According to Jayson Stark of ESPN , the Yankees were never actually as close to landing the Diamondback’s ace starter Dan Haren as reporters made it sound last night.
Stark reports that the Yankees rejected a deal that would have been centered around Joba Chamberlain, Ivan Nova, and two other prospects. The Yanks countered with a deal that didn’t include Joba and that appears to be where the deal fell apart.
Another issue, according to Stark, was over money. Haren is guaranteed at least $29 million ($33 million including the remainder of this season’s salary). The D-Backs wanted the Yankees to pay that salary in its entirety, but the Yankees expected some sort of discount on the prospects to do that.
It’s a shame that this deal broke down because the Yankees refused to trade Joba. As a reliever, he’s worth much less to the Yankees than Haren would have been as a front of the line starter. The reason they probably wanted an all-prospects deal or nothing was about not hurting their chances at winning a World Series this season.
They might realize that it would be a fair deal to send Joba away for the likes of Haren, but the idea of removing Joba from the bullpen would hurt. Sure, they could have moved Phil Hughes into the pen, but that would only be temporary and for this season. There would be no clear replacement for Joba any time soon while they can just go out and sign Cliff Lee this offseason for rotation help.
At least that’s my take on the situation. The bottom line is that the Yankees didn’t want to include Joba in a deal, so there is no deal.
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