Cashman bit on the chance to improve “an area of weakness” by acquiring Luis Cessa and Chad Green, right-handers who are expected to open 2016 in Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s rotation.
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The Yankees’ youth movement continued Wednesday, when they shipped Justin Wilson to Detroit for two minor leaguers.
Cashman was willing to weaken his bullpen because of a lack of depth in starting pitching at Triple-A and Double-A.
After Bryan Mitchell, Cashman felt he lacked depth among his backup starters. “We have some guys in the rotation that obviously have issues”. “It’s an area that I needed to try to address, and this made enough sense to move a high piece we like in Wilson”.
With Triple-A Toledo, the 23-year-old Cessa was unimpressive, going 1-3 with a 5.97 ERA in seven games last season.
Cessa was one of the pitching prospects the Tigers acquired from the New York Mets in the Yoenis Cespedes deadline trade.
Green, 24, posted a 3.93 ERA in 27 starts with Double-A Erie this past season, with 137 strikeouts in 148 2/3 innings. “At the very most, they’ll help us in the major leagues”, Cashman said.
Wilson is arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter and is projected to earn $1.3M next year.
Wilson came up through the Pittsburgh Pirates organization as a starting pitcher but transitioned to relief with he cracked the big leagues. He went 6-1 with a 2.08 ERA in 2013, but his ERA increased to 4.20 in 2014. Earlier this offseason, Detroit picked up closer Francisco Rodriguez and setup man Mark Lowe.
“Justin provides us with a power left-handed arm”, Tigers general manager Al Avila said. Regardless, Wilson was considered the team’s third-best reliever, right behind Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.
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“It gives us the ability to have these conversations”, Cashman said. “I’ve got a lot of conversations that are still in play and we’ll see where that takes me”.
