How about Ruiz and Markakis to the Yankees for Judge and McCann. Sign Prado to play third.
I've been thinking about this. During George Stienbrenner's day, the Yankees would just spend until they got their team turned around. But, he's gone and they seem much more financially aware.
Nearly their entire team is ancient and approaching their baseball end of life, so from that aspect I think they would be reluctant to part with prospects. OTOH, their payroll is clearing and they will always need to be one of the highest payroll teams in baseball to keep the spotlight in NY. So, what I think they will do is try to shed contracts either through trade or through end of life, and add a lot of FA talent over the next two years as they go, plus supplement from their minors. I think they will be big players for Strasbourg, especially with Sabathia coming off their books. Outside of third base, their IF looks pretty decent long term. The one big albatross contract they have is Ellsbury.
I might float a concept along the lines of AJ, Adonis Garcia and Olivera for Ellsbury (Yanks pay half his contract including buyout), McCann, Headley, and OF Judge, 3B Miguel Andujar and OF Leonardo Molina.
Why would the Yanks do it? They get rid of most of their bad contracts that go beyond 2016. They open the way for Sanchez to catch on an everyday basis but get a catcher in return that can fill in this year. They also get a serviceable 3B to carry them until FA 2017 if they wish. They give up only one of their top ten prospects in Judge. But the big reason is that they move the money and line up for FA.
Why would the Braves do it? They get a power OF for RF that will cost very little over the next 4 years. Judge allows them to move Markakis and his money and hopefully bring back something useful. They add a highly paid but underperforming CF who might bounce back, might not. He may need a change of scenery. But, even if he performs no better moving forward, the Braves would be taking him on at about $10M per year, giving up Olivera at about $4M per year and adding Judge at ML minimum. The Braves might be able to then pay half of Ellsbury contract, equivalent to $25M total which is close to what they are on the hook for with Olivera, and trade him to a team that needs a LO CF as a $5M per year player. McCann becomes the LH hitting veteran (LH yin to Flowers yang) who mentors the young pitching over the next few years and comes off the books just as some of the young talent starts making real money. Headley is a change of scenery guy for the Braves who "probably" regains enough form to become at least as good as potential FA stop-gap 3B guys like Freese and Prado.
Essentially the Braves are buying Judge and the two young guys by their willingness to take on some bad Yankee contracts.
It only works if the Braves are not done in moving players. For instance, if the above were done you would have Inciarte, Ellsbury and M Smith all playing the same position. IMO, you would trade Inciarte who is the most valuable and hope to build enough value where you could move Ellsbury at some point and play M Smith there moving forward. You would have Judge and Markakis for RF. Markakis would need to go, even if Judge isn't 100% ready, and play Frenchy there until Judge is ready.
