According to Baseball Digest Daily, the Yankees have agreed to send Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Phil Coke, and George Kontos to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte. It is sounding as if the non-waiver deadline is going to be a busy one. Although many of the big names reported to be on the block have moved, it sounds as if a lot of teams are not done shopping.
Update - Coke and Kontos have been removed from this deal in favor of Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutchen. This hurts the package the Pirates received. Both Coke and Kontos were pitchers worth getting excited about.
The Yankees brought in two pieces that will help them for the 2008 season adding veteran players to replace some of the youth and inexperience the club had. Not knowing where Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui will slot into the Yankees lineup down the stretch, or if they will, the Yankees felt the need to chase after one of the most highly sought after bats.
Xavier Nady has had an outstanding season. Forever being a player of promise, the 29 year old outfielder has put it altogether this season in a statistically legitimate season. Two major things have led to the renaissance season of Nady are his strikeout and line drive rates. Owning the lowest strikeout rate of his career, Nady is making more frequent contact-never a bad thing. In addition to this, Nady has line drive rate go up a second straight season to an outstandingly high 26.5%. Solid contact rate leads to solid contact which invariably helps a hitter reach base safely.
The second player, Damaso Marte, is a veteran left handed pitcher with an affordable contract. Marte was a highly sought after pitcher in recent weeks, the Yankees will presumably use him more as a situational lefty-the only lefty in their bullpen. Marte is a strong arm and should only add to the bullpen.
According to Ken Rosenthal, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman had been talking to Pittsburgh about Marte for a few days prior to the trade. It was only on Friday when Nagy entered the discussions. I wonder what the trade looked like prior to that?
In exchange for Nady and Marte, the Pirates brought in four prospects, only one of whom had any value prior to the start of the season. It does appear as though Neil Huntington has a plan, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that he chose players that are further along in development over players with slightly higher ceilings.
Beginning with Ross Ohlendorf, the Pirates received a pitcher whom they can immediately use out of the bullpen, if they so choose. Ohlendorf is going to be 26 in a little over a week, and the right handed pitcher needs to find his spot in the majors soon. Armed with a hard fastball that averages 93mph, Ohlendorf co
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