Yankees shouldn’t trade Gleyber Torres or Miguel Andujar under any circumstances
The Yankees absolutely should be in the market for a starting pitcher, but they should not deal either Gleyber Torres or Miguel Andujar to get another arm.
It’s abundantly clear that the New York Yankees probably don’t have enough starting pitching to win a World Series this year. After Luis Severino, the cupboard is pretty bare for Aaron Boone. Brian Cashman must resist the temptation to part with either Gleyber Torres or Miguel Andujar to address the team’s glaring deficiency.
The most recent trade rumor running like wildfire through Yankees twitter is the idea that the New York Mets would part with Jacob deGrom. There’s only one little catch. New York’s National League team would require their neighbors to part with both Torres and Andujar.
It’s at least possible that sort of move would help the Yankees in the short-term. An ace like deGrom could turn the team’s rotation from a weakness into a strength. That’s particularly valuable once October comes around. Starting both Severino and deGrom twice in a seven game series would give the Yankees a strong chance to win any playoff series.
Unfortunately making a deal like that could cripple the Yankees in the future. In fact, it’s just the sort of trade that used to force the team to spend a fortune in free agency. The presence of Torres and Andujar on the roster is precisely what will allow New York to make bold free agent acquisitions in the future.
Consider the fact that both players are among the five lowest paid players on the Yankees roster. Each star will make a shade over $500,000 this season. Obviously, that offers the team a massive savings over what it would take to acquire such a talented player via free agency. In the open market, both players would easily command eight figure salaries.
The salaries wouldn’t matter if both players weren’t extremely talented and extremely productive. Both happen to be hitting towards the bottom of the Yankees’ order, but they’re hitting well enough to anchor the offenses of a lot of other teams. Torres his hitting .303 with 11 home runs in just 158 plate appearances. Andujar’s stat line isn’t all that different. He’s starting the year off with a .305 average and eight home runs. Both players are performing well enough to merit serious All-Star consideration.
The scary thing for the rest of the American League is that both players should get even better over the next several years. Andujar is an extra base machine but needs to learn how to exercise some more patience at the plate. Once he learns how to take a walk more frequently he can really become a weapon at the plate.
Torres is already a monster with the bat in his hands, but he needs to work on the other facets of his game. Specifically, his baserunning and fielding both need to improve. Both issues are seemingly related to his tendency to lose focus, which means both problems are infinitely correctable.
The good news for Yankees fans is that it’s unlikely the team will move either star. Cashman deserves a lot of credit for changing the team’s philosophy in recent years. The team now values and protects young talent like never before. 20 years ago the Yankees would have dealt a player like Torres or Andujar for immediate help without a second thought. Things are justifiably different now.
Next: 5 starting pitchers the Yankees can target via trade
In the end, Yankee fans can safely expect Brian Cashman to scour the trade market for starting pitching help all the way up to the trade deadline. He likely will, and certainly should, make Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar off-limits in all talks. They are too important to the next decade of Yankees baseball to deal for a better October in 2018.