Late last night, I had reported that the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Tigers were dicussing a three-team blockbuster trade at MLB's Baseball Winter Meetings.
Last night, the trade was vetoed and the teams went back to talking to work on it.
Today around 1:30 p.m., the trade was finally executed.
The Yankees landed center fielder Curtis Granderson.
Pitchers Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy were acquired by the Diamondbacks.
The Tigers were able to pick up outfielder Austin Jackson, and pitchers Phil Coke, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth.
The only difference in the trade from last night and today was Schlereth—who replaced Michael Dunn in the deal.
Lets break down the deal and see how each team did.
Starting with the Yankees, they have their long-term center fielder in Granderson now. He'll be 29 in March and the Yankees are getting an all-star player who hit 30 home runs for Detroit in 2009.
Now, Granderson will be bringing his left-handed swing to Yankee Stadium, a haven for many home runs that Granderson can benefit from playing in now.
Also, Granderson will now be the center fielder for the Yankees for the next couple years, especially since they traded away their future prospect in Jackson. Also, this puts Melky Cabrera on the trading block and teams have reportedly been interested in Melky's services.
Moving on to the Tigers, trading Jackson and Granderson was mostly a salary dump. They do get a young outfielder in Jackson, who is getting closer to being major league ready. With Jackson being in Detroit now, he might have a better chance of starting in the majors, but if he's not ready, he could still begin the year in Triple- A.
In replacing Jackson, the Tigers get 24 year old Scherzer who is an up and coming pitcher with strikeout ability. Scherzer was 9-11 with a 4.12 ERA with 174 strikeouts for Arizona last season. Now in the Tigers rotation, he should be a young fixture there to go along with Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello.
They also get Coke in the deal, who fell out of favor in the playoffs to Damaso Marte, plus the Tigers could lose Brandon Lyon and Fernando Rodney from the bullpen, so getting Coke will bring youth to their bullpen. If the Yankees didn't have Marte locked up for another two years, Coke doesn't get moved, but because of Marte, Coke does get moved.
Finally, for the Diamondbacks, they add to their pitching staff with Jackson and Kennedy.
Jackson will be 26 next year and was 13-9 with a 3.62 with 161 strikeouts last season for Detroit. Jackson likely will be the number three starter in the rotation behind Brandon Webb and Dan Haren. Adding Jackson to those guys makes Arizona's rotation look very good.
They also get Kennedy, who is coming off aneurysm surgery and pitched in one game for the Yankees in 2009. Kennedy was likely not going to be a factor in the Yankees rotation, so getting a fresh start for him was needed. He is from California and went to USC, so maybe playing on the west coast near his family might be a better thing for Kennedy, who could have a future in the Diamondbacks back end of the rotation.
Overall, it looks like all three teams got a major need on the team. The Yankees got a long-term solution in center field with Granderson, the Tigers shed some payroll and got young players with Jackson, Coke and Scherzer and the Diamondbacks upgrade their rotation with Jackson and Kennedy.
The Yankees have now given up on their prospect in Jackson, but they did get a young and already established talent in return with Granderson and could continue being a great player in pinstripes.
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