Yankees: Armed and dangerous
NEW YORK — The Yankees added another potent pitching arm to their starting rotation on Monday, acquiring Sonny Gray from the Oakland Athletics for three minor-league prospects.
“This team has shown it’s got the ability to allow us to push a lot of these chips in the middle of the table and recognize 2017 has a chance to be special,” said New York general manager Brian Cashman. “We’re trying to go from good to great.”
A 27-year-old right-hander, Gray is 6-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 16 starts this season and 4-2 with a 1.37 ERA in his last six outings.
He slots into the middle of a formidable rotation that includes Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Jaime Garcia, acquired on Sunday from Minnesota.
Gray, an All-Star in 2015 when he won 14 games for the second consecutive season and finished third in AL Cy Young Award voting, makes $3.6 million and is not eligible for free agency until after the 2019 season.
Oakland received Jorge Mateo, a top shortstop-outfielder prospect at Double-A; right-hander James Kaprielian, the 16th overall pick in the 2015 amateur draft who is recovering from Tommy John surgery; and Dustin Fowler, an outfielder who ruptured a tendon in his right knee in the first inning of his major-league debut on June 29, ending his season.
New York also receives $1.5 million in internationalsigning-bonus allocation from the A’s.
In the works for weeks, the deal was announced less than an hour before Monday afternoon’s deadline for making trades without waivers.
“Most of our serious conversations were with the Yankees,” Oakland executive vice-president of baseball operations Billy Beane said.
“We’re in last place, so we needed to do something. Sonny was a great player for us, but at this point we need a lot of great players.
“There’s a talent deficit that exists right now, and the way to acquire multiple good players is to trade some of the good players you have.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ecstatic to acquire another proven arm.
“I think we’ve definitely improved ourselves,” Girardi said. “When I look at ownership and the front office, they’ve given us an opportunity to do something special here. Now we have to go out and do it.”
Last season, the Yankees stockpiled prospects at the trade deadline by dealing away veteran stars Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and Carlos Beltran.
But with the emergence of young sluggers Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and others, New York entered Monday with a half-game lead in the AL East over Boston. The Yankees missed the playoffs last year and haven’t won a postseason series since 2012.