The Slanch Report

The Curtis Granderson to the Yankees rumors turned out to be true, when just a few hours ago the Tigers, Diamondbacks and Yankees agreed to a three-team 7-player deal. Granderson heads to New York, Detroit gets Arizona starter Max Scherzer and reliever Daniel Schlereth as well as NY’s Phil Coke and OF prospect Austin Jackson. Arizona takes home Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from NY.

I LOVE this deal for the Tigers, sure, losing Granderson’s defense and lead-off ability hurts, but considering for his career he has an OPS+ of 50 against lefthanders, it’s not a gigantic loss. The Yankees are going to ultimately need to platoon Granderson with someone who can actually hit lefties sooner rather than later. However, his defense is going to be huge in Yankee stadium, especially if they bring back Damon to play left. Meanwhile, I think Austin Jackson has a decent chance of being nearly as good as Granderson (with less HRs) within a year or two at a significantly cheaper cost. Add in Scherzer’s power arm, Schlereth and Coke upgrading the bullpen and all of sudden the team has fixed one of their biggest weaknesses while replacing two important starters with serviceable replacements.

Me, personally, I’d much rather have Scherzer than Edwin Jackson because he’s younger, has better breaking pitches and has a chance to have better command, unlike Jackson who has yet to string together a full season that matches his talent.

What I don’t understand is what the hell Arizona is doing. They take on Jackson and Kennedy, two pitchers who are OK, but with less potential than Scherzer, plus Jackson is more expensive and has less years of control remaining. What is the plan there? Justin Upton is about to become a monster on the major league level, plus MVP-candidate Mark Reynolds help drive the offense, presumably players like Stephen Drew and Chris Young can’t be as bad as they were last year but the pitching staff still has holes and they just gave up two young power arms, because, you know, those aren’t needed. The NL West is a weak division, I simply don’t get why you make this trade that weakens your team.

Also, now I’m super sad because I always really liked Granderson and now he’s a Yankee…(Incidentally, I won’t be surprised when he records 35 HRs next season in Yankee Stadium.)

[ESPN]