The Yankees Trade For Zach Britton and Strengthen The Best Bullpen in All of Baseball

And there it is…Cashman’s first strike of what should be a busy seven days for the Yankees’ GM. This may not be a trade that jumps off the page at you, but it’s very important for several reasons. For starters, it blocks the Astros and Red Sox from strengthening their weak bullpens. Of what is out there and available, Britton was the top reliever still on the market with Brad Hand going to Cleveland last week.

Britton will join a bullpen of Chad Green, Dellin Betances, Adam Warren, David Robertson, Jonathan Holder, Aroldis Chapman, even A.J. Cole, and eventually/hopefully Tommy Kahnle. That’s the best bullpen in baseball folks. This also gives the Yankees a lefty reliever to go to who isn’t their closer. You also have to factor in how shaky Chapman has been and how questionable his knee is going forward. This gives the team a big safety blanket for a guy with lots of closer history in case Chapman goes down for a period of time in the next two months. Chasen Shreve may have saved the day on Saturday with the bases loaded against the Mets, but I would imagine this spells the end of the road for him in pinstripes.

You know Britton for his unbelievable 2016 season when he posted an absurd ERA of 0.54 in 67 innings. He gave up four earned runs all season and finished 4th in the CY Young race. He famously wasn’t used in the Orioles wild card game in extra innings because Buck Showalter is a fucking moron. In 2017 Britton battled forearm injuries and did not have as good of a year as 2016, although that was to be expected since it wasn’t possible. In December, he ruptured his achilles and was sidelined for a while. He made his 2018 debut on June 12th and has been working his way back into a rhythm ever since. It seems like lately he’s found it with his deadly sinker.

Britton when he’s in his groove with his sinker, which can reach 99mph, is unhittable. We’re going to fall in love with this guy if his recent outings are a sign of things to come. RDT describes hitting Britton’s sinker as hitting a bowling bowl. It’s impossible to elevate, which will be fantastic in Yankee Stadium.

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So what did we give up? A good amount, but nothing that will hurt the organization.

Dillon Tate, the Yankees number 6 ranked prospect, is the main prize in this deal. Tate, the 4th overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, was acquired from Texas in the Carlos Beltran deal. The Yankees have developed him nicely and scouts say he has three plus pitches. The thing with Tate is he’s not on the 40 man and cannot be protected from the Rule 5 Draft in the offseason. In short, the Yankees were going to lose him and had to trade him for something. I thought he would be in a deal for a big starting pitcher, but if the market doesn’t have that kind of pitcher then this deal makes sense.

Josh Rogers. Rogers is a friend of the program and an awesome dude. He’s stuck in AAA and wasn’t going to crack the big league roster any time soon. In Baltimore he’ll get a very good chance to prove what he’s got at the major league level. He’s a good lefty and he hurts the most to lose from the heart in this deal.

Cody Carroll is a hard throwing, tall righty who was in AAA Scranton. He currently has a 2.38 ERA in 41.2 innings and has struck out 55 in the process. He throws 96-98 with a very good slider. Lots of people were looking for him to be promoted to the big leagues to help out the pen, but instead is heading out in this deal.

So the O’s got three close-to-MLB ready arms while the Yankees got a potentially elite lefty arm to help make their bullpen impenetrable. This will not keep the Yankees out of a potential starting pitcher trade and I would expect that to happen closer to the deadline as asking prices go down on certain guys of their interest. Britton down the stretch and in the playoffs will be very, very important. Finally we don’t have to rely on Chasen Shreve to be our lefty out. Going from Shreve to vintage Britton is an upgrade of epic proportions.