Nady and Marte to Yankees

It turns out the final trade is Tabata, Ohlendorf, McCutchen, and Karstens for Nady and Marte.

A few days ago I suggested trading for Nady and Marte as part of a plan for the trade deadline. Nady perfectly solves their problem of a right-handed bat even if he does regress to his career norms. Gardner will probably be sent back down to AAA. Marte solves their other, less severe problem of a left-handed reliever. Hopefully this means the end of Latroy Hawkins.

The biggest piece the Yankees gave up was obviously Tabata. While Karstens may be able to start for the Pirates in the NL he really had no future in New York. McCutchen is probably a C prospect. Meaning he could be a good player but we have a lot of guys with similar potential. Ohlendorf was another guy who was never going to have a future in New York. Tabata is the centerpiece of this deal. Tabata has incredible potential but he`s been plagued with attitude and injury problems. Of course, Josh Hamilton overcame much worse. Either way he wasn't going to be ready for a few more years.

I think this is a good trade with some risk. The Yankees were able to make this trade because they have a lot of pitching prospects ahead of the guys they traded and Austin Jackson has moved ahead of Tabata. Its not exactly a steal but they can give up Tabata without depleting their farm.

In my previous post about the trade deadline I suggested doing basically this trade except with Kennedy instead of Tabata. Then I suggested trading for Washburn. However, since we still have Kennedy this means he may be a better option than Washburn. I need to think about this some more. I`ll probably have another post on this either tomorrow or after the game.