Wednesday 30 May 2012

About First Base

Here's a quick and dirty bit of rosterbation - involving what seems to me to be a prime but overlooked candidate to help fix the 1B situation if;/when the Jays resign themselves to the idea that Lind isn't the answer.

There's a guy out there who, while aging and expensive, has the skill-set to be everything Lind was not. He's the ideal short term acquisition, but he's on a division rival and can't reasonably be expected to be acquired in a one-for-one deal. His name?

Kevin Youkilis.

Laying aside natural animosity to all things Yankee and Red Sox, there would be a certain satisfaction in Youk helping to bury his old teammates and a team that seems to be willing to throw him under the bus while replacing him with youth. The problem is, you need a third team to make it work. Specifically, you need a team that has and is willing to trade to the Sox a key piece, likely a couple of pitchers. That team knowing already that Alex will offer up prospects A,B, and C (or whatever) in return for him to be flipped to the Blue Jays.

An example:

Cubs trade Dempster to Red Sox for Youk, then Younk to Jays for Deck McGuire, Sean Nolin and Danny Farquhar (no idea what level of prospects it would actually take but obviously not top-10 guys)

Or, if you prefer...
Astros trade Wandy Rodriguez and Brandon Lyon for Youk and, say, Shoppach, then flipped to the Jays for acceptable prospects.

You get the idea.

The only glitch being whether or not the Red Sox anticipate the potential of a flip and refuse to deal with a team that might send him back to the division.

Thoughts?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be delighted with Youk. My only worries are that he'd re-injure himself pretty quickly on the turf, and that even in a three-way, it would likely still be too expensive. How much would you give up for him?

The Southpaw said...

not any top 10 guys for sure. I could see second tier guys and those who are so distant they are more risky by definition.