I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MILLER RUMORS...

So logically we needed to do what we had to do with Aroldis Chapman.  In that trade we got Adam Warren back and Gleyber Torrres became a Yankee. OK, I love it. 

Plus, "God willing" as Chapman says, maybe he comes back to the Bronx next year and continues to close for us. I loved him in the Bronx, but again... we did what we needed to do.

Now the Yankees appear to be winning, and when that happens, you kind of teeter on the "do we become sellers?" or "don't we".  I mean, the trade deadline is Monday.  The Yankees are 6 games out of first place in the AL East and in the Wild Card, we're 3.5 back.  This is hardly a time to give up our closer, don't you think?

John Harper is all over this. In the New York Daily News he writes:

"Which is why GM Brian Cashman no doubt continues to hope that the Nationals will take a similar of view Andrew Miller as a vital piece in their championship puzzle, and trade the Yankees one of their promising young starting pitchers, Lucas Giolito or Reynaldo Lopez.  

(In Photo: Reynaldo Lopez)

The Nationals, after all, have a starting rotation that is plenty good enough to win it all this season — and probably for years to come. They locked up Stephen Strasburg with that in mind, pairing him with Max Scherzer for a 1-2 punch to match up with anyone in baseball. And in Tanner Roark and Joe Ross they have two more very good starters that they control for another three and five years, respectively. The problem for them is they have bullpen issues..."

Hmm... bullpen issues, and THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Look, the Yankees are winning, and if we flip our second closer, the chances of that diminishes. I firmly believe that. Now yes, I trust Dellin Betances, but I'm not 100% sure we can get to him if we needed to.

Let me be clear.  Betances will be the closer of the Yankees future. He paid his dues, he works his tail off, but Girardi just got finished talking about how D-Bet's over worked.  So now we're just gonna flip Miller and make him the closer, no doubt pitching almost every single day? Who else can do it... Chad Green? No Thanks.

Trading Miller at this moment is foolish in my opinion, unless the return is huge.  But with the trade deadline coming up... we'll just have to see.

COULD THE YANKEES BUY WHILE SELLING?

 

I know. This may sound a little strange and may not make a lot of sense. But give me a minute to make my case. 

 

As of right now the Yankees roster, including their rather anemic offense and questionable starting pitching, is not a top notch team. The Yankees do have some pieces to trade and/or release and if that were to happen, they could actually be a better ball club August 1st than they are right now.

The biggest discussion regarding the Bombers over the past few months has been whether they decide to sell or not. Most believe they should but it’s been reported Randy Levine and Hal Steinbrenner aren’t sold yet. Let me explain my side here…

 

The obvious trade chips include Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and Carlos Beltran. Beyond those there has seemingly been interest in Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and I’m sure some of their younger guys and guys like Brett Gardner. 

 

 

If they were to make some transactions they could improve their current big league roster overnight.

Let’s give a hypothetical here that they trade Aroldis Chapman to the Nationals for highly touted pitching prospect Reynaldo Lopez. 

 

 

He could be injected right into the rotation. They could try and flip Carlos Beltran for another younger, close to MLB ready arm and inject another starter into the rotation, or bring up Luis Severino back up, while freeing up a roster spot for Aaron Judge once he is back 100%. If they were able to send Michael Pineda or Nathan Eovaldi to say the Rangers and pick up a couple prospects to add depth to the minors or big league roster, with potential to help the club this year and next.

 

 

There has been talk of shopping Brian McCann, which would allow the red hot Gary Sanchez to come up and contribute with the big league club. They could try and slip Jacoby Ellsbury or Brett Gardner into a deal with one of their relievers, similar to what the Red Sox did a few years back with Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett. 

 

 

That could allow Ben Gamel a chance or whomever they may acquire to come and get some reps in the outfield, making the team younger and provide some much needed energy.

 

 

Another solution could be to release the likes of Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez and eat the rest of their contracts which would apparently guarantee Rob Refsnyder more at bats and free up a roster spot for a minor leaguer, say Gary Sanchez, or Aaron Judge, or some other youngster they either acquire in a trade or who deserves a shot to prove his worth in the big leagues.

Not all of these scenarios will happen. Actually none of them could happen! But the team could be, in my opinion, a stronger overall MLB team than it is now by getting younger, hungrier, more athletic and more versatile while having younger, livelier arms in the rotation.

 

As of this moment, as I write this, no one seems to know what the Yankees will do over the next week or so. What I do know is I sure want to see a younger Yankees team. They may take some lumps along the way but it would be a good start for the future.

The current roster just won’t cut it overall, despite their recent winning streak. So maybe, just maybe, the Yankees could buy, by selling. What do you think? Comment and let us know.

 

 

--Dan Lucia, BYB Senior Writer
Follow me on Twitter: @DManLucia