Sunday, November 20, 2011

Braves Interested in Nunez

From John Harper:
Brian Cashman has always said he never regretted clinging tightly to Eduardo Nunez back in July of 2010 when the young infielder might have been the final necessary piece in the proposed trade for Cliff Lee. So would the Yankee GM give him up now if it meant a chance to acquire Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens?

...

The Braves think highly enough of Nunez’s potential, according to a major league source, that they might consider trading Jurrjens, their 25-year-old All-Star righthander, to the Yankees in a deal built around the 23-year-old shortstop.

At the GM meetings last week the Braves reportedly were asking for a very high price in return for Jurrjens, but the source expects that price to come down.

“They’re willing to trade him,” the source said, “because they have plenty of young pitching without him, he’s starting to make big money — and he’s a (Scott) Boras guy who’ll be gone (as free agent) in two years.

“They need offense, they need a shortstop because they don’t want to bring (Alex) Gonzalez back, and they like Nunez a lot. They know the jury is out on him defensively, but they think his offense is strong enough that he could move to the outfield if he can’t be their long-term answer at short.”

A Yankee source, meanwhile, says that last week the Braves let the Bombers know they’d be interested in dealing for Nunez, but didn’t discuss Jurrjens or any specific players on their side.
Harper also mentions that Nick Swisher could also be part of a potential deal, since he could fill the Braves' void in the outfield.

I'm not sure how possible this actually is, but if the Yanks can actually make a deal like this I think they'd have to go for it, especially if things fall through on the FA pitching market. And if the Yankees do unload Swisher, I'd expect them to go after Cuban defector Yeonis Cespedes (which they'll probably do anyway).

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