The Chicago Cubs have started the MLB trade rumors season early, as pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel have received interest from teams like the For NY Yankees, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Miami Marlins, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays and as the season moves along those teams could start getting serious about a deal.
Buster Olney reports that teams like the Athletics and Pirates also could be in the market for Hammel and that a deal could go down before the trade deadline. Samardzija has had a great season despite dealing with barley any run support and now he could get traded soon. According to ESPN.com, the Cubs have started up talks involving both Samardzija and Jason Hammel and some teams that were mentioned as ones with needs now and could make a deal are the Blue Jays, Braves and Mariners.
The NY Yankees were dealing with a number of injuries early in the season and with Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Brian Roberts and Francisco Cervelli in and out of the lineup, the team could look at making some trades, with players like Nick Franklin, Didi Gregorius, Ike Davis, Chase Headley are all possible options for Brian Cashman heading into July.
Heading into the season injuries were one of the major concerns for the Yankees due to the age of some of their players and also results from recent years, especially with Derek Jeter coming off of a lost season as well as with Brian Roberts, who has been injured in each of the last four season. Teixeira was placed on the DL last week with a hamstring injury and while it was a Grade 1 strain, he is coming off of a major injury to his wrist and he missed nearly all of last year with that injury. The Yankees knew this was a possibility coming into the season and that is why they kept rookies Yangervis Solarte and Dean Anna and signed Kelly Johnson, as they all can play multiple positions.
While those players are versatile, the multitude of injuries outweighs the options right now and with Brendan Ryan was also on the DL, the team may have to make some moves. Dean Anna was in the lineup for Jeter in the game against the Red Sox a while back and the team had Alfonso Soriano make an appearance at second base and they also had to use Carlos Beltran at first base for the first time in his career after Francisco Cervelli was injured.
Solarte has started off the season hitting the ball well and now Jeter has missed the past two games in a row after dealing with a tight quad and Joe Girardi kept him on the bench rather than play him hurt. According to ESPN.com, Girardi said that the injury is not serious and that the team was being cautious and now he has had three days off over the first two weeks and he he is hitting over .280 in the early goings this season. The report writes that Jeter mentioned Friday that his quad tightened up on him in the game against the Red Sox and that is one reason why Girardi sat him and instead started Anna on Sunday night.
The Yankees won over the Sox on Saturday with a game by Hiroki Kuroda and the offense comes in ranked in the top 10 to start the season in batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage and they have scored around 50 runs. Brian McCann has started to bust out of his slump to start the season and he had two home runs in the game on Saturday and could be heating up.
