An Early Review of the Yankees 2010 Transactions

Yankees fans may have been spoiled by the 2009 season. After missing the 2008 playoffs, Yankees' General Manager Brian Cashman went to work on building the 2009 team and added many important pieces including Sergio Mitre, Damaso Marte (a resigning), Andy Pettitte (ditto) Nick Swisher (for basically nothing), A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira. The mid-season trades worked out as well as they acquired Romulo Sanchez (a possible 2010 September call-up if healthy) for a spare part, Eric Hinske for more spare parts, Jerry Hairston, Jr. for yet more spare parts, and then picked up Chad Gaudin and Freddy Guzman during the waiver wire period. Every one of those players contributed in one way or another (except for Sanchez) to the 2009 World Series winning team and Brian Cashman came away looking like a genius who turned everything he touched into gold.

Thames has been Cashman's best off-season move to date (NYDN)

The Midas Touch didn't translate as well to 2010. The Yankees traded Brian Bruney for a Rule 5 draft pick (Jamie Hoffmann). They traded Phil Coke, Austin Jackson and Ian Kennedy for Curtis Granderson. They signed Nick Johnson, traded and signed a ton of spare outfielders (Reid Gorecki, Greg Golson, Jason Pridie, Chad Huffman, etc.), traded for Javier Vazquez (and Boone Logan), signed Randy Winn, Royce Ring, Dustin Moseley, Marcus Thames, Chad Moeller, and Chan Ho Park. Since the season started they resigned Chad Gaudin, signed Eric Bruntlett and Chad Tracy (the latter which has been released), and traded for Austin Kearns, Lance Berkman and Kerry Wood.

While the 2010 mid-season moves have worked out to date, the off-season moves have not. Hoffmann lasted until March and then they returned him to the Dodgers (despite rumors he would be traded back, he's still with Los Angeles). Phil Coke, Ian Kennedy and Austin Jackson have all excelled for their new teams, and Granderson has been a huge disappointment for the Yankees*. Nick Johnson (injuries) and Javier Vazquez (ineffectiveness) both have been huge disasters in their return to the Yankees, and although Michael Dunn for Boone Logan is a wash and I don't think Melky Cabrera truly had a place on this team, Arodys Vizcaino (the prospect traded in the deal), dominated the Sally League going 9-3 with a 2.34 ERA, a WHIP under 1, and a SO/BB ratio of 7.33 before being promoted (and remains one of Atlanta's best prospects).

Side Note: I wonder if the Yankees wouldn't have been better off taking those prospects and trading for Max Scherzer on their own. Not sure if Arizona would have done it if they hadn't gotten back a player like Edwin Jackson, but while Detroit and Arizona have both won in this deal, the Yankees have clearly looked like the losers so far. And with Granderson signed for a few more years ($20.25 M for two or $31.25 M for 3), the Yankees are "stuck" with him while the other players in this three-team deal are both relatively cheap and controllable.

And while I don't think that Melky Cabrera is any big loss, many of the outfielders who the Yankees tried to throw out there in his absence were awful .Randy Winn was atrocious for the Yankees and was released before the end of May. Yankees' farmhands Kevin Russo and Colin Curtis were OK, but Chad Huffaman and Greg Golson were the only off-season outfielders to make the majors. Chan Ho Park was an unmitigated disaster and was luckily taken off the Yankees' hands by the Pirates. Chad Moeller, Chad Gaudin and Dustin Moseley have been important backups for the Yankees this year when starters went down. Eric Bruntlett and Royce Ring have served as minor-league insurance for the Yankees.

The one off-season move that worked out for the Yankees has been Marcus Thames. When the Yankees signed him, I wrote that it was a good move just to create competition in camp and give them an opportunity to have some righty thump off the bench. Once Joe Girardi realized that Thames was in no way an outfielder and needed to only be resigned to DH and pinch hitting duties, Thames has been an important and valuable member of the squad. In his return to Pinstripes, Thames is batting .320/.401/.544, .408 wOBA, .224 ISO, with 9 HR, 6 2B, and 25 RBI in 172 PAs. Although his defense (according to UZR) is about 3.9 runs below average, relegating Thames to DH utilizes only his bat where he is 12.1 runs above average (for comparison Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson combined are 14.8 batting runs above average according to FanGraphs).

Thames has also done this against righties and lefties which makes him immune from pitching maneuverings, having a .906 OPS, .388 wOBA and 5 HR vs. righties and .976 OPS, .423 wOBA, and 4 HR vs. southpaws. Thames has been on fire as of late, with a road trip where he hit an other-worldly .471/.526/1.412 with 5 HR and 8 RBI and a month of August where he's put up .377/.421/.755 with 6 HR and 11 RBI total. Thames has been in the middle of some great Yankee wins as I wrote in mid-August and will be an important player for them down the stretch. As John Sterling says after each Thames home run: "Happy Thames are here again!"

The mid-season acquisitions have all helped out as well. Austin Kearns hit .341/.400/.561 in his first 14 games in Pinstripes (though he's 0 for his last 4 games) and provides Girardi with a real 4th outfielding option (with solid defense) as well as a righty platoon option for Curtis Granderson (who hits righties as well). Kearns isn't great, but he's perfect for that role. Kerry Wood has been great for the Yankees pitching in 11 games (12.2 innings) , striking out 10.66 per 9, has not let any of his 4 inherited runners score, and has a 0.71 ERA (he hasn't given up a run since his second outing with the Yankees). He has allowed way too many baserunners (18), but he's done a great job of not letting them cross home before the third out is made. Lance Berkman has been somewhat of a disappointment for the Yankees, but part of that has been their placement of him on the "phantom disabled list" so they could call up Eduardo Nunez and have an extra infielder when A-Rod went down. Berkman could be a valuable bench bat in September and possibly the playoffs.

So, on a whole, Cashman's 2010 transactions would seem to be a big failure--but to judge that, we will need to see the Yankees' 2010 postseason (or in helping the Yankees get there in September). Marte looked like a horrible signing last year until the playoffs and without Burnett's postseason performances in Game 2 of each series, he would have looked like a bust as well. Let's wait to judge guys like Granderson, Berkman, and even Vazquez until we see what they do in October. The playoffs are where Cashman's 2010 transactions need to really come through.