Yankees top prospect Luis Severino to make next start in majors

“Not close”, he said.

Dustin Ackley was in the original lineup for today’s series opener with the Twins. “I’ve got some teammates and friends here that I’ll have for the rest of my life, and you can’t trade that for anything”.

Yes, whether the direction was dictated by Hal Steinbrenner’s desire to lower the payroll or GM Brian Cashman’s firm belief in his top prospects, Yankee brass is taking a huge gamble by turning to its farm system rather than proven All-Stars for help.

With the trade deadline less than 24 hours away, the AL East leaders acquired outfielder/infielder Dustin Ackley from the Seattle Mariners on Thursday for outfielder Ramon Flores and reliever Jose Ramirez. The right-hander made his major league debut in 2014, finishing 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in 8 appearances. The exact date hasn’t been announced yet, but Hoch surmises it could be August 4 at home against the Red Sox.

Instead the Yankees wound up without any pitchers aand a staff that could have used a boost after Michael Pineda was placed on the disabled list earlier this week. They’re young controllable guys.

Right-handers Bryan Mitchell and Diego Moreno are prime examples.

Adding some versatility for the stretch run is good, but what the Yankees really need is an ace.

Severino, the jewel of that prospect quartet, is headed to the big leagues. That’s why Cashman took such a hard stance against trading him or any of his other minor-league jewels. Listen, you don’t get anything for making the phone calls. But swing changes, a switch to the outfield and slow starts set back his past three seasons. It’s just if we can find the right match that makes sense in our world, ” Cashman said. They are sure to make the big free agent acquisition, or even make the trade they decided against for now, this winter.

Severino, 21, posted a 3.32 ERA over 38.0 inning before the Yankees opted to promote him to Triple-A. Girardi said there was no timetable for Sabathia’s return to baseball activities.

He’s allowed 2 ER or less in 15 of his 19 starts. I think it was Wednesday night, so I’m curious. We’ll augment the roster with a lot of these power arms that we have in the system. And what I saw in spring training… there was no fear there.

It’s a similar to the way Cashman approached the trade deadline.

If a pennant race is a zero-sum game-among contenders, when one is rising another must be falling-then the Yankees can only be said to have lost this week. We still look forward to these guys hopefully contributing to us.

The flashes we’ve seen of the “old” (hoped-for?) Ackley fade by the time anyone’s analyzed what he was doing. “Try to help us any way I can”.

Girardi summed it up a different way.