{"id":9559,"date":"2014-07-14T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9559"},"modified":"2014-07-14T11:10:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T15:10:34","slug":"with-tanakas-injury-will-yankees-come-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=9559","title":{"rendered":"With Tanaka’s injury, will Yankees come calling?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Free<\/a>

Free Ross Detwiler! Photo Haraz Ghanbari\/AP via federalbaseball.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Heard an interesting trade idea floated in\u00a0Buster Olney<\/strong>‘s daily podcast last week while talking with\u00a0Keith Law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In light of\u00a0Masahiro Tanaka<\/strong>‘s possible season-ending injury further depleting the Yankees rotation (which is already without projected 2014 starters\u00a0CC Sabathia<\/strong>,\u00a0Michael Pineda<\/strong> and\u00a0Ivan Nova<\/strong> and is depending on two 15th round picks who you couldn’t pick out of a lineup in\u00a0Shane Greene<\/strong> and\u00a0Chase Whitley<\/strong> right now), could the Yankees come calling the Nationals looking for\u00a0Ross Detwiler<\/strong> in trade?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite all their rotational issues, the Yankees at the All-Star break sit 5 games back of a weak AL East and just 3.5 back in the Wild Card. \u00a0The Yankees don’t “pack it in,” ever, and have never shied away from spending to get what they need. \u00a0They’ve already made one shrewd starter acquisition in\u00a0Brandon McCarthy<\/strong> (traded for cash and ineffective starter\u00a0Vidal Nuno<\/strong>) and look like they could now use another (Greene has looked ok, but Whitley has not, and the Yankees starting pitching depth in the minors<\/a> looks pretty bleak).<\/p>\n

I’m on record<\/a> saying the Nats should cash in on Detwiler. \u00a0And I still am. \u00a0My arguments are still the same; opportunity cost of an underutilized and replaceable pitcher versus filling a need for a team trying to mask issues at second base and a thinned farm system. \u00a0And i’m not alone (Adam Kilgore<\/strong>\u00a0in April<\/a> and May<\/a> on the topic, Thomas\u00a0Boswell<\/strong> said that “Detwiler has been wasted<\/a>” in his June 23rd chat). \u00a0There’s now more than a few options for a Detwiler replacement in our system, a guy who can start or relieve, throw low-leverage innings in blowout wins or losses and still develop. \u00a0In fact, I’ll bet that our most recent 40-man addition\u00a0Taylor Hill<\/strong> would *love* that role right now instead of pitching in upstate New York (even if the Chiefs are in first place). \u00a0 If you wanted a lefty like-for-like replacement, look no further than\u00a0Aaron Laffey<\/strong>, off-season MLFA who’s 11-3 for Syracuse on the season and who has 6 years of MLB experience<\/a> starting and relieving. \u00a0Heck, maybe the Nats can trade Laffey if they’re so committed to Detwiler; Laffey pitched briefly (and somewhat effectively) for the Yankees in late 2011.<\/p>\n

Why not see if the Yankees can give up something that the Nats could use? \u00a0Minor league depth. \u00a0Backup middle infielder. \u00a0Something, anything.<\/p>\n

Detwiler, in the meantime, looks like he could be a nice fit in Yankee Stadium. \u00a0Lefties mitigate the short-porch in right field there, and Detwiler’s sinking fastball sports a decent ground ball rate (45.7% this year<\/a>, right in line with his career average of 46.5% but below his 50% figure the last year he was healthy and starting in 2012) that could help keep the ball in the park.<\/p>\n

(coincidentally … while googling for one of the links above, I discovered this link at the Washington Nationals Fan Forum: someone took my 5\/9\/14 article on this same topic and posted it there<\/a>, where it got a ton of commentary. \u00a0 Well shoot; why didn’t those people come and comment here? \u00a0I would have loved the discussion. \u00a0I had no idea it was there. \u00a0But the conversation continues today. \u00a0I’ll post this link there and see what happens).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heard an interesting trade idea floated in\u00a0Buster Olney‘s daily podcast last week while talking with\u00a0Keith Law. In light of\u00a0Masahiro Tanaka‘s possible season-ending injury further depleting the Yankees rotation (which is already without projected 2014 starters\u00a0CC Sabathia,\u00a0Michael Pineda and\u00a0Ivan Nova and is depending on two 15th round picks who you couldn’t pick out of a lineup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2401,111,387,363,47,2550,412,110,2166,408,2549,197,2551,2305],"class_list":["post-9559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","tag-aaron-laffey","tag-adam-kilgore","tag-brandon-mccarthy","tag-buster-olney","tag-cc-sabathia","tag-chase-whitley","tag-ivan-nova","tag-keith-law","tag-masahiro-tanaka","tag-michael-pineda","tag-shane-greene","tag-taylor-hill","tag-thomas-boswell","tag-vidal-nuno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9563,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9559\/revisions\/9563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}