The New York Yankees are reportedly in the market for relievers, mainly relievers from the San Diego Padres, according to Jon Mororsi of Fox sports.
#Yankees a possible landing spot for Tyler Clippard, according to @susanslusser. Yankees also have been scouting #Padres relievers.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 27, 2015
The Yankees have a relatively strong bullpen already, as their bullpen is averaging a 2.45 ERA so far this season, but they are always looking for improvements, and the Padres' relievers make sense for pursuit, as they have two guys in Craig Kimbrel and Joaquin Benoit who have been heavily rumored to be on the trade block. Kimbrel's contract is not very team friendly, as he is owed $4 million the rest of this year, and $11 million next year. Benoit, on the other hand, is owed around $4 million the rest of the year, but also has a team option for next year which would be worth $1.5 million.
The Padres are also looking to dump salary, as their opening day payroll was $17 million more then their 2014 total. Trading Benoit or Kimbrel, or someone like James Shields would be a huge help to lower their salary cap. If the sole motivation is to dump salary, then Shields would be the most likely candidate to go, as his contract is backloaded with money.
MLB Trade Rumors reported tonight that the Padres are "pushing hard" to move big name players, not unlike what GM A.J. Preller did last offseason, and this year with going through three managers in a week. The Padres are also struggling mightily, as they are 8.5 games out of first place in the National League West, and 7.5 games out of the wild card hunt. This makes them perfect candidates to be sellers, and potentially dump a lot of salary, which the Yankees would be more then welcome to pick up.