With Andy Pettitte newly retired, the New York Yankees have considerable problems with their starting rotation. They’ll enter spring training with a projected rotation of CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, AJ Burnett, Freddy Garcia and youngster Ivan Nova. After Sabathia, the other pitchers all have enormous question marks attached to their resume for the 2011 season. This is NOT the kind of staff a team with a $200 million payroll should be fielding!<\/p>\n
If you look beyond this year, consider Sabathia will likely opt out of his multi-year deal at the end of the season. While it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likely he would opt out of his deal simply to leverage more money out of the Yankees, a la Alex Rodriguez, nothing is guaranteed. There is a scenario on the horizon that would constitute a complete and utter disaster for the Yankees ownership and front office\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and while it is not a likely scenario, the responsibility of any management group is to anticipate a worst-case scenario and develop a plan of action that avoids the worst-case. In this case, the Yanks have to know that Sabathia will almost-surely void the remainder of his deal in the hopes of sucking more money out of the Yankees trough. If he does so, and if he comes to see the Yankees rotation as being non-competitive for the immediate future, he could seriously entertain offers from other teams. The Red Sox will drop tens of millions of dollars in payroll at the end of the 2011 season\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
You see where I am going with this, right?<\/p>\n
For all of these reasons, the Yankees front office needs to do something NOW in order to enhance the club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to compete this year, establish a scenario where Pettitte might be enticed to play the second half of the year, give Sabathia an incentive to return to the Bronx next winter, and provide a foundation for their rotation beyond this season.<\/p>\n
They need to acquire Francisco Liriano from the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n
Liriano, who appears to be fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, is likely to be the best pitcher available via trade any time in 2011. He is a left-hander, which would be an invaluable commodity for the Yankees in consideration of their new stadium \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which I often (derogatorily<\/a>) refer to as The New Yankee Stadium Softball Field \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is a home run haven for left-handed batters.<\/p>\n According to Joe Christensen, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins may be willing to deal Liriano this spring. The Twins aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interested in signing the lefty to a long-term deal because of his injury history. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a small-market team that recently signed C Joe Mauer to a huge contract. They cannot afford another big contract \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially not when it involves a pitcher with a history of arm problems.<\/p>\n The Yankees have the prospects needed to obtain him from the Twins, who dealt Liriano\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one-time co-ace, Johan Santana, to the cross-town Mets a couple of years ago (for a handful of marginal prospects). The problem for Brian Cashman and the Yankees is the Twins got swindled in the Santana deal (they received OF Carlos Gomez, RHP Philip Humber and others) and they will be certain they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get burned again. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be looking for something of a home run in any deal with the Yankees.<\/p>\n The Twins blew it with Santana. They waited until the year before the southpaw was a free agent and entered trade discussions in a position of weakness. Liriano is not a free agent until after the 2012 season\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 if they learned a lesson from the way the Santana scenario played out, they should have learned to begin soliciting trade offers NOW. The fact Liriano has a history of injuries provides the club a greater urgency to get a deal done, sooner rather than later, but not at the cost of losing out on the quality of prospects they NEED to get for him.<\/p>\n You can bet the two teams have already talked, and the Twins have asked for Jesus Montero, Gaby Hernandez, Dellin Betances and \/ or Manny Banuelos. The question is: how much can they extract from the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 front office?<\/p>\n