New York Yankees acquire Zach Britton from Orioles
By Jason Evans
The New York Yankees are about to make their bullpen even stronger with a trade for Orioles’ reliever Zach Britton
The New York Yankees weakness is their starting rotation. No doubt. The strength of their pitching staff is their bullpen and boy did it get a lot stronger as they have acquired Zach Britton from the Baltimore Orioles.
sources: Britton to the yankees deal has been agreed to
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 25, 2018
When the deal is finalized, the New York Yankees bullpen will comprise of Britton, Aroldis Chapman, David Robertson, Dellin Betances,Jonathan Holder, Adam Warren and Chad Green. The Kansas City Royals rode a dominant bullpen to a championship and the Yankees are trying to follow suit.
Britton, like Robertson and Betances will be free agents at the end of the season.
After missing the start of the year with an achilles injury, Britton is 1-0 with a 3.45 ERA. In July, Britton hasn’t given up a run, striking out six in seven shutout innings.
Who will Baltimore get back?
Have been told if deal is finalized #Yankees are sending Dillon Tate, Josh Rogers and AAA reliever Cody Carroll to #Orioles
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) July 25, 2018
Britton has roughly $4.5M left on his $12M salary. #Yankees headed into this trade market roughly $16M under the luxury tax threshold. So they can comfortably take on that whole total if #Orioles would not be eating any of it.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) July 25, 2018
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Per MLBpipeline.com, Tate is the New York Yankees ninth ranked prospect, while Carroll is 15th. All three would’ve had to be added to the 40 man roster this off-season to be protected in the rule V draft.
Tate was the key piece in the Carlos Beltran trade a couple of years ago. He was set to come off the DL tonight and start in AA. In 15 starts, he’s 5-2 with a 3.38 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 82.2 innings.
Carroll might take the place of Britton in the Orioles’ bullpen. In AAA, He’s3-0 with a 2.38 ERA, striking out 55 in 41.2 innings with a 1.08 WHIP.
Rogers in AAA is 6-8 with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP with 83 strikeouts in 109.1 innings.
For the New York Yankees, this makes their bullpen deeper at not a steep cost, plus gives them flexibility to still add to their rotation. They didn’t give up Justus Sheffield or any of their other top prospects to do it.
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For the Orioles, this gives them three arms that could be on their staff for years to come and adds to their prospect base. This, plus their return for Manny Machado makes their farm system a little bit better.