Last night’s mystery pitcher is Javier Vasquez, hence the title. The Yanks are sending Arodys Vizcaino, Melky Cabrera, and Mike Dunn to Atlanta for Boone Logan and Javier Vazquez. The Yanks will also send $500k to Atlanta. Joel Sherman tweets that the Yanks will now look to trade Sergio Mitre or Chad Gaudin away. I hope its Sergio, since Gaudin was more reliable as both a starter and a reliever last season.
Brian Cashman has added Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, Javier Vazquez, and Boone Logan at relative bargain prices this offseason, so I tip my hat to him. Now, let’s look at the deal.
The Yanks are giving up some interesting pieces in this blockbuster. Arodys Vizcaino is 19 and ranked by Baseball America as the team’s number three prospect. At Staten Island this year, he started ten games, pitching a total of 42.1 innings. The righty’s ERA was 2.13, his WHIP was 1.16, and he struck out 52. Arodys is probably two or three, maybe four years away from the bigs. He’ll be an impact pitcher at some point, but that point won’t be for a while. Still, it is tough to see a stud prospect go. The Yanks have now dealt Ian Kennedy and Vizcaino away from their minor league pitching depth, but they still have Zach McAllister, Dellin Betances, Ivan Nova, and Andrew Brackman. Not to mention Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain on the big league club.
The most recognizable name in the trade is Melky Cabrera. Note: Melky Cabrera is one of my top 3 favorite players of all-time. His energy, Robby Cano handshakes, and spanish nickname: Leche make me love to watch him play all that much more. When he was sent to the minors in ’08 I hung up my “Got Melky?” T-Shirt on my wall as a reminder that he would one day return. I will miss Melky very very much, and to you Leche, I wish you the best of luck. As everyone knows, Melky had a terrible ’08 season, but is coming off a solid ’09 year. He worked last offseason with Kevin Long to change his stance, and the effects were drastic. After hitting .249/.301/.341 in ’08, Melky swung to the tune of .274/.336/.416 in the regular season. His WAR was 1.6, which is well below the league average of 2.84 for starting outfielders. Cabrera had been slotted to start 2010 fighting for the starting left field job with Brett Gardner, who has apparently won, pending another big transaction. Melky made $1.4mm in 2009 and is arbitration eligible yet again. Expect him to get a raise that will put his 2010 salary at, at least $3mm.
Mike Dunn is 24 year old lefty that Brian Cashman refused to include in the deal for Granderson. Dunn spent most of ’09 at double-A Trenton. There he posted a 3.71 ERA in 26 appearances. He struck out 76 in just 53.1 innings pitched. Dunn was promoted to triple-A, where he continued to dominate, having a 2.25 ERA in 12 appearances. He struck out 23 in 20 innings pitched. Dunn made his big league debut at the end of last season, pitching in four big league innings, and allowing three big league runs.
In return, the Yanks are getting a workhorse starter and another lefty reliever. That relieve is Boone Logan, who was actually sent to Atlanta last winter in the same deal that netted them Vazquez. Logan was effective in 29 appearances at triple-A this year, posting a 3.28 era while striking out 39 in in just 35.2 innings. The 6-foot-5 lefty was less impressive in a big league role, getting knocked around over20 appearances for a 5.19 ERA and a 1.73 WHIP. This move, along with the trade of Phil Coke, indicates that the Yanks are relying heavily on Damaso Marte to be the key lefty in the ‘pen. Unless Logan can start pitching like he did in triple A again, I don’t like him as an option for the big league club.
Then there’s the key to the trade: Javier Vazquez. Javy posted a 2.87 ERA in ’09 in 32 starts. He struck out 238 as he pitched his way to a workhorse 219.1 innings. That’s an average of more than 6 and two-thirds innings pitched per start. Javy has pitched over 200 innings in each of the past three seasons, and he hasn’t pitched less than 180 since ’04, back when he was a Yankee. Javy’s Fielding Independent ERA hasn’t gone above 3.90 since his ’05 season in Arizona. Vazquez’s WHIP was a remarkably low 1.03 this past season, a career low. Hitters have a .297 batting average on batted balls in play this past year, demonstrating that Vazquez, like Roger Clemens, gets hit hard, but strikes enough guys out to make up for it. One would hope that playing with a superb defensive infield behind him will make line drives and hard choppers go from being singles to outs. Vazquez, 33, will become a free agent following the 2010 season. He’ll make $11.5mm this year, but then he’ll likely go off to find a new team as the Yanks court Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb. Atlanta relied on Vazquez as an ace in ’09, but he’ll only need to be New York’s number four this season. Although, I’d like to see him put up better numbers than the Yanks’ third starter, Andy Pettitte.
Vazquez came to the Yanks back in a December ’03 trade that sent Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera, and Randy Choate to the Montreal Expos. Vazquez was phenomenal in the first half of ’04, even making the all-star team in pinstripes. He a 1.15 WHIP to complement his 3.56 ERA. Over the second half though, Vazquez pitched terribly. A 6.92 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in the second half had him shipped to Arizona in a deal for Randy Johnson that winter. Mark Feinsand tweets that Vazquez’s painful second half of ’04 was due to shoulder fatigue, not an inability to handle New York. He handled New York fine in the first half of that season. Feinsand also notes that Brian Cashman didn’t want to trade Vazquez, but George Steinbrenner wanted Randy Johnson, and a Vazquez deal was the best way to make that happen. Joe Torre’s book The Yankee Years, Torre says something along the lines of “I wouldn’t trade Vazquez in July, but by October it seemed like a no-brainer to deal him for Johnson.” That’s me paraphrasing, not the actual quote.
A rotation that includes CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Javier Vazquez, and one of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain can rival the Red Sox five-some of Jon Lester, John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Clay Buchholz. Brian Cashman has dealt away Phil Coke, Ian Kennedy, Austin Jackson, Melky Cabrera, Arodys Vizcaino, and Mike Dunn, and brought back Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez, and Boone Logan. That’s a lot of young players, but you have to applaud him for holding on to Jesus Montero, Hughes, and Joba. Coke, Dunn, and Kennedy were expendable. Granderson has more power than Austin Jackson ever dreamed of, and has already proven himself at the big league level, so dealing Jackson wasn’t exactly a hit to the system. Melky is a fan favorite, a class act, and a fine outfielder, but he wasn’t exactly holding the team on his back. Vizcaino is a top prospect, but the Yanks have so much minor league pitching depth, they can cushion the blow pretty easily. Vazquez adds stability, and a damn good arm, to the rotation for a year, while Granderson will be entrenched in center field at a below-market price until 2013. As much as it hurts to see the Melkman go (in my heart, not the lineup), Cash made a great move here. All the How-can-you-trade-MELKY-! dissenters will likely be won over by Vazquez’s reliability by the all-star break. Cashman has used this winter masterfully to show that he’s not only capable of handing out checks, he’s a pretty damn good general manager.
