The New York Yankees have pulled off their first big move of the offseason, trading reliever Adam Warren and infielder Brendan Ryan to the Chicago Cubs for second baseman/shortstop Starlin Castro. The news was first broken by Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is saying that there will be no money changing hands between the Yankees and Cubs. The deal was first reported as Warren and a player to be named later but Bob Nightengale of USA Today was the first to report that Ryan was going to Chicago.
Starlin Castro made his debut in 2010 and in his first major league at bat he took Homer Bailey deep. Castro is a three time all star in 2011, 2012, and 2014. During his career the 25 year old has a .285 batting average, 31 triples, 62 homers, a .725 OPS, 991 hits, 391 runs, and 363 RBIs. The pick up by the Yankees is a big deal, having now a young second basemen combining with a similarly young shortstop Didi Gregorious. Both Gregorious and Castro will be 26 years old on opening day next season.
The Cubs get a really good pitcher in Adam Warren in the deal who was easily the Yankees third best reliever behind Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. This season Warren was shuttled between the rotation and the bullpen, especially after Ivan Nova came back from Tommy John. Warren in his career has a 13-15 record, 3.39 ERA and a 3.0 SO9. Brendan Ryan will be a good serviceable, utility infielder for the Cubs, potentially being Ben Zobrist’s backup at second base. Ryan has a .234 batting average, .610 OPS, 19 homers and 203 RBIs.
The Yankees will have to pay Castro $38 million over the next four years. The Yankees are only gaining five million dollars on the books with this trade, which is pretty amazing. According to Mark Feinsand, Brian Cashman said that the Yankees tried to trade for Castro at the deadline in July. Cashman talked about Castro saying, “He looked like a different player after the position change.” In the second half of the season Cubs manager Joe Maddon moved Castro from short to second and he had a much better second half than first half. Many sources are saying that the trade was contingent on Ben Zobrist signing with the Cubs which he did and both news stories came out at basically the same time. According to Mark Feinsand the Yankees did think about Zobrist but his being 34 years old and contract length didn’t work with their goals to get younger and get under the luxury tax.
The Yankees posted on Facebook, "#Yankees acquire INF Starlin Castro from Cubs in exchange for Adam Warren and a PTBN." That post had the below image on it.
