Yankees Trade Deadline Report Part II: Gallo In, More to Come??
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports
With the MLB trade deadline roughly 36 hours away, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made his big play. As the players fought for their postseason lives in Tampa Bay, the front office struck a deal for the most impactful bat available on the market, reportedly landing Texas Rangers OF Joey Gallo along with LHP Joely Rodriguez in a six-player deal struck late Wednesday night. The move establishes a high water mark for the Yankees deadline activity, but it is likely not the end of a busy week of changes for the Bombers. Though the team has a long road ahead in order to right the wrongs of the previous 100 games, fans have to be encouraged that the Yankees have not only diagnosed their problems, but seem to be keying on the right means of solving them.
Bring in the Bombs
Joey Gallo is often considered the baseline of “three true-outcome” baseball, and it’s not hard to see why. A quick peruse over Gallo’s baseball savant page says it all: Gallo is in the 3rd (!) percentile in strikeouts, the 100th (!!) percentile in walks, all while boasting 25 HRs and a .869 OPS. Gallo’s K% of 32.2% is second in the majors only to Cubs SS Javier Baez, while his BB% tops the majors at 19.1%. So no, as the Twitter cynics will have you know, Gallo is not going to diversify the Yankees lineup with contact, balance and speed (though his sprint speed will sit comfortably in the upper half of this lumbering Yankees lineup, FWIW).
Gallo’s game is simple: long, majestic dingers. People often over-hype the prospective capability of power hitters in Yankee Stadium (especially left-handed power hitters), but you’d be forgiven for thinking Gallo can find a 50 burger in the Bronx. Gallo’s left-handed thump will immediately improve the Yankees prospects in 2021, but most importantly, they can write his name in pen as part of their lineup in 2022. Regardless of how this season plays out, the acquisition of Gallo is a significant first-step in reshaping the lineup to better suit the advantages of Yankee Stadium going forward.
Fans clenched more than a bit seeing Starling Marte head to Oakland (the team the Yankees are chasing for the 2nd Wild Card) for struggling, but talented pitcher Jesus Luzardo. Marte is a great player! It sucks to see the A’s get better (from the Yankees perspective), but many in the industry believe Luzardo was a steep price to pay for a two month rental. On top of this, reports surfaced that Miami asked the Yankees for coveted SS prospect Anthony Volpe, a price Cashman was more than wise to decline.
The Yankees shouldn’t look down their nose at rentals, but acquiring controllable talent was always the ideal situation for a team four games over .500 and two and a half games out of a single-elimination, road playoff game. Gallo gives the team a puncher’s chance this year, but his left-handed bat and exceptional defense are well within the model of what the Yankees need to target.
Aside on the Exports
I’m not going to assume I know the farm system inside and out, but by all accounts the Yankees and Rangers settled for “quantity over quality,” in this trade. That’s not to say the Yankees didn’t give up good players, you have to give to get. However, after an evening of haggling, it appears as though the Yankees have retained the upper-echelons of their farm system while dealing mostly from a position of organizational depth. 2B Ezequiel Duran, SS Josh Smith, 2B/OF Trevor Hauver and RHP Glenn Otto appears to be the final haul heading to Texas, after initial reports suggested MLB.com’s #2 team prospect Clarke Schmidt was also heading to the Rangers before medical concerns pulled him from the deal. Smith and Duran were both considered top 15 prospects in the Yankees system by MLB (14th and 15th, respectively), but you build a deep farm system to make these types of moves when they present themselves. I’m team Trade Your Prospects, but it seems as though the Yankees successfully walked the line between aggressive and pragmatic in this instance. Brian Cashman has taken a lot of shit (rightfully so) from fans in recent weeks, but he deserves a ton of credit for stepping up and getting this trade over the line.
Shaking up the Bullpen
With the once-brilliant Yankees bullpen showing disturbing signs of wear and tear over the past month, you’d be wise to note every single trade made this week has involved the bullpen. RHP Clay Holmes and LHP Joely Rodriguez are in, RHP Luis Cessa and LHP Justin Wilson are bound for Cincinnati. First looking at the outgoing, it was surprisingly sad to see Cessa go, who after five years of up-and-down results in the Bronx seemed to be carving out a niche for himself in 2021. You wouldn’t think it, but Cessa had become one of the longest-tenured Yankees at the point of his departure and there’s no doubt it stinks to see him go for reasons that mostly have to do with salary. So it goes. Wilson never seemed to recapture the form that brought him success with the Yankees in 2015, with injuries and ineffectiveness driving him down the pecking order at a bad time. Quite bizarre that Wilson and Cessa were dealt together when Cessa was part of the original return the Yankees received for Wilson, but that’s baseball, Suzyn.
I’d be pissing on your leg and telling you it’s raining if I started rattling off all my knowledge on Clay Holmes and Joely Rodriguez, but take my word on one thing. Don’t pay attention to reliever ERA. So many relievers end up with inflated ERAs due to one or two bad innings along the way, I wouldn’t rush to judgment on either player based on “back of the baseball card” numbers. The Yankees have a knack for turning these unproven arms and turning them into something, and they desperately need some fresh blood in their creek stable of relievers. They should target more, but this is a solid start.
More. More. More.
With reports surfacing that the Rangers are paying Gallo and Rodriguez’s salary for the remainder of 2021, the Yankees remain poised to improve the team before the passing of Friday’s deadline. You’ll have to forgive the “typical Yankees brain” kicking in, but we’re getting a little hot and bothered over here. You’ll have to forgive us, it’s been a while. In all seriousness, it certainly stands to reason that the Gallo trade will be the centerpiece of the Yankees deadline activity, but no one around the league seems to believe Cashman and Co. are content to sit the next day and a half out. The team is expected to aggressively target additions to their pitching staff, as all clubs do this time of year. No, it doesn’t seem as though Max Scherzer is walking through the door, but did the depth expelled in the Gallo trade save enough high-end talent for a run at Jose Berrios? A move of this stature would be shocking, but the Yankees remain flush with the kind of resources necessary to strike if the opportunity comes. More likely, the Yankees will look to depth pieces to provide insurance until the likes of Luis Severino and Corey Kluber can make their long-awaited returns. The Yankees pitching staff has, after all, been quite good as of late. They need more than a warm body, but their current rotation doesn’t lack quality, either.
The big question seems to be whether or not the Yankees will continue their reported pursuit of Rockies SS Trevor Story. Most insiders believe the Yankees maintain some level of interest in the impeding free agent All-Star, though it stands to reason the they would be looking to Colorado to retain some of Story’s salary much as Texas has with Gallo. This wouldn’t be a burden to the Rockies, a team with nearly $100 million in luxury tax space, but would it require the Yankees to dig into the resources they preserved in the Gallo trade? The Marte deal signals the price for rentals will not be a throw-away this year, and reports have eyed the Mets and Giants as alternate players in the Story sweepstakes.
Above all else, I find it more than a little bit concerning that Story is having arguably the worst season of his career in a contract year, all while playing his home games in the confines of Coors Field. It’s possible more lies beneath the surface of Story’s struggles, but when you factor in a potential bidding war with aggressive contenders, an inherent need to placate the Rockies for assuming salary and the fact that I simply don’t see the Yankees having significant interest in a long-term contract with Story, this all adds up to a situation where Brian Cashman should tread lightly. If the market stalls and the Rockies become desperate, shoot your shot, but if you start talking crazy prosecutes, perhaps the Yankees would be better suited talking crazy players. Does anybody else wonder if Trea Turner is still available??