Friday, December 08, 2006

Marte to Yanks?

The Pirates and Yankees are reportedly discussing a trade that would send reliever Damaso Marte to New York for outfielder Kevin Thompson. The Yankees bullpen is most likely going to take a hit this off-season and Marte, who is signed through 2008, could relieve some of the pain.

Thompson has just 30 major league at-bats, but has compiled nine hits, three of which are doubles and one home run. He turned 27 this past September.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Moving Marte makes sense. But given the market for relievers shouldn't he have more value than Kevin Thompson. This is Littlefield's problem in a nutshell. Thompson would be a decent, steady fourth OFer on a decent team. No upside. No downside. Littlefield is so afraid of downside that he refuses to take a chance on any player with upside. I know the Yankees don't have many actual hitting prospects, but wouldn't it make sense to flip Marte for a young arm with some upside as a starter. Jeff Marquez, Chase Wright, Darrell Rasner. Even a stab in the dark at Eric Duncan if you mush have a hitter would make more sense to me although I admit his prospect status is fading quickly. At least there is some chance of him being more than a mediocre backup. I can accept the more likely chance of him flaming out completely. Alas Littlefield seems unable to ever take that kind of chance. An if the Yankees won't part with someone like that.... then look elsewhere or wait.

Unknown said...

I agree, completely. Better yet, why not try and make it Melky Cabrera. Sweeten the deal a little if you have to.