The Made in 1903 Yankees Blog

Most of the people who read the forum know that I haven’t been the biggest fan of Brian Cashman, to put it nicely.  But here I am writing a post to sing his praises.

When I first learned of the trade that sent Jesus Montero to Seattle, along with Hector Noesi, in exchange for Michael Pineda and Jose Campos, I had my reservations.  At first, I reacted emotionally to losing Montero, an amazing prospect I had been following since his early days with the franchise.  Montero was the first top Yankees prospect that I had followed in earnest, meaning that his seemingly inevitable departure from the Yankees (his name had been swirling in the rumor mill for what seemed like forever) really hurt me as a fan.  I knew that Michale Pineda was also highly regarded, but my initial reaction was disdain for the trade.

Stepping back almost immediately to evaluate the trade from a statistical perspective allowed me to understand Cashman’s rationale in making the trade.

Pineda, at age 22 with Seattle:

1.099 WHIP, 9.1 SO/9, 3.74 ERA

Combined with the #16 prospect rating of 2011 and an All-Star appearance, it made the trade a lot easier to swallow.  While Montero was rated as the #3 prospect that year and will undoubtedly have an amazing career, he was a player without a position.  That is, evaluators doubted his ability to play catcher in the big leagues and the Yankees have their DH spot set for years with aging veterans like Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.  His hitting is his main strength, and it is an amazing strength at that.  That being said, I will take the promising and controllable young starter over the promising and controllable DH solely on the fact that the starting pitcher is less readily available in the free agent market.