WOULD YOU TRADE FOR GIO GONZALEZ?

I know, I know, Joel Sherman has already put his piece out there suggesting it's going to be a quiet winter in Yankeeland. Read that HERE. That's his opinion based on people he's talked to. Well, I'm here to tell you I doubt it very much. You can't lose the playoffs and very possibly have no starting going into next season and think you have a shot. Lightening doesn't strike twice, meaning, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia did a great job for us in 2011, but we fainted at the finish line. There's no way we try picking broken down pitchers off the scrap heap again...Yankeeland won't stand for it and the Yankees know that cannot happen again.

The Oakland Athletics Gio Gonzalez is a young lefty stud with flashes of Andy Pettitte in his delivery, at least, that’s how I see it. I often wonder if this kid will ever be a member of the New York Yankees. Would it make sense or is it all just bad timing right now with the instability of Sabathia and waiting for the free agent pool to open up? I don't know.

Gio Gonzalez made it to the All-Star team for the first time in his career this year. Not only that, his numbers in 2011 are pretty good; 16-12 with a 3.12 ERA. That was over 200 IP with 202. He struck out 197 and his WHIP was 1.317. Those numbers are nice and not only that, in 2010, he was 15-9. That’s not too shabby and for the right package, Gonzalez could be a valuable piece to the Yankee rotation.

But who would we offer up? You know, I often believe that the fall for the Yankees does 2 things; it shows Yankee brass what kids like Jesus Montero and Austin Romine can do, but it always auditions them in an unspoken strategy to see what teams are interested. There is no question that that went down this September and October and with pitching like Andrew Brackman, Dellin Betances and Hector Noesi out there, who knows if they will have a future in pinstripes but with guys like Gio Gonzalez out there, it would be logical to see just exactly what Billy Beane is willing to accept in a trade for Gio. I’m not saying we offer the farm for Gio, the kid’s a stud, but I don't think he's a Hall of Famer, you know what I mean? All I’m saying is dangling a few youngsters in front of Beane might prove solid and in our favor if we landed Gonzalez. It's just my opinion.

Yes, I know, people are nervous about CC Sabathia and whether or not he’ll opt-out. Trust me, I feel like if the big guy opts-out, he is coming back to New York and yes, we are all living in the world of unknown, but if there’s one thing I do know, is CC is a no-nonsense guy. DO NOT expect to see CC Sabathia sitting on a folding chair in a gymnasium in the Bronx telling ESPN that’s he’s going to play for the Rangers or Phillies. LeBron killed his fan base that way and while CC wants to do what’s right for him and his family, he’d never do that. He’ll talk it over with family and agent and hopefully the Yankees will nail it down.

If the Yankees can nail it down, there will be other pitchers to sign in the free agent market as well and we’ve talked about it many times here at Bleeding Yankee Blue. I’ve mentioned Mark Buehrle, Yu Darvish and CJ Wilson. But with free agents comes big money deals, so what we don’t want to do it spend every dollar, we need to be smart. My solution is sign a free agent and trade for another stud and maybe, just maybe that stud is Gio Gonzalez.

I don’t like big contracts with big dollars attached to it. What if the guy you sign fizzles and while you can’t predict it, you can, as a team, be smart about it. Look at the Alex Rodriguez deal, that’s a lot of years AND a lot of money.

Bottom line, signing a free agent and working out a trade for someone like Gio Gonzalez may be a nice plan. Just a thought, I don’t take myself too seriously, but it does make sense to me. I actually think Gio Gonzalez would be a big hit in New York and would thrive in the Bronx.

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