The New York Yankees already might be the best team in baseball, and it appears they soon will be getting even better.
The Major League Baseball trade deadline is just over a week away, and the New York Yankees reportedly will be major players in the starting-pitching market. There are a handful of noteworthy names reportedly available for trade, and The Athletic’s Jim Bowden can’t imagine a scenario in which the Bronx Bombers don’t land one of them.
“The one guarantee I’ll make is that the Yankees will get another starting pitcher, and you don’t have to put that in pencil, pen or Sharpie … just put it in cement,” Bowden writes. “I don’t know which one of Bauer, Syndergaard, Stroman, Minor, Boyd or Bumgarner they will end up with — but they’re getting someone. Book it.”
Bowden also noted the most likely pitchers to be moved among that group is Stroman and Minor. Boyd’s asking price reportedly is “astronomical,” while the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Indians reportedly are less inclined to part ways with Bumgarner and Bauer, respectively, given the teams’ recent success. As for Syndergaard, it would make sense for the Mets to let the right-hander build his trade value back up as he works through a down year.
Stroman seems like he’d be a great fit in New York. The right-hander, who currently owns a 3.06 ERA on the season, is fearless on the mound, which would bode well under the bright lights of the playoffs. His on-field bravado surely would endear him among Yankees fans as well.
Neither Stroman nor Minor are franchise cornerstones and both likely would be rentals for the Yankees. That said, either arm could help elevate New York’s already high World Series hopes, and the franchise would be wise to go all in.
