Aroldis Chapman LHP
Yesterday,
the NYY acquired Aroldis Chapman in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds for four
minor league players - 1B/3B Eric Jagielo, 2B Tony Renda, RHP Caleb Cotham, and
RHP Rookie Davis. While Jagielo and
Davis are considered decent prospects, neither are in the Yankees’ top tier and
the other two prospects presumably have lower ceilings than either of them. Chapman is considered the best closer in the
game today. He throws the most dominant
fastball in the majors, averaging 99.3 miles per hour. Chapman threw 100 mph or above with 300
of his fastballs. In fact, many times
his pitches were clocked/recorded at 103 mph and he even attained one pitch in his past against the Pirates that was officially clocked at 106 mph!
Brian McCann might have to add a lot of cushion into his catcher’s
mitt to prevent a hand injury! Chapman produced a 1.63 ERA last
year and, on a losing team, was still able to save 33 games. His strikeout ratio of 15.7 per 9 innings (41.7%
of outs produced) was easily the best in baseball. While Chapman had the best strikeout ratio,
the Yankees’ Andrew Miller produced 14.6 strikeouts per 9 innings (40.7%) and Dellin
Betances produced 14 strikeouts per 9 innings (39.5%) had the second and third best strikeout
ratios respectively. On paper, that would
collectively give the current Yankees' bullpen the top three relief
flamethrowers of all time! I state, “current” because many believe that the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman,
may trade Andrew Miller. Cashman has
recently suggested that he is not looking to do that; however, he insinuated that if another team made a very attractive offer, he may consider a trade.
Away
from baseball, Chapman has apparently not epitomized anything close to being
phenomenal. His character was recently
degraded when the Dodgers discovered (during their own Chapman trade attempt a
few weeks ago) that Chapman was initially accused by his girlfriend this past
October for an alleged domestic violence incident. At that time, she claimed that he choked and pushed
her after she reacted to something he had on his cell phone. She supposedly then hid in the bushes. He admittedly proceeded into the garage (not
after her) and shot his gun within the garage, but not towards her in any way
(which the police verified). Since, the
police investigation did not show any conclusive evidence supporting violence towards
the girlfriend, and (legally) since the girlfriend also chose not to press charges,
no arrest was enacted and no further investigation was required. Still MLB is gathering all of the facts they
can find to help them determine if it is viable for them to suspend Chapman, or
not.
The
Yankees, and every other team for that matter, are fully aware of the
allegations. Again, they are “allegations”
and not considered factual (at least at this time). While the
Dodgers feared the allegations and backed out of their trade for Chapman, the Yankees (and supposedly
other teams including the Marlins) continued their pursuit. The whole incident certainly devalued Chapman’s
worth and the Yankees pounced on the diminished demand from the Reds. Certainly, from a baseball standpoint, the
Yankees landed themselves a steal of a deal.
Here’s why:
- If
Chapman gets suspended for more than 46 games from MLB for his domestic
violence incident, it will mean that, instead of him becoming a free agent
after the 2016 season, he would have to wait another year for a qualified filing. Then, the Yankees would have gotten themselves
a player for more than 1 season.
- If
Chapman does not get suspended for more than 46 games (perhaps even to the
extent of no suspension), then Chapman would become a free agent at the end of
2016 (unless the Yankees & him uncommonly agree to extend his contract). As a free agent, the
Yankees would presumably make Chapman a qualifying offer, enabling them a 2017 draft pick.
- As
mentioned above, the Yankees only traded players that were not considered (by
them) as top-tier. Yet, at least for 1
year, the Yankees would have just constructed the best 1-2-3 late-innings punch in baseball. That
would shorten their starters’ innings and intimidate all of their opponents.
Starlin
Castro (2B)
Besides
yesterday’s Aroldis Chapman acquisition, the Yankees also made some other
transactional moves this offseason, thus far.
Similar to last year’s acquisition of Didi Gregorius as their future
shortstop, they recently attained their future second baseman when they traded reliever/starter
Adam Warren and utility infielder Brendan Ryan to the Chicago Cubs for SS/2B
Starlin Castro. I am even more excited
about this deal than I was last year in the transaction for Didi, especially since Castro has already achieved himself as a past multi-year All-Star player (and he's only 25 years old).
Aaron
Hicks
(OF)
In
another transaction this offseason, they attained speedy outfielder Aaron Hicks (a
student of Torii Hunter) from the Minnesota Twins for their backup catcher, John
Ryan Murphy. Hicks will either serve as their
fourth outfielder (replacing departed free agent Chris Young) or Hicks can
replace any of the current starting outfielders (Gardner, Ellsbury, or Beltran)
if any of them are traded before next season begins.
Ronald
Herrera, Luis Cessa, & Chad Green (RHPs)
This
offseason, the Yankees traded second baseman, Jose Pirela to the San Diego Padres
for a right-handed starting pitching prospect, Ronald Herrera who is already
throwing a 94 mph fastball in AA and has recently developed a nice
curveball. Considering they later acquired
second baseman Castro and they still have their other second-base prospect, Rob
Refsnyder, the Yankees merely traded away a player-type that was
very expendable for a much-needed, potentially decent starting pitcher, who is projected to start in the majors by the 2016 or 2017 season.
The
only trade that didn’t excite me was the trade the Yankees made with the Detroit Tigers. They traded Justin Wilson to
the Tigers for minor-league right-handers Luis Cessa and Chad Green. Both Cessa and Green are expected to pitch for the Yankees’ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders AAA team.
While I was not an extreme Justin Wilson fan, and he was also expendable
based on several lefty relievers they have in their AAA, I believe his left-handed
value for other clubs with impressive 2015 stats could have brought back more in return. Hopefully, either Cessa or Green improve
their numbers immensely in their final developing years, making the trade more worthwhile than it looks. Time will tell.
Year-end
Conclusion
Collectively,
I am very proud that each player the Yankees attained were young players (in their 20s) and
that the Yankees were simultaneously able to retain their
entire pool of top prospects throughout each transaction! There’s still approximately 3 months before
the 2016 season begins and I expect the Yankees to make 2 or 3 more
transactions. Hopefully, they’ll at least attain an additional starting pitcher that has a healthy background, in comparison to their
typically unhealthy 5 out of 6 starting pitchers (CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka,
Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, and Ivan Nova). If they are able to land another superstar, I anticipate that they will have to finally trade one of their supposed untouchable top-tier farmhands, Andrew Miller, or Brett Gardner. Let’s
see what happens next; stay tuned!
