Bob Nightengale of USA Today has confirmed rumors that the Milwaukee Brewers have claimed Spencer Jones from the New York Yankees.
The Brewers are unlikely to grant that request, leaving the Baltimore Orioles with Corbin Burns, one of the best pitchers in baseball, as their leadoff hitter. From the Yankees’ perspective, they know the right-hander will test the free agency waters because they are clients of Scott Boras and talked about it in Foul Territory.But from the Brewers’ perspective, if they wanted to get a significant return on the Yankees, they needed a top prospect named Jason Dominguez.
The two sides seem unable to come to an agreement and the Yankees will have to look elsewhere to start the game.Corbin Burns is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and the Milwaukee Brewers treated him as such during negotiations with the New York Yankees.
Asking about Spencer Jones is the right thing to do in a trade conversation that revolves around one of the top three pitchers in the world, and they are more interested in what the Baltimore Orioles can offer. It’s not that the Yankees are asking for too much in a trade compared to other teams, it’s the difference in quality in their farm system that makes this an obvious matchup.
Every media outlet rates the Baltimore Orioles as the best farm system in baseball, and their depth represents outstanding future talent that will positively impact any MLB roster.
Joey Ortiz and DL Hall are still top 100 prospects in MLB, and their needs — a consistent shortstop and a strong left-handed starter — are exactly what the Brewers have. Ortiz is an excellent shortstop with outstanding power, but his erratic decisions have limited him to a minor league role as players like Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holiday outpace him on the depth chart.
Everyone equates the Orioles package with Chase Hampton and Oswald Peraza, but they’re forgetting a key element of the trade that’s more important than public opinion: team perception. If the Brewers think DL Hall and Joey Ortiz are better players than Chase Hampton and Oswald Peraza, they trade them for the first package, regardless of what the media thinks of those players.
Smart teams buy players who can develop well, and that’s exactly what the Brewers did in their trade with the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees are still concerned about Dillon’s suspension and could bring in other starting pitchers to expand their rotation. It’s unclear what their level of interest is in various pitchers on the trade market, but we do know the Yankees see at least what they need to get rotation help before Opening Day.
A spring training trade isn’t out of the question, but after adding Marcus Stroman they’ll likely hold off for now and wait until the trade deadline.It’s going to be an interesting few weeks leading up to spring training, with plenty of big players and trade targets pending as pitchers and catchers begin to report to Arizona and Florida.
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