Yankees Acquire Eric Hinske

From MLB Trade Rumors:

Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Yankees acquired Eric Hinske from the Pirates for two minor leaguers, Eric Freyer and Casey Erickson. ESPN.com's Amy Nelson says the Yankees are also sending the Pirates cash.


Hinske is a nice utility man. He plays corner infield and corner outfield. For the Pirates this season, he hit .255 with a .373 OBP.

This is an excellent move by the Yankees. They need another 1st baseman other than Teixeira and Swisher, and he adds another versatile body to the bench.

The success of this deal depends on is who is sent down. The bench right now looks like Ramiro Pena, Francisco Cervelli, Brett Gardner and Cody Ransom. Every one of those players are performing very well except for Ransom, who hasn't had many opportunities. But don't be surprised if Ransom is gone by the end of the day.

The other, scarier reason the Yankees could have done this is to add veteran depth at 3rd base in anticipation of Alex Rodriguez going down. That could either be for a day off or for longer. A-Rod seems to be wincing in pain while playing the field, even though he is still making all the plays.

The Yankees may know something...


UPDATE: Joel Sherman of the NY Post has a list of reasons why Hinske was brought in.

2. They are planning to send down Pena later today. They want Pena to continue to develop as a prospect and get more at-bats. But they also want Pena to also start playing some outfield and see if he can be used in the near future as a super-sub around the diamond, much like Atlanta uses Omar Infante.


Pena has been very solid this year filling in for two Hall of Fame players. Sending him down now may be a mistake. During his entire time with the Yanks, he hasn't fallen off a cliff like Cody Ransom, which is impressive for a 23-year old. But it's good if they're teaching him outfield. You don't want him to end upo like Daniel Murphy with absolutely no place to play.

3. Hinske was a member of the champion Red Sox in 2007 and the AL champion Rays last year, so he is familiar with playing high level games in the AL East.

4. The Yanks only agreed to do it if the Pirates ate $400,000 of the approximately $800,000 left on Hinske's contract.

8. If the Yanks did not obtain Hinske, they were going to send down Pena anyway and summon Shelley Duncan to try to provide some off-the-bench punch.


Well, I guess it was a good thing they got Hinske then.


--Max Caster