MLB trade rumor grade: Yonder Alonso to the Yankees?

Have a seat, and participate in our new and ongoing series where we take a trade rumor and try to figure out just how likely and believable it is. You will be shocked, but not every rumor passes the smell test, and many won’t happen even if they do seem like a real possibility. It’s our job to sort all of that out for you.

The rumor getting this treatment today is courtesy MLB.com’s Jon Morosi, who reports that the Yankees and A’s are discussing a deal including recent first-time All-Star Yonder Alonso.

Yonder Alonso is a free agent after this season, and while he’s an All-Star and batting .268/.366/.555, there is no guarantee he’s going to be this guy again in the second half or next season. Given the A’s are rebuilding — and they’ve officially used that word now, even — it makes little sense for them to hold on to a player who has hit his way into an being an All-Star when his contract is up at the end of the year.

The A’s probably aren’t going to get into a free agent bidding war for a 30-year-old first baseman while they’re trying to rebuild, especially not when they could trade him now to a team in desperate need of some offense. And Alonso should bring something back even if interested clubs are skeptical that he’ll continue to mash like he has: Since coming up for good back in 2011, Alonso has had a number of solid seasons, they just happen to be too often flanked by uninspiring ones. Chances are good, though, that he’ll keep hitting at least a little bit given his current performance.

It’s not like the A’s are going to convince the Yankees to give up Gleyber Torres or Clint Frazier for two months of Alonso, but they could get a prospect who turns out to be more than what they could nab with the compensation pick they’d get for letting Alonso walk this winter.

The Yankees have seen their first basemen hit .208/.295/.391 in 2017, good for a positionally adjusted OPS+ of 64. In layman’s terms: They are bad at first base. The Yankees recently cut loose Chris Carter, but Carter has led the club in playing time at first, and batted .201/.284/.370 in the process. This is probably a good time to remind you that the thing Carter usually does well is hit, and he has to, because he’s one of the worst defensive players in baseball.

Greg Bird hasn’t had much time to play this year while dealing with injuries, and now the 24-year-old first baseman will miss the rest of 2017 recovering from ankle surgery. So, with Carter out of the picture and Bird not coming back to save the day, there’s a void for Alonso to fill whether he’s the version of himself that crushes baseballs or just the one that doesn’t embarrass himself or his team at the plate or in the field.

The Yankees are giving up too much offense as a team, as they’re also struggling to produce at third base (where Chase Headley and Friends have been significantly worse than average) and in center field whenever Jacoby Ellsbury is the one patrolling it. Getting Alonso to stop the bleeding at first would go a long way toward rectifying that, and also help the Yankees move past losing Michael Pineda in their rotation for the rest of 2017.

If the Yankees won’t be able to prevent runs as often, they’ll need to score more of them.

This one feels like an A- — everything about it makes sense, given the A’s rebuilding efforts and New York’s abysmal track record at first base in 2017. The Yankees aren’t out of things yet — even with the injuries and the disappointments, they sit just 3.5 games back in the AL East and are currently half a game up on the Twins for the AL’s second wild card. Yonder Alonso alone could be the difference that keeps them there or better.

The only reason this isn’t getting a higher grade is due to a little hesitation from the source of the rumor: Morosi says that the Yankees also want Sonny Gray from the A’s, so there is a possibility that they go with Gray instead, or that this gets too big and the Yankees end up missing out on both players while haggling over details.