Wouldn’t the better move be to sign both Corbin and Happ and keep Sheffield for the inevitable C.C. disables list stint?
Unless the Yankees don’t believe in Sheffield I suppose.
6 years of service for a starter Yankees fans have been drooling over and now it’s gone
Paxton is terrific when healthy and I'm honestly surprised the M's did this before Thanksgiving and didn't get a better package for him from the Brewers, Braves, or Astros or something. Cashman must have said Sheffield is only available for a limited time and otherwise he'd move on to other targets.
It's a good deal for the Yanks, but from a Sox perspective, these things stand out as silver linings:
- Like
@StuckOnYouk, I had them pegged to sign both Corbin and Happ, which is very doubtful to happen now. We'll see how it plays out, but given Happ's relative dependabilty, the difference between a year of him and a year of Paxton may be a wash, and I don't think that gap is worth Sheffield.
- A better outcome for them would have been that Sheffield himself would have been ready for full-time duty by 2019. That didn't happen, and now they've lost four cost-controlled years of an asset (relative to Paxton's 2019-20).
- Another better outcome for them would have been that Sonny Gray was the #2 guy in their rotation (at least according to projections from mid-2017). We'll see what he fetches in return and I figure Cashman will get someone good, but it'll likely be a similarly distressed asset, someone under short-term control, or both.
- With the exception of Florial, the Yanks no longer have a clear farm system advantage over the Sox. That's good on its face, but it also means they won't necessarily have first crack at trade targets like Syndergaard, Snell, Carrasco, Taillon, or whomever else might be available.
- Paxton had a pretty mediocre finish to last year, with a 3.86 FIP and 1.85 HR/9 over his last 10 starts (against, admittedly, some pretty good lineups). Considering last year's 160 IP was his highest MLB innings total (he did throw 170 total IP in 2016), it's possible that Paxton isn't built to last a full season healthy and productive.
- Paxton's total HR/FB rate is 14.4%, which is 6th-highest among AL starters (higher than Porcello, even). Of course, looking at HR/FB ignores his excellent K rate, but it still might be worrisome for him going forward.