The foot injury that will keep Yankees' ace Chien-Ming Wang from any further play-off chase assistance will force the team into the trade market. With the team already being mentioned in possible scenarios involving Cleveland Indians, now is a good tiem to establish as base of pitchers most likely to end-up in the Bronx by July 31st.
To do so, I looked at all the pitchers who will be free agents after this season or the next. I further winnowed this list down by excluding SPs who are currently on contending teams with the exception of the Oakland A's. A quick look at this list gives MLB trade speculators a good place to start when trying to guess who the Yankees will acquire and which pitchers may be most attainable.
With three entries, I can understand why the Seattle Mariners' fired their GM Bill Bavasi. He dug the hole the organization finds itself in. Why let him compound those mistakes with additional bad moves?
The most surprising name on this list is Oakland A's reliever-turned-starter Justin Duchsherer. He has done an excellent job this year, but many will be surprised that he is just another year away from free agency. What better time to maximize his value with a trade now while he retains the aura of a younger, less experienced player?
YEAR | POS | Player | Club |
2009 | SP | A.J. Burnett | TOR |
2009 | SP | Paul Byrd | CLE |
2009 | SP | C.C. Sabathia | CLE |
2009 | SP | Livan Hernandez | MIN |
2009 | SP | Randy Wolf | SD |
2010 | SP | Miguel Batista | SEA |
2010 | SP | Erik Bedard | SEA |
2010 | SP | Jarrod Washburn | SEA |
2010 | SP | Vicente Padilla | TEX* |
2010 | SP | Rich Harden | OAK |
2010 | SP | Justin Duchscherer | OAK |
Contract info from Cot's Contracts.