New York Yankees Rumors: Jacoby Ellsbury and Tommy Kahnle to Philly for Carlos Santana?
By Paul Ashley
The New York Yankees are always involved in hypothetical trade rumors, but there is one hypothetical trade that has sparked some interest in Yankees-land.
After rumors surfaced that the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners briefly discussed a failed trade scenario that would have sent Robinson Cano to the Bronx in return for Jacoby Ellsbury, many have wondered what other contract swaps could take place.
In the spirit of hypothetical contract swap situations, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com put together an article listing five possible swaps, including one that involved Ellsbury going to a National League contender. Within his proposed hypothetical trade, the Yankees would receive Carlos Santana from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Ellsbury and Tommy Kahnle.
Although trade discussions involving these players and teams have not been reported, this would be an interesting contract swap for both teams. This is due to the Yankees wanting to move on from Ellsbury and the Phillies wanting to move on from Santana.
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Ellsbury is currently under contract for the 2019-20 seasons at roughly $21.14 million per season with a $5.00 million buyout on his $21.00 million team option for 2021. On the other hand, Santana is currently under contract for the 2019-20 seasons at roughly $20.50 million per season with a modest $500,000 buyout on his $17.50 million team option for 2021.
As Ellsbury missed the entire 2018 season, Santana is widely expected to be able to provide more value than Ellsbury during the upcoming season. Due to this, Feinsand included Kahnle in the deal as a sweetener to give the Phillies a controllable right-handed reliever that has shown signs of being a lockdown late inning option.
Nonetheless, as the Phillies likely want to shed Santana’s salary in order to allocate funds elsewhere, it does not make a lot of sense to take in a similar contract of Ellsbury. Furthermore, as Kahnle does not have a history of consistency, he is likely not going to be a difference maker in the Phillies deciding to take a chance on this risky contract swap.
From the Yankees perspective, being able to remove Ellsbury from the roster by only needing to include Kahnle would be a positive. However, as the Yankees already have Luke Voit (and potentially Miguel Andujar) in the fold at first base and Giancarlo Stanton already in the fold as the primary designated hitter, Santana may not be able to find enough at bats to keep him happy in the Bronx.
Due to these reasons, the 2009 World Series opponents are unlikely to link up for an Ellsbury/Kahnle for Santana swap. Instead of the proposed contract swap, the teams may benefit by searching out trade scenarios similar to the one that sent Brian McCann from the Yankees to the Houston Astros a few off-seasons ago.
In this trade scenario, the Yankees were able to unload most of the $17.00 million owed to McCann in each of the 2017-18 seasons. They accomplished this by attaching $5.50 million in each season with McCann, in exchange for prospects Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman. The Yankees ended up using Guzman in their trade for Stanton while Abreu now ranks as the Yankees third best prospect according to MLB Pipeline.
Andujar is the MLBPA Rookie of the Year. dark. Next
Attaching salary to pay down the remaining amounts owed to Santana and Ellsbury will likely allow the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees to have more payroll flexibility going forward while also potentially receiving intriguing prospects in return. This would be a preferable route for each team instead of searching out trades that involve taking back the same amount of salary, especially when there is not a clear-cut position available for either player in the hypothetical trade proposal by Feinsand.