Texas Rangers
If the Rangers would agree to eat some money, Gardner would fill Texas’ vacant left field position — thanks to Carlos Gomez’s departure — to utter perfection.
Texas maintained a pitiful .306 on-base percentage out of the left field position during the second half (22nd in baseball) while Gardner’s greatest attribute is arguably his ability to get on and create runs (seventh-most RC among LF since 2010).
In return, they could pry southpaw Derek Holland from the team that drafted him in the 25th round of the 2006 amateur draft.
In the first three years of his career, he would win 49 games within his first five years in the bigs — sixth-most among lefty starters in the AL.
Over the last two years, however, he has pitched in a mere 32 total games thanks to a subscapular strain in his right shoulder in 2015 and left shoulder inflammation last season. Overall in 2016, Holland maintained a mediocre 4.95 ERA over 107.1 innings of work with a 7-9 record to go hand-in-hand with a 1.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio, the lowest of his major league career.
If the 30-year old is unable to channel the version of him that tossed four shutouts in 2011, he’s nothing but a starter encased in red flags. Yet, his low-risk value is the type that Cashman would take for the possibility of delivering stability to his rotation.
It just makes sense for both sides. For the Yankees, they’re the ideal team to entertain the opportunity of wheeling in a starting pitcher for a one-year devotion (a $1 million buyout exists) with another available option if he were to light it up in 2017.
Which team do you think Gardner could land this offseason? Should a starting pitcher be priority No. 1 for an asking price? Let your voice be heard in the comments below.
