The New York Yankees have traded pitching prospects Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz to the Colorado Rockies for 3^rd baseman Ryan McMahon.  Let’s take a look at how this trade affects the Yankees this season and in the future.

Let’s get the outgoing players out of the way first.  Up until this trade I had never head of Josh Grosz.  Turns out Grosz is a 6’4” righty who has pitched in 16 games with 15 starts in A= Hudson Valley.  He has struck out 94 batters in 87 innings and has a 4.14 ERA.  Not awful but nothing to care about losing.  Griffin Herring, on the other hand, has been in my Prospects Watch all season.  Here’s what I wrote about him in my last Prospect Watch…

Griffen Herring—Pitcher—A+ Hudson Valley—Since being promoted to A+ Herring has had just 1 bad outing where he gave up 5 runs in 3 innings.  Aside from that, he has been really good.  In his 3 starts since, he has a 2.00 ERA and has struck out 19 in 18 innings.  On the season he has an impressive 1.71 ERA with 102 Ks in 89.1 innings.

As you can see, Herring is having a great season and was the 8^th ranked prospect in the Yankees system.  The Yankees actually have a lot of good pitching prospects so losing one of them doesn’t really hurt.  You have to give up something to get something and the best trades are when you give up something you have an abundance of for something you need.  That is what the Yankees did. 

As for what the Yankees are getting, Ryan McMahon is a lefty hitting 3^rd baseman.  He is 30 years old and under contract for two more years at 16 mil per year.  According to all the metrics he is an excellent 3^rd baseman.  He is 4^th in the league in Outs Above Average and he is 6^th in Defensive Runs Saved.  If you have seen the Yankees play recently, you know defense has been a bit of an issue of late.  He should help in that department, especially with the Yankees having a bunch of ground ball pitchers on their staff. 

As for the hitting, well, let’s just say Peraza and Vivas set a very low bar for their replacement to get over in order to be an improvement.  And well, McMahon just gets over the bar.  At least average wise.  On the season he is hitting .217 on the year but has been a .240 hitter for most of his career.  The problem is in his home/road splits.  He obviously plays in Colorado and his numbers vary greatly.  On the road he is hitting just .189.  Of course, that is an improvement over Peraza’s .147.  Like I said, they set a low bar.  The big difference is in their power.  McMahon has hit 16 homeruns as opposed to Peraza’s 3.  Of course, 11 of those 16 have come at Coors Field.  Still, the 5 he hit on the road is more than the 3 Peraza has.  McMahon is also left-handed and a pull hitter who should be able to take advantage of the short porch at the Stadium.  Also, McMahon was hitting either 3^rd or 4th for the Rockies (how freaking bad are they?!?!) where as he will most likely be hitting 8^th for the Yankees.  That change in role and the better hitting around him could help him be a more consistent hitter.  His Hard-hit rate, Average Exit Velo, his Barrel Percentage, and his Walk Rate are all very high.  So maybe there is some potential there that the Yankees can tap into.  Or maybe without the aid of the high altitude all of those numbers will plummet.  I guess we will see. 

My overall take on this trade is that I like it.  It’s not a great trade or anything but it does improve the team.  At least a little.  And, as I said in my last Yankee Update, I feel 3^rd base was not a need for the Yankees.  They score plenty of runs and it was pitching that was the real need.  Adding McMahon should help the defense thus saving them runs and his bat should be a little better than Peraza’s.  The most important thing is that they did not give much up in the trade.  I would have hated for them to give up a bunch of top prospects for a rental.  Saving their top prospects and getting an upgrade, even if it is just on the defensive end, is a god deal for the Yankees.  Hopefully it will not be their last before Thursdays’ deadline.