Brian Cashman will likely have a cell phone to his ear much of the next month.
Credit: Getty Images
In the latter portion of Saturday’s loss to the Red Sox, FOX’s cameras spotted Brian Cashman with a phone glued to his ear.
While nobody knows the contents of that conversation, there’s a possibility it was some kind of a trade discussion with another general manager.
Cashman has not made a major trade before July 15 since making two in a span of four days in 2002 to acquire Raul Mondesi from Toronto and Jeff Weaver from Detroit in a three-team deal. The prices for those trades was relatively low, but this year the prices seem to be significantly higher with teams asking for Dellin Betances.
“I wouldn’t say,” Cashman said of who has been asked for in possible trades. “I wouldn’t say who gets asked a lot about but I do know we have personnel that are very attractive to other clubs, personnel that I wouldn’t want to part with. So we’ll go through the walk and see what takes place.”
Still Cashman is ready to move or as he puts it “rock-and-roll.”
“I’m ready to rock-and-roll,” Cashman said. “Those who have [called] are taking their time … and it’s been communicated, if they get what they want, which would be an extreme call, then they’re ready to move sooner than later. For those who want to step up and really pay the price, obviously it’s going to be a higher price.”
Which teams are going to partner up with Cashman remains unknown, though the obvious names are Cubs right-handers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel or even Tampa Bay’s David Price who pitches Tuesday night. Other names might be Arizona’s Brandon McCarthy, Colorado’s Jorge De La Rosa, Chicago White Sox right-hander John Danks or former Yankee Ian Kennedy, currently pitching with San Diego.
As noted by Deadspin’s leaking of the Astros’ trade notes, the price often gets reduced closer to the July 31 deadline. For example, the Astros were initially seeking Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gasuman in a deal for Bud Norris but settled for outfielder L.J. Hoes, a minor league pitcher and a competitive balance pick in this year’s draft.
“I just think it’s always difficult to acquire anything that’s impactful and significant,” Cashman said. “So those are tough conversations to have and they usually hurt a great deal to do so and that’s my experience. It gets harder rather than easier but you got to go through it, you got to figure it out and find ways to get something impactful.”
Sabathia headed to Trenton
The reports on CC Sabathia following his 37-pitch outing in Single-A Tampa Bay were good.
Sabathia will make another rehab start after getting through a bullpen session Monday. The second start will be Thursday for Double-A Trenton and the belief is he will make another one before returning from an inflamed right knee that has kept him out since mid-May.
“We’ll just take it one step at a time,” Cashman said. “We obviously have to maintain health and we have to bring that pitch count [up]. So you’re talking, obviously he has 37 pitches right now. So it’s just going from there, but hopefully he’s on the horizon.
“We’re in one of those situations where we can’t just think about it until he actually is in that position to come back. So it’s nice to know that he’s possibly coming sooner than later.”
The most important thing for Sabathia and the Yankees is not necessarily his line of two runs and three hits in 2 1/3 innings Saturday. Instead, it’s how he moves. Cashman said on the video he saw there was nothing abnormal about the left-hander’s movement.
“I saw in the 35-pitch outing that he had to cover first base and he bounced around extremely well with that,” Cashman said. “So that was noticeable, more so than anything else. You’re looking at if the knee’s bothering him or what have you and at least in that outing he looked like he was jumping around athletic and he looked healthy based on [the video]. He had to cover a ball on the right side and then he had to cover first base on a bunt or on a ball to the left side of the field. So he moved really well.”
Follow Yankees beat writer Larry Fleisher on Twitter @LarryFleisher.
