Ben Maller, (who has a great sports blog by the way) linked to a reported rumor that the Yankees are possibly interested in trading Alphonso Soriano for Royals centerfielder Carlos Beltran, because they are "tired of watching Bernie Williams flail around in center field".
Mark Shapiro has said that his top priority this offseason is to acquire a run-producing second baseman. So it occurs to me that we have an excellent defensive centerfielder, who has great offensive numbers, comparable to Beltran, that we don't quite know what to do with. As good as Milton Bradley is, we have a number of guys that could play center for us for the next dozen years or so in Crisp, Gerut, or Sizemore, and if the Yanks would take Beltran for Soriano, why not talk to them about Bradley instead?
I suspect Shapiro is more interested in a shorter-term guy, but I'm not sure why. He has said that Phillips will start at AAA next season, but at shortstop, not at 2nd, to be prepared as Vizquel's eventual replacement, and as far as I know, we don't exactly have the next Joe Morgan anywhere in our minor league system. Bradley may have too much personal baggage and be too injury prone to interest the Yanks. Come to think of it though, when did George S. ever care about personal baggage if he could get a good player?
Posted by dan at October 5, 2003 01:02 AM