With the trade officially agreed upon in principle, it’s fair to take a deeper look and determine a “winner” and “loser.”
The Granderson Trade Winners: Yankees; Losers: Diamondbacks
Winner: Yankees
Sure, Curtis Granderson has some numbers that jump out like a bogeyman hiding underneath your bed, particularly that .183 batting average against left-handed pitching (and that .327 OBP isn’t too pretty, either). But Granderson did hit 30 home runs last year (28 against RHP naturally), a total that could increase with the Stadium’s absurdly short-porch in right. And with a career 113 OPS+, he’s certainly not a bad player, especially when you consider he’s still only 28 and above average defensively -- his 1.6 UZR in 2009 ranked him No. 6 among center fielders with at least 1200 innings played. With him in center and Melky Cabrera moving over to left, suddenly the Yankees’ outfield becomes very good defensively.
Moreover, the Yankees will have control -- C-Grand (nickname pending) has three years and $25.75 million left on his contract ($5.5 million in 2010, $8.25 mil. in '11 and $10 mil. in '12), including a team option for 2013. Perhaps most importantly though, this gives the Yankees both leverage and an essential replacement for free agent Johnny Damon, who they can now bring back (for an assumed discount) to be a DH/fourth outfielder type if they so choose (but the sides are described as "far apart").
Kinda Winners: Tigers
From the Yankees, Detroit received Austin Jackson, a center fielder to replace Granderson who, if he's not called up this year, will almost certainly be an every day player in 2011 (he hit .300 with four home runs, 65 RBI, 24 stolen bases in 132 games for Triple-A Scranton last season), and Phil Coke, a middle reliever who went 4-3 with a 4.50 ERA in 60.0 IP with New York in 2009 (lefties hit just .195 against him in 123 at bats).
Losers: Diamondbacks
Boston Globe’s Chad Finn said it best: “AZ got hosed.”
First, Arizona gave up a pair of young pitchers: Max Scherzer (25) and Daniel Schlereth (23; son of ESPN great Mark Schlereth). The former is a starter who in 2009 struck out 174 in 170.1 IP with an ERA+ of 111, while the latter, a left-handed relief pitcher, appeared in only 21 games but managed to strike out 22 in 18.1 IP.
In return, the D’Backs got SP Edwin Jackson from the Tigers -- 26, career ERA+ of 96 in 110 starts, 3.62 ERA in 2009 (ERA+ of 127) -- and Ian Kennedy from the Yanks -- 25, career ERA of 6.03 in just 12 starts. What does SB Nation’s AZ Snakepit think about it all? “Meh.”
The plus side of the deal is that we, effectively, turned a reliever in Schlereth, into a starter in Kennedy. This effectively fills a hole in the rotation, at relatively little additional cost: Jackson is arb-eligible, but will certainly be cheaper than a free-agent. The negative side, is that we swapped about five years of control over Scherzer, for two years of Jackson - and, in addition, Kennedy has not exactly shown an impressive track record at the major-league level ...
By most reports, Kennedy has not been projected as being a great deal more than a #4 in the rotation. While that's a spot which needs to be filled for the Diamondbacks, one does wonder about the long-term benefits, after Jackson becomes a free-agent, at the end of the 2011 season.
The consensus from D'Backs fans, though, is not quite as forgiving.
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