal.”
Speaking of transitioning relievers into starters, the Yankees should consider that with
Chapman. There’s a good chance he’ll be suspended for some time this year, so they could probably limit him to about 150 innings easily enough. They could try it in spring training to see if it’s feasible. Since he’s only got 1 year left on his contract, the risk to reward ratio should be positive. If doesn’t work out it should be easy to scrap, and throw him back in the bullpen. Naturally he would have to be on board, but seeing that he could possibly double his earning potential, if I were he and his agent, I would be willing to consider it. The AAV for an elite closer tops at about $15 mill. As we’ve seen this offseason, an ace can demand over $30 mill. Given his relatively young age, and no history of major arm issues, I would think that 10 years at $300 mill is not out of the realm of possibility if everything were to work out.
Chapman’ value is as an elite closer. Trying to transition him back to a starter is a recipe for disaster.