5 Michael Pineda replacement options for Yankees

2) Sonny Gray

Alright, let’s have some fun for a second. Let us say that Cashman is sitting up late, watching the wheels of the trade deadline spin in its various real and rumored directions. And then he takes a glance over at the standings and sees his primary advisories in Boston in route to another victory which continues to keep his Yankee club at arm’s length away from gaining ground in the AL East. The idea of this finally pushes Cashman out of his comfort zone of internal and second-to-third tier dealings to upgrade his Pineda-less rotation, and he makes a call out to Oakland to gauge terms on what Sonny Gray’s going rate is… and he pulls the trigger on bringing the long rumored righty to the Bronx.

It would be a splashy move, but it could also be the best possible one for this team to make. Although they would never entertain moving over the injured, yet still highly valuable Gleyber Torres to make it happen, nor would the likes of Clint Frazier, Jorge Mateo or Justus Sheffield be very high on the list of desirables to ship out, this is Oakland we are talking about and they are always down to take a large purse in exchange for one high value asset. Something could be arranged between the current Major and minor league stockpile without greatly compromising the Yankee structure.

Gray has shown he rehabbed from the various maladies that sabotaged his 2016 season, and would be a massive upgrade to a Yankee rotation that was already on unsteady ground prior to Pineda’s injury. The addition of Gray would give them a presence to pair with Luis Severino and build around over the next two seasons, at least.

And if they fall short of taking the East still, and the find themselves in the Wild Card play-in game again, Gray could be the ace-caliber arm that routinely decides the direction those games go in.