Upon hearing the news that Alex Rodriguez would be out until mid-May, it dawned on me that trading Chone Figgins to the Yankees was a no-brainer - it frees up room for Brandon Wood to get everyday at-bats as the everyday Third Baseman for the Angels, it is the last year of Figgy's contract and his $6 Million salary is a pittance to the Yanks.
If Wood goes down swinging, we have Maicer Izturis and one could even imagine Sean Rodriguez getting his feet wet by keeping his glove warm at the hot corner.
But a quick look at the current Yankee roster reveals, well, an old, overpaid, lousy team with a few Cooperstown Confidentials shuffling about a combination old folks home / romper room.
Check out their DILAPIDATED LOTTERY WINNERS REC ROOM of a roster.
They don't have a starting pitcher they could trade who is better or more dependable than Joe Saunders except Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain and they are just not trading Joba the Drunk and the Hughes upside would force Brian Cashman to order Derek Jeter to 3B before he trades Baby Huey.
They don't have a relief pitcher better than Scot Shields/ Jose Arredondo... I am thinking Edwar Ramirez might be a hair better than Kevin Jepsen... really... that ain't much...
We have a logjam in the outfield and they have an overpriced, aging Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui in the outfield, oh and Melky Cabrera... I will take my chances with Gary Matthews and Reggie Willits, not to mention Torii Hunter, Juan Rivera and Vladimir Guerrero. I know I am missing one guy... come to think of it we just got their best available outfielder for $11 Million per season less and did not have to trade anything for him or give up a draft pick... Abreu... Bobby Abreu, yeah, that's the guy.
We are so deep in infielders it isn't even up for discussion. And it is a league minimum infield if Figgins is absent.
So the goal here is to put together a trade of Chone Figgins, Jeff Mathis, Dustin Mosely and Kevin Jepsen to the Yankees for someone who we could then flip to another team. Assume the Yankees pick up salary. Who is the player on the OTHER team we want and who do we get from the Yankees to satisfy that team's need? You tell me...