Yankees Rumors: New York Reportedly Open to Trading Curtis Granderson

The offseason continues to bring surprises for the New York Yankees. According to Buster Olney of ESPN, they are now open to trading outfielder Curtis Granderson to provide some financial flexibility.

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NYY have been open to talks about Curtis Granderson. If they move his $15m salary, it would provide more flexibility to do other things.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 4, 2012"

The term "financial flexibility" is not one that Yankees fans are accustomed to hearing. The team's version of flexibility has usually been spending the gross national product of a small country in order to acquire the marquee free agent and steal all the headlines.

Of course, a lot of that philosophy came when George Steinbrenner was alive and forcing a lot of those decisions.

Under Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman, the edict, for the most part, has been to stop overspending for players in order to get the team under the luxury tax threshold.

Granderson's $15 million salary does look like an albatross right now. He can hit for power and draw walks, but he is also going to strike out close to 200 times and can't hit left-handed pitching. He has hit just .225/.292/.407 against southpaws in his career. 

The Yankees were likely motivated to start engaging teams in trade talks after the news broke about Alex Rodriguez needing hip surgery and likely missing the first half of the 2013 season. 

It is no secret that the Yankees are an older team that needs to get young before all of their aging stars suddenly look like relics and the team ends up playing an entire season the way it did the American League Championship Series against Detroit. 

Granderson appears to be the big chip that the Yankees are willing to move and can move since he has just one year left on his deal. But with the Braves and Nationals finding center fielders already, the market may take a while to develop, if it ever does. 

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