According to Tom Krasovic of FanHouse (props to RAB), next Tuesday, the Yankees will announce the hiring of former Padres GM, Kevin Towers. Towers will serve as a special scouting assistant to his friend, Brian Cashman, and will begin working in that capacity following his introduction. A good baseball brain, Towers will be a valuable asset to the organization and is an exciting addition to the front office. It will be interesting to see what impact he has this year.

Yesterday, I looked at some of Brian Cashman’s recent trades, specifically what he and the Yankees gave up and whether or not those players would really make a difference. I ended the post with the Brian Bruney trade and now I’m going to start this on with the more major trades of the offseason. Instead of going deal by deal, like I did last night, I’m going to go player by player for today’s post.

Starting with the guy who had the biggest impact on the Major League team, we have outfielder Melky Cabrera, who was shipped to Atlanta in the Javier Vazquez deal. Melky was a nice player, especially on a team like the Yankees. He could play all outfield positions competently–at the very least–and could put up league average numbers at the plate. His switch hitting was also a nice touch. Losing Melky, though, is not the worst thing in the world for the Yankees. In fact, it’s really not a bad thing. Despite his useful skill-set, he is an easily replaceable player. One could, and will/should, argue that the Yankees have already replaced Melky with Randy Winn. Melky’s still young and could develop further, but after over 2000 plate appearances with the Yankees, the only consistent thing from Melky was inconsistency. I wish Melky luck in the National League, but I do not think I will miss him terribly.

Moving to the next Major League player traded, we come to Phil Coke, who went to Detroit in the Granderson deal. He seems like a decent enough guy, and maybe he could develop into something more than he is now, but that’s unlikely. He doesn’t have the pitches to start and his tendency to give up the gopher ball sets him back. In 2010, he would’ve been the second lefty out of the bullpen and his role would likely have been diminished. Guys like Coke are not very hard to find on the open market and we may not notice his departure all that much.

Mike Dunn, another LHP, is kind of in the same category as Coke. He’ll never be a starter, but he does have a tick more upside than Coke, simply because Dunn throws harder. He still has control issues that need to be worked out as well. Dunn’s role on the 2010 Yankees was also in question at the time of his trade. Despite Coke being traded, Dunn was still likely to be only the second lefty out of the bullpen. Again, this is a small role and it will not likely be missed.

Ian Kennedy is another player whose role on the 2010 Yankees would’ve been rather unclarified and muddy. He wouldn’t have had the innings built up to be a starter and likely would’ve been either SP depth in Scranton or a long man in the bullpen. However, the latter role is already crowded. I’m definitely going to miss Ian, though, and of all the players the Yankees traded away in 2010, he’s the one for whom I’m going to root hardest. I feel like he never got a fair shot from the fans and hopefully, he can re-turn some heads in the desert.

Now, we come to the prospects: Austin Jackson and Arodys Vizcaino. In terms of the short term, trading away these two does not do much to harm the Yankees. After all, Jackson needed at least another half a season in Scranton and Viz hasn’t yet pitched in a full season league. Long term, though, it hurts the system a bit. The Yankees are pretty short on position player talent and Jackson fits that bill. Vizcaino is a young, high upside arm and those are always nice to have. These are probably the two biggest losses of the offseason, but like every coin, these have a flip side.

Starting with Jackson, we have a player whose star has lost a bit of its shine as he moves through the minor league ranks. Ajax’s power still hasn’t quite come around and there are still questions about his plate discipline. Maybe I’m being too bearish on Jackson, but I have a feeling that he’ll become nothing more than a solid regular in his career. Now, that’s not a bad thing and it’s obviously something the Yankees would’ve wanted. However, over the next four years, I highly doubt that Austin Jackson the Tiger will be better than Curtis Granderson the Yankee.

Vizcaino is the biggest loss of the offseason. He has the most upside of the players traded and has had great results thus far. But, like I’ve repeated ad nauseum, he’s never pitched in a full season league. That definitely counts against him. There are also pitchers in front of him: Zach McAllister, Manny Banuelos, Ivan Nova, for example.

For what it’s worth, here’s my rankings of these players traded away in terms of impact:

1. A-Viz: High upside arm, but a long way off.
2. Ajax: Medium upside bat, needed more time.
3. Melky: Useful player, but easily replaceable.
4. IPK: Good SP depth, uncertain role.
5. Dunn: Some upside, but likely a LOOGY at the end of the day.
6. Coke: Dunn with a smaller upside.

All in all, Brian Cashman has not given up very much over the last year and a half or so in terms of trades. It’s also wroth discussing what he’s brought in. In guys like Hinske and Hairston, he brought in role players who helped complete a championship team. In Nick Swisher, he bought low on a very solid player, and the same could be said for Curtis Granderson. While losing Austin Jackson was not desirable, the package Detroit took for a solid player like Granderson was one the Yankees had to send off, and the same goes for the deal with Atlanta. We all hate to see young players go, but it’s a part of the game. Brain Cashman has done a good job of trading the right people for the right parts and is one of the finest trading general managers in baseball.

According to George King of the NY Post, while it’s clear that right-handers, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, “are the favorites,” or at least the two early finalists, vying for the fifth rotation spot this spring, “there are voices within the organization who want Chamberlain and Hughes in the pen.” GM Brian Cashman discussed this very issue last week with the lovable Mike Francesa, pointing out that such a pitching configuration, one which would feature Alfredo Aceves, Chad Gaudin, or Sergio Mitre as the fifth starter – an option that many more are pondering today after a small sample of recent innings from both Mitre and Aceves – would certainly be to the Yankees’ short-term benefit.

However, Cashman noted that, long-term, such a situation is neither efficient or pragmatic. As stated by Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave Blues, the Yankees need to cultivate at least one of their two young arms and inserting both into the team’s bullpen just does not work towards that goal. “The Yankees need to replace two starting pitchers next year,” Joe writes. “They’d be better serves in 2011, then, by having at least one of Hughes and Chamberlain starting in 2010” (to build innings, etc.). Yankees skipper, Joe Girardi, also made a similar point several weeks ago.

Putting both Hughes and Chamberlain would help the bullpen this season, but it would come at the expense of future starting rotations. In the end, potential long-term benefits, especially with regards to young pitchers, should trump the short-term stuff, right (I say that, but it does not always occur—see Joba Chamberlain’s emergence in 2007)?

Photo by Reuters

Yesterday in the comments of Chris’s article on Brian Cashman and Kei Igawa, a discussion about whom the Yankees have traded in the past two seasons started. I’m of the opinion that with a few exceptions, the players Brian Cashman has traded have been nothing incredibly special and losing them will not hurt the team in the long term. So, let’s take a look at the last year and a half or so of Brian Cashman’s trades to see what the Yankees gave up.

Let’s start with the “deadline” deal of Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte. What did the Yankees give up here? With the exception of Tabata, nothing special. Though Ohlendorf pitched well for the Pirates in 2009, he would not have played a big role for the 2009 Yankees and likely would have had just as small a role for the 2010 Yankees. Karstens did poorly in 39 games–13 starts–with the Bucs. McCutchen held his own (98 ERA+) and showed decent control (2.97 BB/9) in ‘09, but like the other two pitchers in this deal, he’d have no real place on the Yankees moving forward. There are plenty of guys ahead of him.

Jose Tabata was really the only player of consequence the Yankees forfeited in this deal with the Pirates. At the time of the trade, his OPS in the Eastern League was a meager .630. He raked once joining Altoona (.964), but 2009 was less spectacular (.763 OPS between AA and AAA). In a system that’s hurting for position player prospects, losing Tabata hurt, but Jose’s production had dropped year to year and level to level with the Yankees and there were apparently character issues. Perhaps all he needed was a change of scenery. It’s worth noting that Tabata’s star has taken a bit of a hit in recent years; he was rated the 27th best prospect in baseball pre-2007, the #37 pre-2008, and the #75 pre-2009.

The next trade of any importance was the December 2008 trade fleecing of Kenny Williams in the Nick Swisher deal. Cashman traded away Jeff Marquez–who’d seemingly stalled in his development and subsequently bombed with the Sox AAA team in 2009–Wilson Betemit–who was eventually DFA’d–and Jhonny Nunez who did poorly in a 5.2 inning stint with the Sox, but performed very well in the minors. This deal was absolutely great for the Yankees. They bought low on a very good cost controlled player and payed an incredibly small price.

In February of last year, Cashman traded Chase Wright to the Brewers for Eric Fryer; Fryer was eventually included with Casey Erickson in a deal for Eric Hinske. While Hinske didn’t have a huge impact on the Yankees, he added much more than either player would have now, or in the future. It’s also worth noting that the Pirates paid for Hinske’s time with the Yankees.

In other relatively minor trades, Cashman traded Chase Weems to the Reds for Jerry Hairston, Jr., who proved useful off the bench down the stretch and in the playoffs. Again, what Hairston added last year was more than Weems would likely add in the future. Weems would have been stuck behind any number of Yankee catching prospects and it’s likely that he’d never even make the Major League team.

For literally nothing but money, Brian acquired Chad Gaudin, who could be useful as a swingman out of the bullpen in 2010.

A brief review: so far out of these trades, the only remotely useful piece given up was Jose Tabata, and he was likely still at least a year and a half away from being in the Majors at the time of his trade.

The trades of which we’re unsure are the ones made in this offseason. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t judge them now.

The first trade made in 2010 was trading Brian Bruney to the Nationals for a player to be named later, Jamie Hoffmann. It appears that the Yankees grew tired of giving the oft-injured and inconsistent Bruney second chances and tried to turn him into a useful bench piece. If Hoffmann doesn’t make the team and must be returned to the Dodgers, as he’s a Rule V pick, then this trade looks a little worse. If he does stick with the team, this trade looks about equal: marginal piece for marginal piece.

This post is running a bit long and the other, more “major” players traded early in 2010 require a separate post that I’ll put up tomorrow. That one will feature my thoughts on Phil Coke, Mike Dunn, Melky Cabrera, Arodys Vizcaino, Ian Kennedy, and Austin Jackson.

From Bruce Jenkins, via BBTF:

To me, Sheets’ most telling comment Friday concerned his willingness to pitch through the 2008 stretch drive despite knowing that his arm, as they say, was falling off.

Asked if he thought the Brewers would have handled him differently in retrospect, he said, “They couldn’t have handled me differently. I was on the bump (mound) – I wasn’t taking myself out of there. If I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d go out there and be willing to blow my arm out again.”

This is something too few people understand. Every time a pitcher gets hurt – at least in modern times, in the paranoia over pitch counts – it’s the manager’s fault. The pitching coach’s fault. Has to be somebody’s fault. Dusty Baker, as sensitive to a player’s plight as any manager in the game, still hears from horribly unenlightened critics who believe he carelessly blew out arms on the Giants, Cubs and now the Reds.

It’s competition, folks. It’s a strong-willed athlete who would do anything to take the mound. It’s a manager with faith, and the good sense to ride the hot hand. It’s Robb Nen, Kerry Wood, Ben Sheets. The injuries come, or maybe they don’t, but the operative phrase is “Let’s go,” not “Jeez, I’m pretty worried.”

No, No, No, No, a thousand times no. Jenkins suggests that Baker was correct in having Mark Prior and Kerry Wood throw all those pitches in 2003 simply because they were competitors who wanted to so. All pitchers want to pitch and believe that they can get the next guy out. If managers simply said “Let’s go” in every situation, you would have hurlers getting injured with regularity. The organization hires the manager to manage the club’s assets, and part of that job is to know when it would be best for the long term success of the club to pull your best option at the moment from the game. Yet managers frequently ignore that responsibility in order to save their own skins, understanding that they may not be around much longer if they lose games with their best arms on the bench.

A balance needs to be found, where the manager is maximizing the value that he can extract from the pitcher without putting the pitcher at risk for negative long term repercussions. Managers such as Baker have shown an inability to consider the long-term health of the organization by throwing caution to the wind and only considering the immediate consequences of a decision. That is a failure by the manager, as well as a poor job by the organization in allowing the field general to continually put his players at risk. Joe Torre had a problem of that sort in regard to relievers, where he would recklessly “ride the hot hand” until the player got injured or became tired and ineffective. Thankfully, it seems that Joe Girardi has no such problem, and is on the same page with Brian Cashman and the rest of the organization in terms of effectively managing pitchers.

What do you think? Is Jenkins right? Should pitchers just be allowed to pitch?

Here’s an interesting item on Kei Igawa from the NY Times‘ Joe LaPointe:

Despite having two seasons left on a five-year, $20 million contract and despite retiring all five hitters in his spring debut Friday, Igawa is mostly out of sight and pretty much out of mind. He is rarely mentioned in conversations about the fifth slot in the starting rotation, a competition that involves as many as five candidates.

“That’s as it should be,” General Manager Brian Cashman said of Igawa’s diminished status. “He’s got to try to reinvent himself. He hasn’t lived up to what our scouting assessments were. Maybe that’s not his fault.”

While Igawa deserves some blame for his current situation, perhaps for not adapting to American baseball in a way that would increase his likelihood of success here, I think it’s somewhat cowardly for Brian Cashman to essentially fault Igawa for his ineffectual state. His statement, that Igawa “hasn’t lived up to what our scouting assessments were,” sounds like unfair criticism. There seems to be a large gap between what Igawa actually is, and what Cashman’s glowing scouting reports pegged him to be. While I do think Cashman has been a strong GM for the Yankees, the Igawa signing was clearly a mistake on his part – probably the biggest of his career – and he should acknowledge that (an ambiguous remark like, “Maybe that’s not his fault,” is not an admission). Under Cashman’s watch, the scouting profiles the team had on Igawa were either riddled with inaccuracies or just ignorant of his Major League potential.

To be fair to Kei Igawa, that’s not his fault. He is what he is. Instead, that’s on Brian Cashman.

Photo by the Boston Globe

I didn’t see the game at all today, but I heard that Joba’s line was pretty crappy. He gave up three runs in just an inning and a third and, via Chad Jennings, he gave up two triples, a double, and three walks. That’s bad. But, why should we care? It’s Spring Training. Everyone has a bad game at some point in ST and we shouldn’t look into this too deeply.

Of course, if this becomes a trend, we should probably start to worry. But, for now, let’s realize that, like most (all) Spring Training stats are next to meaningless. If the pitchers look a little rusty at first and the hitters don’t perfectly hit their strides in February and March, don’t panic.

On Joba and Phil, though, I have another thought. It will be interesting to see how hard they–and the other fifth starter “candidates” push themselves. While it’s publicly a competition, I think it’s anything but (the job is Joba’s to lose). That won’t stop each guy from trying his hardest to win that spot. As a manager, I’d imagine Joe Girardi wants to see each guy give it his best to show he should get that spot, but there’s also the balance that must be struck. Joe, and we, has to hope that no one exerts himself too hard and injures himself during a fairly meaningless Spring Training game.

Also from Jennings, other notes from Thursday:

• Nice work by Boone Logan today. He retired all four batters he faced, and three of them were lefties.

Logan’s in a spot to really compete for a job. Depending on how Cashman and Girardi want to construct the bullpen, Logan’s got a shot to make the team as the second lefty.

• Speaking of relievers pitching well, Mark Melancon looked sharp today. He struck out two in his one inning of work, and made Jayson Werth look pretty bad on a curveball.

Keeping with the bullpen theme, I’m really pulling for Mark Melancon this season. We’ve long had high hopes for him as a key part of the Yankees’ bullpen. Hopefully, he can make big strides this year and fill a role similar to David Robertson’s in 2009.

Jim Bowden and Jody MacDonald interviewed Brian Cashman on Sirius XM yesterday, and he had the following to say about the Granderson v. Gardner for center field debate (h/t Ben at RAB):

I think that what’s taken place is when you’re asked questions like ‘Is there a possibility of Gardner playing center?’ I’m like, well, if we feel Gardner makes us our best team with Gardner at center because we’re blessed to have two above average center fielders patrolling Yankee Stadium’s outfield out of the three man alignment. So we have [Nick] Swisher in right, Granderson in center and Gardner, assuming he holds it down and wins it, will be in left.

But Granderson’s our center fielder. He’s an above average center fielder and that’s why we acquired him. But to be quite honest if somebody asked, ‘Hey, but is it possible Brett Gardner might be a better center fielder?’ Our defensive metrics on Brett Gardner made him one of the elite center fielders in the game. I’m not saying he’s the top but he’s close to it.

So in fairness we acknowledge that but does that mean it’s the right thing to do to move Curtis Granderson over to left? I’m not saying that but I’m also open minded to say, alright, we’ve got a new player. We’re gonna see how our team fits and we’ll make decisions accordingly as we see things playing out. But Granderson’s our center fielder.”

Cashman is alluding to what we have discussed in this space a number of times: while there might be a small statistical advantage to having Gardner in center field, practical concerns make Granderson a better fit in center field. Firstly, Gardner will likely be sharing time with Randy Winn and one of Marcus Thames or Jamie Hoffmann. Granderson would play center over all of those players, so it would not be prudent to have him moving back and forth every couple of days. Furthermore, the Yankees do not know at this point whether Gardner is a long-term solution for them. If they need to replace him next offseason, it is significantly easier to fill a hole in left field than it is to find a solid center fielder. Moving Granderson to save a few runs in 2010 only to move him back in 2011 does not seem like an efficient use of resources.

The second thing Cashman discussed was to state that Nick Johnson, he of the amazing on-base abilities, would be batting second. I do not know if Cashman is simply making an assumption that Girardi will bat Nick second or if Joe has told him as much, but let’s take that statement at face value and assume that Johnson will bat second. What might the batting order look like? This would be my expectation:

Jeter-R
Johnson-L
Teixeira-S
Rodriguez-R
Posada-S
Cano-L
Granderson-L
Swisher-S
Gardner-L

Cano, Granderson, and Swisher are interchangeable here, but I like having Granderson sandwiched between a switch hitter and Cano, who hits lefties well.

What would your lineup look like?

When the Yankees signed Chan-Ho Park this morning, those that were cynical about the Yankees budget took the opportunity to declare the budget a sham. As Joel Sherman explains, this is simply not the case:

Essentially, the Yankees had $2 million remaining in their budget when Randy Winn was signed for a $1.1 million. But as Park’s price kept falling, Yankees GM Brian Cashman continued to lobby ownership to expand the payroll because the organization viewed Park as one of the top relievers on the market.

And when the price fell further over the course of the week, from $1.5 million to $1.2 million, Yankees ownership finally approved the signing…..

This signing likely puts even more pressure on Cashman, however, to trade either Chad Gaudin ($2.95 million) or Sergio Mitre ($850,000) to bring down the payroll more to ownership’s liking.

Basically, Sherman explains that the Park signing took place in the context of a budget, such that Cashman needed to appeal to ownership to exceed it by $300,000 (the amount the Park signing exceeded the money left over after Winn). If Marcus Thames makes the club over Jamie Hoffmann, that will put the Yankees another 500K over budget. As such, Sherman notes that Cashman may be forced to trade Sergio Mitre or Chad Gaudin to bring the budget back into line, with Mitre’s $850,000 being enough to bring the Yankees back in line with their stated goal. It is quite clear from this situation that the Yankee budget is in fact real, as the GM was required to get approval to exceed the budget by less than 1 million dollars, and may be pushed by ownership to lose a contract so as to keep salaries in line.

Furthermore, just to nip this issue in the bud, I have seen some people questioning the budget by stating that the Yankees will show the budget to be a farce if they need to acquire an expensive player in mid-season. This ignores the fact that the Opening Day budget is almost certainly different than the overall season budget. Most clubs leave themselves a cushion so that they can operate to improve their team in-season if the opportunity and necessity arose, and the Yankees are likely no different. The Yankees have left themselves some leeway to add to the club during the season. The only question is, how much room have they left themselves, and how important must a player be for them to consider moving past the lines they have drawn? No matter what the answers to those questions are, one thing is becoming exceedingly clear: the Yankees have a budget, and they plan to be fairly strict about it.

In NoMaas’ interview with Brian Cashman, the GM was asked about Jesus Montero’s fate as a catcher.

He responded to the question, “Do you think [Montero's] future is behind the plate,” with the following:

We hope so. His value is highest as a catcher. His bat will find a way into the middle of the lineup, that’s without a doubt. Whether he stays behind the plate, is a first baseman, a rightfielder, a DH – that remains to be seen. But he’s got one of the best throwing arms in the minors, he’s got some of the best blocking…he’s just so big, mechanically he takes a lot longer in his release. That’s an area he needs to shorten up.

Note that Cashman rattles off “right fielder,” before designated hitter, as if being a DH is the last option if everything else fails. From what I’ve read, Montero could play first base, though his lack of foot speed would preclude him from being an outfielder. Conversely, Cashman does not seem to agree with that assessment, at least not here. Montero has not seen any time in the outfield during his short minor-league career, but if he can somehow man right field in the future – or left, but his arm strength might play better in right – then it would be a tremendous plus for the Yankees.

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images