The NY Yankees are determined to stay in the action, and apparently owner Hal Steinbrenner will do more than spend some money to make that happen.
They want to make some noise this summer in trades, too.
Mostly because of Injuries, you have to start looking at the rotation if you are looking for places the Yanks need improvement. Although the replacements for CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, and Ivan Nova, have not utterly disappointed, they don't seem to be the long term fix the team needs. Right now, they are 35-33 and tied with the Orioles at 4.5 games behind the Blue Jays.
According to the NY Post, Because of the Yankees' limited available commodities in trade bait, it seems unlikely that they'll be able to land one of the bigger names available such as Jeff Samardzija or David Price. However, someone such as Jason Hammel of the Cubs or Kyle Kendrick of the Phillies may be realistic trade options.
New York could also be a possible landing spot for another Phillies starter in left-hander Cliff Lee. Philadelphia reportedly shopped Lee this winter, but not many teams were willing to take on a potential $77.5 million investment over the next three years. If they are willing to spend money, given their financial clout, the Yankees could have an upper-hand if the Phillies are still interested in parting company with Lee. The Yankees have the need, and adding Lee is almost a guarantee to get them in the playoffs.
If you listen to Steinbrenner, that sounds exactly like what he has planned.
"[We're] always willing to look at options come July. Come the trade deadline," Steinbrenner, the Yankees' managing general partner, said as he departed the quarterly owners' meetings at Major League Baseball's Manhattan headquarters. "And I think we've shown that. Some years we've done stuff, like last year with [Alfonso] Soriano. Some years we haven't. But we're not going to ever lay down and die. We're going to do what we need to do to stay in."
No matter, Steinbrenner promises to keep grinding away at keeping the team relevant. He thinks that one of the major benefits to having a veteran team is that they can overcome adversity an rise to the challenges as they come.
