Hot Stove Coal: Yankee Rumors From Day 1

Well Pat Burrell didn't head to the Mets...or anywhere. And--as far as I know--Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson are still on the Tigers. So let's review a day of rumors and deals, shall we?

The Yankees did make one deal yesterday, trading Brian Bruney to the Washington Nationals for a player to be named later (the 'ole PTBNL) as Reuters writes (picture also from Reuters). Mark Feinsand was to the first to report via Twitter that the Yankees would be receiving Washington's Rule 5 draft pick (the first in the draft) as the PTBNL. Now first I have to say I have no clue why the Nats would make this deal. Brian Bruney is about to become ~$2MM relief pitcher with zero control. You get sucked in with Bruney with the K/9 and sometimes a low ERA but his walk rate is insane which means that pairing him up with Mike MacDougal should do wonders for the Nats bullpen. Here was Bruney's very up-and-down four years in New York courtesy of Baseball-Reference (his 2008 was actually very good):



Why I'm so surprised that the Nats really did this is that of all teams, the Nationals have a spot on their roster to store a Rule 5 player all season long as Rob Neyer writes. The Rule 5 draft requires that player taken to stay on your Major League roster all season long or else they need to be returned to their former team. The Yankees actually got some of their own players back last season because of this reason. The Nationals, with about 4 players that should be above AAA, have plenty of room to do this. The Yankees, usually do not. Obviously the Yankees have a player in mind to take (or want to parlay this pick into another player via trade) but most are curious as to who the heck that is, especially since the non-40-men to excel during the Arizona Fall League were mostly Yankees. One guess via Twitter: @leokitty Only one that jumps out at me is Yohan Pino, but I am excited to be surprised. I am excited to be surprised as well and this seems like another smart move by Brian Cashman who can now take the $2MM owed to Bruney and reallocate. With many power arms on the 40-man, the Yankees could surely afford to let the unreliable Bruney hit the road.

As for deals, they didn't make...well...there was plenty of them. River Avenue Blues describes the evolution of a rumor which seems to run the gamut from "overheard in the lobby" to "made up".

Here's how something like this develops. The Yankees "checked in" on Kelvim Escobar. Well, they should. He has an arm and he was a good pitcher in the past. Why wouldn't they "check in". That doesn't mean they're close to getting him or even interested. They are doing their due diligence. The Yankees also checked in on Mark DeRosa and Jason Marquis. And Andy Pettitte either rejected a one-year deal from the Yankees or hasn't received one yet. It's pretty out there right now.

That being said, there was one true rumored deal out there that stuck around all night. From Ken Rosenthal via MLBTradeRumors: "The deal would send Curtis Granderson to the Yanks, along with a prospect or two from the D'Backs. Arizona would obtain Edwin Jackson from the Tigers and Ian Kennedy from the Yankees. The Tigers would obtain Max Scherzer from the D'Backs and Austin Jackson, Phil Coke and Michael Dunn from the Yanks." But that deal has fizzled because the Yankees and the Tigers both don't like their return from the deal. The Tigers backed down from wanting Phil Hughes and Austin Jackson from the Yankees for Curtis Granderson, but they still don't like their haul from this deal. I think that the Yankees need to be cautious with Granderson because of his LHP struggles, but I think that they also need to realize that Austin Jackson may never even develop into what Granderson is now. The other prospects the Yankees are giving up in the deal are pretty minor.

Now there's some thought involved that the Yankees are really just getting involved in the Granderson talks to drive down the price of Johnny Damon as Joel Sherman writes. But, truly, the Yankees could sign Damon and trade for Granderson and still have plenty of room for both. I wrote about Granderson earlier. As River Avenue Blues wrote they would welcome Granderson and say goodbye to Jackson or they would be OK with keeping AJax and letting Granderson go to the Cubs or some other team. IIATMS says that unless Jackson is going to be used to get a top-flight starting pitcher, he can be used in a deal like this, and I have to agree with that as well.

It will be interesting to see what ends up happening, but if Day 1 is any indication, it will be quite exciting.