MLB Trade Deadline Rumors: 5 trades Yankees should make

1. Trade for Yu Darvish

Rangers ace Yu Darvish has been on the fringes of trade speculation over the past few months. On the surface, he’s a perfect candidate to be traded: he’s consistently been one of the best pitchers in the American League since arriving from Japan prior to the 2012 season.

Darvish has a 3.32 career ERA and 3.25 FIP over five major league seasons. He has a 3.45 ERA and 3.73 FIP in with 131 strikeouts in 125.1 innings across 20 starts this year. Though his strikeouts are down (his 9.4 K/9 average would be a career low), he has still limited base runners. Darvish has allowed 101 hits and 42 walks this season, giving him a 1.141 WHIIP that is slightly better than his 1.176 career mark.

He’s also in the final year of his contract, and plays for a team that enters its weekend series in Tampa five games under .500 after losing five games in a row.

The last point is most important. The Rangers have slumped badly over the past week, and are coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of the Orioles in Baltimore. However, Texas is just 4.5 games out of the second Wild Card slot, close enough to consider being buyers at the trade deadline instead of sellers.

After all, the nucleus of the Rangers roster helped the club win the AL West in each of the past two seasons, and has been very competitive after a poor performance during the first six weeks of the season. But, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, the Rangers are talking with clubs about Darvish.

Next: MLB Trade Deadline: 30 players likely to move

Darvish would certainly be in demand, and the Yankees are among the teams in need. As a rental, the Rangers probably wouldn’t get as big a package of prospects as Darvish would typically warrant, but the Yankees have a deep farm system, and have shown a willingness to pay up to get what they believe to be the missing piece.