Report: Yankees Listening To Offers For Miller, Chapman, Others
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Yankees are reportedly entertaining trade offers for Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and other players, a sign they might be inching closer to the assuming the uncharacteristic role of sellers this summer.
ESPN's Buster Olney reported Tuesday that rival evaluators say the Yankees are fielding offers in the event the organization decides to shift its focus to 2017. Executives with other teams, however, say it's still not clear whether the Bronx Bombers will ultimately deal some of their coveted players before the Aug. 1 deadline.
Although he didn't name names, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman seemed to back up those reports in an interview with Olney on his "Baseball Tonight" podcast Tuesday.
"If it's something that makes sense for us in the short and long term, we'll decipher it, go through it," Cashman said. "And I've certainly encouraged all clubs that have any interest in players, if they want to make some offers and stuff like that, that they want me to consider and maybe ownership to consider, I'll take it to ownership, and it's my obligation to do so. That doesn't mean we're in sell mode, but it certainly means we're open to everything and anything, just like we were this winter."
The Yankees are 40-42 -- 7½ games behind Baltimore for the American League East lead and 4½ games behind Toronto for the second wild-card spot.
Cashman admitted that the fact that the Yankees have been lingering around .500 has complicated matters.
"I've publicly stated that this team needs to declare itself one way or the other, and it unfortunately hasn't declared itself in a positive way, the way we had hoped, as of yet," he said. "And so the clock is ticking, and the more we stay in this mode that we're currently in, I think it's going to force us into to some tough decisions."
Miller, Chapman and Carlos Beltran figure to be the team's three hottest commodities.
Miller, the Yankees' set-up man, is 5-1 with seven saves and a 1.47 ERA
Chapman is 2-0 with a 2.86 ERA and has converted 16 of 17 save opportunities.
And Beltran is batting .296 with 19 home runs and 53 RBIs.
Chapman and Beltran are set to become free agents after this season, while Miller is under contract through 2018.
