Yankees Need To Trade For Starter With Marcus Stroman, Trevor Bauer, Other MLB Pitchers Available

The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins for the second time in three games at Target Field Wednesday night, increasing their lead atop the American League standings. The series further established the Yankees as a likely playoff team while simultaneously highlighting their need to trade for a starting pitcher if they hope to have a successful postseason.

The Bronx Bombers own baseball’s No.1 offense after teeing off on Twins’ pitching for 30 runs and eight home runs. The problem is Minnesota had even more homers, launching 12 dingers and scoring 27 runs of their own over the course of just 27 innings.

No Yankees’ starter lasted beyond four innings or gave up fewer than six earned runs in the three-game set. The afternoon before New York headed to Minnesota, James Paxton was tagged for seven runs—only four were earned—in 3.1 innings.

With Luis Severino still recovering from a lat strain that’s kept him out all season, Masahiro Tanaka is the Yankees’ clear Game 1 starter in a playoff series. The veteran has a 1.50 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP in 30 career playoff innings.

New York’s Game 2 starter is anybody’s guess less than a week before the July 31 trade deadline. What can’t be disputed is that the Yankees’ 2019 World Series chances would improve if that pitcher is currently on another team.

Tanaka has been the team’s best starter, and he’s only got a 4.00 ERA. The rest of the rotation hasn’t inspired much confidence going forward.

Domingo German is second on the team with a 4.03 ERA. Since pitching lights out in April, he’s posted a 4.80 ERA. The 26-year-old has no playoff experience and could hit his innings limit before the postseason begins.

Paxton has been up and down with a 4.20 ERA. C.C. Sabathia is a reliable big-game pitcher, but his ERA is up to 4.50 and he’s gone more than six innings just once this season. J.A. Happ has been a disaster, considering his 5.23 ERA ranks 71st out of 76 MLB starters that qualify.

Four of the Yankees’ five starters rank in the bottom half among AL starting pitchers in ERA. Do you know who ranks in the top half? Marcus Stroman, Mike Minor and Trevor Bauer.

None of those three pitchers rank worse than 11th out of 36 AL starters—Bauer is 11th (3.49), Minor is fifth (3.00) and Stroman is third (2.96). All of them have been at the center of trade rumors.

It’s unknown if Bauer will be dealt now that the Cleveland Indians are only two games out of first place in the AL Central and lead the AL Wild-Card race. That hasn’t stopped the Indians and Philadelphia Phillies from discussing a potential trade for the right-hander, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. One executive recently told The New York Post’s Joel Sherman that Bauer is indeed available.

Morosi reported last week that Minor is increasingly likely to be traded with the Texas Rangers falling out of contention. The Yankees recently scouted Minor, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, though New York is on Minor’s no-trade list.

Stroman is unquestionably available. The Toronto Blue Jays are 20 games in the loss column out of the playoff race. The team isn’t expected to contend in 2020, the final year before Stoman hits free agency.

Stroman, Bauer, and Minor are all signed through next season. They wouldn’t be one-year rentals like Madison Bumgarner or Zack Wheeler, who have both been linked to the Yankees.

Noah Syndergaard and Robbie Ray are reportedly top targets of the Yankees. Their availabilities are also unknown. The notion that the New York Mets would send Syndergaard to the Yankees during the season is considered to be a long shot.

Some of those pitchers will end up staying put. Others will be dealt. There are always sellers at the deadline, looking to acquire highly touted prospects from teams that have a real shot of winning a title.

The Yankees have minor leaguers that other teams covet, and there’s no doubt that New York is a legitimate World Series contender. A few of those aforementioned names would immediately become the second-best pitcher on the Yankees’ staff, potentially making a significant difference in the postseason.

Every recent World Series champion has made a significant trade deadline acquisition.

The Boston Red Sox acquired Nathan Eovaldi last year. All he did was pitch to a 3.33 ERA in 10 regular-season starts before posting a 1.61 ERA in 22.1 playoff innings. The Yankees know first-hand the importance of Eovaldi, who allowed just one run in seven innings in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS at Yankee Stadium.

The Houston Astros’ major addition on their way to winning the 2017 World Series was directly responsible for keeping the Yankees from winning the pennant. Justin Verlander was the MVP of a seven-game ALCS, beating New York twice in 16 innings of one-run ball.

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs needed Aroldis Chapman to break their 108-year championship drought. The closer pitched in all but four of the Cubs’ 17 playoff games, including 7.2 total innings in five World Series appearances. New York traded Chapman to Chicago that summer in a deal that made Gleyber Torres a Yankee.

Torres is already one of the best middle infielders in baseball, having made the All-Star team in each of his first two MLB seasons. He’s just 22 years old and potentially on the very early track toward the Hall of Fame.

Even if Torres ends up going down as one of the best second basemen of all time, the trade will have been worth it for the Cubs. Chicago’s championship drought would probably be up to 111 years and counting had they not given up a future star for some immediate help.

The Yankees haven’t been to the World Series in a decade. They’ve got one title in the last 18 years. Maybe that’s not the same as the Cubs failing to win a championship in over a century, but in Yankee Years, it’s not far off.

New York doesn’t have to trade for a pitcher that will be gone in three months. Bauer and Stroman are still in their 20’s. They could be part of the Yankees’ rotation well beyond 2019.

The opportunity is there for the Yankees to make a move that could help them get over the hump and win their first World Series since 2009. The clock is ticking with the trade deadline just days away.