The Toronto Blue Jays are now free to trade Curtis Granderson to any team they wish, as Granderson has officially cleared waivers.
The 37-year-old is not nearly as threatening of a presence as he once was, but he could be valuable to a contender. Specifically, he could be very valuable to the New York Yankees.
Granderson played for four years with the Yankees after being traded to New York in a three-way trade between the Yankees, the Detroit Tigers, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The trade actually came out to about even for all three teams, which is a rarity with three team trades. The Yankees got Granderson, the Diamondbacks got Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy, and the Tigers got Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth, Phil Coke, and Austin Jackson. All involved teams acquired players who performed pretty well for a 3-to-5-year window.
Granderson can be traded on the cheap and his salary shouldn’t take much maneuvering to stay under the luxury tax threshold.
The Yankees would be a perfect match for Granderson, and vice-versa. Granderson can fill in on the heavy side of a platoon while Aaron Judge is out with an injury. He still a masher of right-handed pitchers. He has ten home runs and a .760 OPS against them this year, which is much better than his .518 OPS against southpaws in limited attempts this year. He’s kind of always had difficulties with lefties, though.
Granderson would be able to slide into a more permanent bench role when Judge returns, too, without any issue. Granderson has done a lot more bench sitting in recent years and he’s clearly willing to do it for a championship pursuit.
He still strikes out more than fans would like, but he is pretty far and away the best option of any outfield bat rumored to be a trade candidate for the Yanks.
Granderson knows how to use the short porch in Yankee Stadium, as well. He hit 41 and 43 homers for the Yankees in 2011 and 2012, respectively, most of which were in Yankee Stadium.
Granderson will be able to come off the bench and give Gardner the occasional off day. Granderson may even be able to give Judge days off against the tough righties in the weeks immediately following Judge’s return. In the event of another injury, many fans would be quicker trust the Grandy Man than Shane Robinson with no timetable for a return from Clint Frazier.
Get it done, Cashman!
Featured Image via Flickr/Keith Allison
