MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo was among the first to report the player to be named player being sent to NY.
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NY continued selling its major league pieces Monday after trading Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs and Andrew Miller to the Indians on Saturday.
According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, the New York Yankees have shipped right-hander Ivan Nova to the Pirates just ahead of the 4 pm ET trade deadline. In the end the Yankees simply did not want to waste a roster spot on Nova while they have young arms to watch for the remainder of the season like Chad Green and Luis Severino.
The 30-year-old Bastardo, who spent the 2015 season with the Pirates, posted a 4.74 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 41 relief appearances with the Mets this year. Nova does spare the Pirates the indignity of too many stretch-run starts by Jeff Locke or Ryan Vogelsong, although the Bucs’ collection of interesting rookie starters could have done the same thing.
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Nova, 29, will be a free agent after the season and there was basically no reason for the Yankees to keep him.
