MLB trade rumors: Each team’s best trade chip

New York Yankees: Brett Gardner

In the midst of a career year, Brett Gardner is well ahead of pace to set a new career high in home runs. The let fielder hit nine in the month of May while posting an OPS well over 1.000. In April, however, he barely batted .200 and is back near the Mendoza Line in the first week of June. Don’t put too much stock into Gardner turning over a new leaf as a player and morphing into a threat to hit 40 home runs.

Gardner has been on and off the trade block the past two years for the Yankees, and he may be back up as a trade candidate if Jacoby Ellsbury can come back from a concussion before the trade deadline. After starting the year 21-9, the Yankees are just 11-13 over their past 24 games. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year in the Bronx, and the team is playing with house money at this point.

It would be foolish for the Yankees to dip too far down into the farm system to add to the 2017 roster for a playoff push. Trading any one of the organization’s top-five prospects should be completely out of the question. Gardner has been very valuable to the lineup, but the Yankees have gotten great production from Aaron Hicks. Ellsbury has also been good when he has been able to get on the field. The Yankees may be able to parlay Gardner’s outlier month of May into valuable pitching depth.