Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 07, 2007
Talking Miguel

The Yankees are talking to the Marlins about Miguel Cabrera:

Brian Cashman met with the Marlins at about 6 p.m. last night at the GM meetings. No offers were made, but a source with knowledge of the situation said the Marlins made it clear that the Yankees would have to include either Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain or Ian Kennedy in any trade for Cabrera, something the Yankees are not willing to do.

The Yankees would likely offer a deal involving their next tier of prospects, which includes Alan Horne, Humberto Sanchez, Ross Ohlendorf and Jose Tabata.

"The Marlins have evidently let it be known that he's available, so we're looking into it," Hank Steinbrenner said. "But everything is really very preliminary."

With a huge hole to fill following A-Rod's opt-out, Cabrera, a .313 hitter with 138 home runs and 523 RBI in 4-1/2 seasons, is the top third baseman available. But Cashman said he would be "hard-pressed" to deal his young stud pitchers - Hughes, Chamberlain or Kennedy.

I just finished a piece for SportingNews.com about Miguel, so I'll comment more fully about this later when that's posted. However, I will say giving up one of the big three for Cabrera should be an obvious move. Cabrera is a proven commodity, still with great upside. Even great young pitchers can go bad quickly. The Yankees should decide which of those three they like the least and make the deal.

Update: River Ave. Blues agrees.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:32 AM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

But with Pettitte's situation up in the air, Cashman can't get caught short a starter. Right now all 3 are penciled in for this year's rotation.

Posted by: amos at November 7, 2007 09:38 AM

The Yankees need to keep their young pitchers and Melky Cabrera. So look elsewhere for a third baseman.

Posted by: tc at November 7, 2007 09:41 AM

Definitely trade away more pitching - especially for guys who can't play defense - it worked so well last year - what could possibly go wrong?

Posted by: Bandit at November 7, 2007 10:32 AM

Yanks have a glut of young pitchers. There's more coming behind the big 3. Chances are one of those 3 won't turn out to be very good anyway.

I'd deal IPK, who I think has the least upside of the three, but the Marlins might like b/c he's also probably the safest choice to put up solid #3 rotation numbers and eat innings, Melky (Austin Jackson coming up fast through the system and Gardner can be a stop gap as 4th of), and another minor league pitcher or 2, White, Horne, et al.

Posted by: Yankee Fan in Chicago at November 7, 2007 10:44 AM

Isn't there a significant dropoff from Joba and Hughes to Kennedy? If I was the Marlins' GM, I would insist either Hughes or Joba be included in the deal.

Posted by: Tom at November 7, 2007 11:00 AM

Yanks have a glut of young pitchers.

Well let's say they trade Hughes/Kennedy and Pettite and Rivera walk - where exactly is their glut? Maybe Moose will go 5 innings on opening day.

Posted by: Bandit at November 7, 2007 11:42 AM

None of those pitchers are anything close to proven so I would trade any of them for the best young hitter in baseball in heartbeat. The Marlins should realistically ask for Hughes and another one, preferably all three -- I doubt that Kennedy or Chamberlain will turn out that well. Remember that both were considered reaches in the draft and came with huge red flags -- Joba's injury history and Kennedy's declining performance in college. I think people are overrating the last two because of a few good innings at the end of last season.

Posted by: Tom at November 7, 2007 12:27 PM
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