Chad Jennings of the Journal News joined me on last night’s show. He believes we could expect a couple of small moves from the Yankees before spring training, i.e. signing someone like Justin Duchscherer and an Andruw Jones to be the fourth outfielder/designated hitter. Although the odds of the Yankees making a major deal are slim, Ben Shpigel of the NY Times brought up an interesting starting pitching name over the weekend that could potentially become available: Wandy Rodriguez.

There were rumors that Houston was looking to deal Rodriguez at the trading deadline. The 32 year old lefty is arbitration eligible and due a raise from his 2010 salary of $5 million dollars. He is also a free agent at the end of the year, and considering how much money has been thrown at pitchers this winter, you could expect him to earn somewhere in the 4 year/$40 million dollar vicinity. With Houston for sale I don’t expect them to be major players in the free agent market in the near future.

Rodriguez is similar to Fausto Carmona in that he provides innings, but walks a good amount of batters as well. The difference is Rodriguez can strikeout batters at a high level (7.7 per nine for his career), giving me optimism about a possible transition to the American League. If he played for a good team, like the Yankees, I could see him easily winning 15+ games. This is a pitcher with top of the rotation potential, that would settle in nice in the four hole for the Yankees.

Despite the potential of Chamberlain, his value has never been lower. However, he is team controlled for another three years and wouldn’t cost nearly as much as Rodriguez. If the Yankees have an opportunity to acquire Rodriguez, I would certainly package Chamberlain in that deal. Houston is the kind of team that would like the potential of Chamberlain, due to the savings he provides over the next three years.

Next year’s free agent class isn’t going to be full of ace starting pitchers, and it’s conceivable that Rodriguez would be one of the more sought after arms. He is more polished than any of the kids at Triple-A, and better than Sergio Mitre.

I am all for the Yankees acquire a young pitcher a team is willing to dump because of salary. Fausto Carmona was one name I mentioned, and I would add Wandy Rodriguez to the list.

Listen to Chad Jennings talk Yankees baseball with me last night by downloading the replay of the show here.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

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Tags: Houston Astros, Joba Chamberlain, New York Yankees, Wandy Rodriguez