Deadline Shuffle

The Specualtion Is...
...Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Bronx for prospects Steve White and C.J. Henry.

There are still dollar signs to sort out, no-trade clauses to be waived and prospects to be settled on. But it sure looks as if Abreu is moving his act to the Bronx sometime in the next day and a half. And all indications Saturday night were that pitcher Cory Lidle is going to ride that Metroliner along with him. The Phillies and Yankees spent many waking hours Friday and Saturday trotting a thousand different trade options out there. But in the end, the one that seemed to work best for everyone was the option that is going to relocate Abreu and Lidle 100 miles to the north, for a package of three or four of the Yankees' best prospects not named Phillip Hughes or Jose Tabata. The two teams were said to be whittling a list of eight or nine names to a group they could settle on. But while that whittling process wasn't over late Saturday, it was believed that two names the Phillies had targeted were the Yankees' highly regarded No. 1 pick a year ago, shortstop C.J. Wilson, and 6-foot-5 power arm Steven White. That was a price the Yankees could easily live with, however, especially since they're going to owe Abreu close to $37 million over the next 2½ years. The Yankees were the one team in the Abreu hunt that always believed that, in the end, the Phillies' best option would be to clear every dollar in his contract off their debt sheet. So while other teams listened to Abreu's money demands and turned in other directions, the Yankees waited the Phillies out. Finally, on Friday, the Phillies lowered their talent requests -- and the deliberations began. The Phillies tried dangling Abreu alone and didn't feel they were getting enough back. They tried packaging him with pitcher Jon Lieber, who is owed another $10 million through 2007 himself. But the Yankees felt taking on another chunk of cash that large entitled them to offer even less than they would for Abreu alone. So the Phillies substituted Lidle for Lieber, and that apparently made the puzzle pieces fit. No matter how happy the Phillies may be to lop Abreu's money off their I.O.U. list, they also knew they couldn't march up to the podium after trading a player like this and say, "We just saved $20 million on our car insurance." They had to get real players back who could allow them to save face and restock their system. And including their best available starting pitcher was the move that made that happen. So by late Saturday night, there seemed to be only one significant question left: When would they all be stepping to that podium?

At least the Phillies are not geting Philip Hughes or Jose Tabata.
I would have thought Eric Duncan was the name that would surface in all of this but either the Phillies didn't want him or the Yankees didn't want to part with him. C.J. Henry's been dissappointing so far, but you have to figure this trade isn't too bad if you consdier that C. J. Henry only came to the Yankees because they let Jon Lieber walk to the Phillies.
I'm a little uncomfortable with this when you consider that the Yankees have already flipped another middle infield minor leaguer Hector Made for Sal Fasano only days ago.

Maybe Made was going to be another Erick Almonte, but it seems if they throw out C.J. Henry to boot, you'd have to start asking what's wrong with these MIF guys and why were they in the organisation to start with. As in, why draft C.J. Henry as a first rounder in the first place?

For the record, this is where he is at:

Many of the position players are struggling to adapt to full season ball. Last year’s first round draft pick, shortstop C.J. Henry, started the season off on the wrong foot. After an extended trip on the DL due to a hamstring injury, Henry returned in good form and bumped his average all the way up to .295, but when the dog days of summer rolled around, he began to struggle.

Henry has been hovering around .220 the past few months and has now settled in at .237 with 33 RBI, 30 runs, two home runs, and 86 strikeouts. Consistency has been his main problem, especially in the field where he has shown flashes of brilliance but also has struggled with routine plays, routine throws, and trying to make the spectacular happen.

Henry has racked up a total of 24 errors in 55 games at shortstop. Yankee fans can only hope that Henry is the second coming of Derek Jeter, who totaled 57 errors in 128 games during his first year of full-season baseball.

“You can see why the Yankees made him their first-round draft pick,” RiverDogs play-by-play announcer Josh Maurer commented. “The guy has a lot of raw ability, but he is definitely rough around the edges and will need a bunch of work. I really think he is going to make it, though it may take a lot of work."

“In the long run though, these struggles he’s going through will help him, it’s gonna’ make him work even harder. I like his ability all around and I think he’ll be fine.”

Yowza. Still, I must say I'm not really comfortable with trading away C.J. Henry right now for 1.5 seasons of Bobby Abreu plus Cory Lidle for the rest of this year. The other thing about getting Abreu is that he's going to be getting the money that would have been ear-marked for Sheffield next year, so we know this is going to be the last year for sure for Sheff in the Bronx.

UPDATE: Sure enough, the trade went through. The Yanks got both Abreu AND Corey Lidle while sending C.J Henry, Matt Smith (not Steve White) and 2 other minor leaguers. The lamentations of the Yankee-haters were heard across the globe. Then, to make matters more interesting, The Yankees scored Craig Wilson from the Pirates for Shawn Chacon. Thank you Shawn for the memories and this wonderful little haul.