Hot Stove Report / Jaret Wright Edition

Golly gee whiz, I’ve taken over this blog.

I am happy to report that the Yankees have pulled off their second significant trade of the off-season, this time sending Jaret Wright and cash to the Orioles for righty reliever Chris Britton.

For the O’s, they add a starter to the back end of a rotation that is still in development. Jaret Wright is, at best, an average to below-average big league pitcher. He’s feisty and has a good attitude but he’s short on command and rarely works deep into games. In other words, he’s a pretty good guy for the clubhouse but he doesn’t really bring much to the table on the field. Nevertheless, the Orioles are getting a paid-for season from Wright and he will be a suitable replacement for Kris Benson, who may not be re-signed.

For the Yanks, they add another hard-throwing righty to what is developing into a deep young bullpen. Together with Scott Proctor, Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth, and Mike Myers, Britton will work as a setup man for Mariano Rivera. This trade leaves the Yankees only needing to find a lefty long reliever to replace Ron Villone and their bullpen is set to go for 2007.

Of course, this also creates a vacancy in the Yankee rotation. With Randy Johnson on the mend after back surgery and with Carl Pavano’s unreliability, the Yanks go into Opening Day 2007 with only two of the five rotation spots nailed down (Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina). Early reports are that the Red Sox have posted between $38-45M and have won the right to exclusive negotiations with Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka*, which means the Yanks won’t have him as their #2 starter for next season. That means the Yanks could go with homegrown youth (Darrell Rasner or Jeff Karstens) or they could make a play for Gil Meche, Jeff Suppan, Barry Zito, or Jason Schmidt.

The Yankee rotation will be sorted out in the coming months. In the meantime, I’m happy to see yet another 20-somethng power arm joining the organization.

*I have a theory here, and it doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of the Red Sox or Major League Baseball. I won’t write it up until the announcement is made that the Red Son actually won the posting process with Matsuzaka’s Japanese team.