The New York Yankees are in the market for a starting pitcher and may have Yu Darvish on their radar.
This past week, the Yankees sent scouts to St. Petersburg to scout Darvish while he pitched against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Texas Rangers appear to be out of the race in the American League and the American League West and seemed prime to sell off this summer.
Yu Darvish is one of the primary trade chips that Texas has and given the fact that the Yankees need pitching in order to make a playoff run, the two sides seem like they could match up for a potential trade.
Given the fact that the Yankees haven’t lunged themselves at what the Oakland A’s want for Sonny Gray, they could find themselves in a prime position to make a deal. Now obviously, Yu Darvish simply won’t be given away by the Rangers. But given the fact that Darvish will be a free agent at the end of the season, Brian Cashman isn’t exactly going to sell the farm off either.
So if the Yankees are serious for Darvish; which they should be since he could definitely help their rotation, what could the Yankees look to offer Texas?
Domingo Acevedo has been heavily scouted and could be a potential asset the Rangers might look at. Reports have indicated that Oakland likes Acevedo and may want him and Jorge Mateo in a potential Sonny Gray deal.
If Texas doesn’t ask for Mateo in trade talks and asks the Yankees for lower prospects; Tyler Wade, Kyle Holder, Zack Littell or Billy McKinney to name a few, then that might give the Yankees incentive to make a deal with Texas over dealing with Oakland.
If the Yankees have to make the choice on who to acquire, Yu Darvish would help in the short term and he wouldn’t hurt the Yankees farm system long term.
On the field, Yu Darvish is pitching to a 6-8 record with a 3.44 ERA in 21 starts and 143 strikeouts in 133.1 innings. The record might be under .500, but that’s hardly anything to worry about since he’s been on an underachieving Texas team; Darvish was on the 2017 American League All Star team.
With the Yankees, their rotation has been decent, but it can be better. Masahiro Tanaka has been up and down all year. CC Sabathia has returned from the disabled list and has pitched well. Luis Severino has been as close to an ace as it goes; he too was part of the American League All Star team. Jordan Montgomery has been pitching well, but he has had his struggles as well.
Michael Pineda is out for the season and Luis Cessa is hardly a major league starting pitcher. Having Yu Darvish in the rotation could help spark the Yankees playoff push. They already got the help they needed for the bullpen by acquiring David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle and they hope they have the infield help they need with Todd Frazier.
Yu Darvish could be the final piece needed to help the Yankees get back to October baseball.