Michael Wacha
At one point in November, Ken Rosenthal reported that the St. Louis Cardinals floated right-hander Michael Wacha’s name in trade talks but was skeptical as the talks were just to assess Wacha’s value.
Given his injury past, however, a huge package isn’t expected for the 2015 All-Star, a year in which the righty went 17-7 and maintained a 3.38 ERA over 181 innings of work.
Unfortunately, he has dealt with periodic issues with his right shoulder from as early as 2014 and had much to do with his 5.09 ERA over 138innings in 2016.
Although there was no major dip in his strikeouts per nine, his hit rate leaped from eight to 10.4.
Injury question marks could actually benefit the Yankees in this situation, as they won’t have to part with any of their highly touted youngsters while getting a pitcher with playoff experience just 25-years-old with three seasons of team control.
It could, or at least should be, your classic case of low risk, high reward because at his best, he’s the ideal number two but it just doesn’t make sense for the Yankees to give up an arm and a leg for Wacha.
