Hardy to the Yankees in the offseason?

[nate82]

This is probably an off the wall idea and probably wouldn't work but here it goes anyway.

 

Brewers send J.J. Hardy and Corey Hart to the Yankees.

Yankees send Phil Hughes and Nick Swisher to the Brewers.

 

The Yankees would then move Jeter to 3B and Aroid (my bad I will only do that once) to DH. The Yankees will be either letting go of Matsui and Damon or both and will probably sign Holliday in the offseason to replace Damon. Arod would replace Matsui as the everyday DH and Hart would take over for Swisher and Damon. The Yankees would then have an OF of Holliday (LF) Jackson (CF) Hart (RF) with Melky and Gardner on the bench.

 

The Yankees are going to have to move Jeter to 3B sooner or later. Hardy makes a lot of sense for them to be playing at SS next year with Jeter moving to 3B and Arod moving to DH. With that injury to Arod playing everyday at 3B may not be an option it is the same injury that Lowell had and Lowell has had some problems with that injury. I'm not sure how much the injury will hurt Arod's defense at 3B but I'm pretty sure that it may start affecting his hitting. So this would be a logical move by the Yankees to get a cheap and young SS in Hardy while moving Jeter over to 3B. I don't believe Jeter could play the OF at his age and playing him as the DH wouldn't be wise when you could have Posada or Arod at DH.

 

This may not be the best deal for Hardy and a Hart trade but it does give the Brewers the starting pitcher they need and a CF or RF for a couple of more years that the Brewers need. Swisher could play CF next year for the Brewers and be the stop gap until Cain or Schafer are ready all along being able to move Swisher over to RF when one of them are ready to take over in CF. Next year all you would have to do is find a platoon player to go with Cat I believe the Brewers could find someone to platoon with Cat in RF next year.

 

Now I'm not really high on Hughes with his injury issues in the past and I'm not sure the Yankees would trade Hughes especially if they don't know what is going to happen with Pettite but they still have Coke and Kennedy they could put in the rotation. Maybe the Brewers would have to add something into the deal but if they had to add anything more significant than a C type prospect I wouldn't do it unless Kennedy or Coke would be coming also.

[Luke7799.u]

Nate, There is no chance the Yankee's trade Hughes for that package. Also Swisher has been better than Hart this year. Hardy to the Yankees could have some merit, but I would think something more along the lines of Kennedy or someone of his caliber would be included. Hughes is pretty close to untouchable for them.

[nate82]

Nate, There is no chance the Yankee's trade Hughes for that package. Also Swisher has been better than Hart this year. Hardy to the Yankees could have some merit, but I would think something more along the lines of Kennedy or someone of his caliber would be included. Hughes is pretty close to untouchable for them.

Swisher and Hart are about the same player. Hart is 27 and Swisher is 29 years old. Hart has a bigger upside than Swisher and it is basically a wash between the two the Yankees would get Hart for a cheaper price and extend him at a cheaper rate than what they would be paying Swisher. Hardy for Hughes who is like Buchholz would be a fair trade for both teams. The Yankees don't really have any MLB ready SS in their minor league system and I believe Jeter is going to have to move to 3B or to DH rather soon.

 

I like Kennedy but there is no way I would trade Hardy just for Kennedy. Maybe a Kennedy, Coke, and Swisher package for Hardy, that is probably asking to much though, I could get on board with but Kennedy as the main piece no way. I could live with just a Hughes and Swisher for a Hart and Hardy trade but Hardy for Kennedy no way. Hardy would bring in more if the Brewers would just keep him and lose him in free agency and get a couple of picks for him.

[Luke7799.u]

Hart has been a full time regular now for almost 3 seasons. He is what he is. There is no more upside. Also swisher and hart are decidedly not the same player. Hart is a free swinger, swisher is not, which fits in much better with the yankee's philosophy. As for major league ready SS's on the Yankee's. They have Ramiro Pena, who is already up in the majors. He is a defensive whiz who won't hit as much as Hardy but to say they don't have a semi-viable replacement for Jeter is wrong. Sorry Nate I just don't see anyway the Yankee's have any interest in Hart. They can easily get his production level from a mid level FA for 8 million a year and not have to give anything up. Or they can just keep Swisher who has been better than Hart this year.

[Hate those Rodents]

I think as long as Doug is around, a major trade with NYY might be unlikely based on how Cashman tried to rape us on the Cameron deal, we might as well seek out another partner.

[naivin]

What indication is there that Jeter should be moved to 3B? The Yankees don't need to make a trade, if they want to put ARod at DH, they can just sign a 3B, or just sign a DH. Likewise, THE New York Yankees are not going to move THE Derek Jeter to 3B for JJ Hardy. This idea just doesn't make much sense.

[naivin]

I think as long as Doug is around, a major trade with NYY might be unlikely based on how Cashman tried to rape us on the Cameron deal, we might as well seek out another partner.

Well, if that's the case, we can probably scratch, Seattle, SD, and now Arizona off the list as well. If that is the way Doug thinks (which I don't believe it is), he should be fired immediately.

[Hate those Rodents]

I guess we can try and do a bigger trade with NYY. My point is more that it appears the teams GM's might be quite far apart on the value of their own players.

[Invader3K]

I tend to doubt that the Yankees are looking to move Rodriguez to a DH role at this point. Is his defense really that bad this season?

[endaround]

Rodriguez suddenly got bad and Jeter suddenly go good so I put it more in line with measurement issues with a new stadium thrown in.

[nate82]

Rodriguez suddenly got bad and Jeter suddenly go good so I put it more in line with measurement issues with a new stadium thrown in.

I would put it more on Rodriguez's injury than anything else.

 

Jeter is going to be moved off of SS rather soon. There is no good 3B to replace Rodriguez at 3B defensively or offensively. Moving Rodriguez to DH would lower the load on his hip that he had surgery on. I believe it was his hip that he had surgery on this off season that cost him some regular season games. Jeter is getting older that is a fact and his defense is only going to deteriorate as he gets older. Hardy would be the perfect fit for the Yankees at SS plus if the Yankees get involved that drives up Hardy's value with the Red Sox.

[cwolf2012]

This is one of Jeter's best defensive years of his career. If he continues to play like he has, there's no reason to pull him from SS.

 

That being said, I have no idea how he isn't terrible at D, but whatever.

[kramnoj]

Jeter fielding is kinda like Suppan pitching. When he's healthy, he's close to league average. When he's banged up but still plays, he's just awful. Jeter has had years where he gets nicked up but doesn't miss significant time but it really just drags down his range. That's why he has those spikes where he's the worst SS defensively. But in years where he's healthy, he has somewhat decent fielding stats.

 

I brought that up to mgl when he used to post on btf years ago, and he acknowledged that injuries would affect a players defense, but said that it would be too difficult to try to account for that in projections. He's right of course, and a player's injuries are a part of their history, so they shouldn't be completely ignored when doing projections.

 

Anyway, the point stands that Jeter is the Yankees shortstop in 2010. Maybe he becomes an OF or a Molitor style DH in 2011 or later, but any plan for next year needs to include Jeter at short.

[TooLiveBrew]

Hardy for Hughes who is like Buchholz would be a fair trade for both teams.

 

The Yankees would instantly reject that. You would probably be able to get Kennedy+. I'm not sure Pettitte has more than this year left in him, and Wang's injury basically has ended his career with the Yankees. Right now the Yanks are using Mitre in the rotation over Hughes for some ridiculous reason (funny coming from the manager that dismissed using Joba in the bullpen as unthinkable... now has completely changed his tune with Hughes), but that's a patch for 2009, or at least for now. Hughes will be the #4 for the Yankees in 2010, and likely one of the best #4 SP in baseball. Stuff-wise, Hughes compares well to Gallardo, but Yovani has demonstrated far better command of his stuff to this point.

 

And to further expand on my notion about Kennedy+, I think you might be able to get someone like Cabrera along with Kennedy for Hardy, but given Melky's improvements this season, the Yanks might view him as too vital in CF to deal.

[endaround]

Kennedy has zero value right now. A soon to be 25 year old coming off major injury who has less than stellar stuff. The Yankees should have moved him in the offseason as soon as it was determined he'd never break the rotation.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, I was just thinking that in retrospect, I kind of wish the Brewers had traded for Melky. He's having a pretty decent year and still relatively young.