Two Prospects in Burnett Deal

Diego Moreno, 25 year old pitcher acquired from the Pirates in the AJ Burnett deal. Image thanks to players.piratesprospects.com

River Ave. Blues is reporting that Diego Moreno and Exicardo Cayones.

Exicardo Cayones is a 20 year old OF who had to repeat the GCL after struggling in short season A ball at State College. He apparently has some speed, but it hasn't shown up in the stolen bases. He plays CF and LF, and has shown no power since being signed. He has decent numbers in the GCL, but we have similar aged prospects in our system at his position who are much more impressive. Unless the Yankees scouts know something I don't, getting this prospect is more just some face saving to say we got something in return for AJ. It should be mentioned however that he was a $400,000 signing out of Venezuela. Someone had to think highly of him at some point. As recently as 2010, Cayones was considered a top 20 prospect in the Pirates organization by many. Now he's not even top 30. Repeating the GCL will do that to you. This winter, Cayones hit .370 in 92 at-bats and led the circuit with a .504 on-base percentage in the Venezuelan Winter League.

Diego Moreno, the more interesting of the two, is 25 years old. He is a right handed relief pitcher who throws 95-98 mph with a slider and throws an occasional change up. He has had a good amount of success (~13 k/9 over two levels in 2010 before his suspension, ~9 k/9 last year), up until the AA level, where he has struggled mightily to get batters out. In 2010 he was suspended for kissing a fan in the dugout, and he also suffered a right shoulder strain. Since then, his control has waivered. He was Rule 5 draft eligible this year, and went undrafted.

All in all I would say that we didn't get much in return for AJ. Neither of these guys were in the Pirates top 30 according to baseball america, and neither of them would be in my top 30 for the Yankees quite frankly. Personally, I would still consider getting 1/2 of AJ's contract paid for a success. We replace his production with whoever wins out between Freddy and Phil, and the Yankees get better production while saving $5 million this year, and $8 million next year. The $5 million this year can go towards signing a DH and possibly Chavez. The $8 million next year? Towards resigning Swisher or going after Cole Hamels/Matt Cain etc. Regardless, having 8 million extra dollars lying around never hurt anyone, especially when you already have $52.75 million coming off the books next year.