Yankees Can't Overlook Garrett Crochet Deadline Trade amid Orioles Links, MLB Rumors

The New York Yankees could be one of baseball's busiest teams between now and the July 30 MLB trade deadline.

In fact, given the way the pinstripers entered the All-Star break, you could argue they should be among the most active organizations.

When they recorded their 50th win on June 14, their loss column had a mere 22 entries. One month later, they entered intermission with 58 victories against 40 losses. For the non-math majors in the audience, that means they've won only eight of their last 26 outings.

You'd think, then, New York would be connected to any and every notable name on the trade market. And yet, the latest buzz from Jon Heyman of the New York Post said the Yankees "are not that into" Chicago White Sox All-Star ace Garrett Crochet.

Huh?

Adding to the confusion, Heyman noted that one of the clubs "linked" to Crochet are the Baltimore Orioles, the team New York is trying to track down in the race for the AL East crown.

So, there's a 25-year-old pitcher engineering a full-fledged (and fully dominant) breakthrough season, and the Yankees aren't interested but their direct competitors are? In what world does that make sense?

Not this one.

If you wanted to say New York has other needs to address at the deadline, that's fine. Relief pitching and infield upgrades are surely on the wish list.

Let's not pretend, though, that it's impossible to improve this rotation.

Gerrit Cole is still finding his form after missing multiple months with an elbow injury. Carlos Rodón's ERA sits on the wrong side of 4.50. Luis Gil delivered back-to-back one-run efforts before the break, but that stretch was preceded by three starts in which he allowed a combined 16 earned runs in 9.2 innings. Nestor Cortes was tagged for a season-high five earned runs his last time out.

Crochet couldn't improve this group? That's absurd.

He leads the Majors with 150 strikeouts. His 3.02 ERA is tiny, and his league-best 2.36 FIP is even smaller, per Baseball-Reference.com. His 0.950 WHIP highlights his ability to keep runners off the basepaths.

He is dominant. Dominant enough for someone to give him some premium assets to get him away from the Chicago White Sox.

USA Today's Bob Nightengale previously reported that the White Sox are "insisting" on getting back prized Yankees outfield prospect Spencer Jones in any deal for Crochet. That's a steep price, for sure.

Remember, though, the reward is super-rich. Remember, too, negotiations can continue leading up to the deadline, meaning that insistence might not be quite as firm in 10 days' time.

It's possible this all plays out, and Crochet is still too expensive for the Yankees to acquire. That's fine. They need to retain enough assets to address those other needs, too.

Prematurely bowing out of the race makes no sense, though. Crochet is really, really going to help someone. The Yankees need to take more time to figure out whether they can be that someone.