The New York Yankees reportedly engaged the Philadelphia Phillies about a trade for left-handed ace Cole Hamels, but the prospects the Phillies wanted in return likely scared the Yanks off.
CBS Sports reports that the Phillies are high on outfield prospect Aaron Judge, and right-handed pitching prospect Luis Severino, but the Yankees balked at coughing up two of their prized farmhands.
Judge and Severino are the Yankees' top two prospects. Judge spent last season in Single-A ball and then High-A posting huge numbers at both stops. At Single-A he batted .333 with nine home runs and 45 RBI in 65 games. Then he hit .288 with eight home runs and 33 RBI in 66 games at High-A.
Severino has been equally impressive. He started in Single-A, then quickly rose to High-A before finishing out 2014 at Double-A, where he was 2-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 25 innings of work. He struck out 29 in those 25 innings, and walked six.
Both Judge and Severino aren't close to the major leagues though, and New York might require immediate pitching help. There is a Tommy John cloud hovering over ace Masahiro Tanaka, who partially tore his UCL last season and missed a chunk of the summer. CC Sabathia only made eight starts and will battle a degenerative knee condition for the rest of his career.
The Yankees do have high hopes for right-hander Michael Pineda, but despite his good performances when he was on the mound last year, he's never pitched more than 171 innings, and didn't appear in the majors at all in 2012 and 2013 because of injury.
Hamels, over the past five seasons, has been a model of durability. He hasn't pitched fewer than 204.2 innings in that span, nor posted an ERA of higher than 3.60.
Waiting can be a double-edged sword. If the Yankees experience injuries to the staff, Philadelphia may be able to hold their feet to the fire with more leverage. On the flip side if the Yankees stay healthy and try to land Hamels later on as contenders, they'll be in a position of strength.
The original talks were considered "feel out" discussions, and the Yankees did offer a package of players that " has given the Phillies a baseline for future talks."
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