Hot Stove Coal: Vazquez Reunion in the Bronx

Last night Twitter was abuzz with a potential Yankee trade for a pitcher. Names were being thrown about but nothing had been confirmed. Well it seems that after calling the Pirates and asking about a few of their pitchers (including old friend Ross Ohlendorf), the Yankees have turned their sights to acquiring another former Yankee: Javier Vazquez. Joel Sherman says the Yankees are "working hard". And John Heyman has the details on the deal: @SI_JonHeyman: #yankees, #braves deal will send vazquez, boone logan to ny for melky, lhp mike dunn and a prospect (who seems to be Arodys Vizcaino--one of their top-10 prospects).

Now, I'll preface my feelings on this deal saying that I never thought the Yankees should have traded Vazquez in the first place. He had an OK year but he was young, affordable, and had great potential. But the Yankees ignored all of that and shipped him off for Randy Johnson. One of Vazquez's best seasons came last year with Atlanta when he went 15-10 in 219.1 innings with a 2.87 ERA, 1.026 WHIP, 9.8 K/9 and 5.41 SO/BB.

So what's the difference this time around? Well Vazquez is 6 years older now. And, unlike the last time he was in Pinstripes, he won't be asked to front a rotation--rather, he'll be the #4 starter.

So why did the Yankees do this? Well they needed to keep up the arms race with the Red Sox who signed John Lackey. Now the Yankees counter the Red Sox 5 of Beckett/Lester/Lackey/Dice-K/Bucholz with CC/AJ/Pettitte/Vazquez/Joba or Hughes. There are going to be some epic battles there. Plus, I'm sure that the Yankees looked at the durable Vazquez (whose only season that he didn't throw 200+ innings this past decade was his season with the Yankees when he threw 198) as a good compliment to injury-prone A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte and an over-worked CC Sabathia. Vazquez averaged 216 innings pitched over the past decade. Only 5 Yankee pitchers this decade have pitched 216 innings in a season (Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina in 2001, Randy Johnson in 2005, Chien-Ming Wang in 2006 and CC Sabathia last season). Vazquez won 10 games every season last decade and struck out 200 batters in half of those seasons

Now could this deal backfire? Sure. The fans certainly have a sour taste of Vazquez who was part of the epic Game 7 collapse against the Red Sox. Vazquez 2004 in Pinstripes was certainly not his finest year. And although he had great success in the NL East last season, he may not adapt well to the much better hitting AL East. Vazquez also may not be made for the big lights of New York. He's pitched in Montreal, Atlanta, Arizona and with the White Sox--and doesn't seem to love the spotlight. He's also not young anymore so the durability issues come into play. And the Yankees are giving up Melky Cabrera who is still young and could develop into a good starter (and how will Robinson Cano react?), Mike Dunn who they seemed unwilling to deal in the Granderson or Halladay talks, and Arodys Vizcaino who while still young was one of their top 10 prospects. The other player coming to the Yankees (Boone Logan) is a LOOGY who will replace Phil Coke as the second lefty in the bullpen.

Vazquez is signed for a manageable 11.5M this year, though, and this trade does improve the team today. Do I love this deal? No. Do I think this makes them better? Yes. And for $22.5 M the Yankees now have Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson and Javy Vazquez for 2010 (in comparison, they paid Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui $26M combined last year). So I like the deals for 2010, but I just hope that the trades for Granderson and Vazquez don't come back to bite them in future.