Would You Trade David Phelps?

(Courtesy of the AP)

As the ups and downs of Spring Training continue to play out across MLB, it looks more and more like the Yankees are going to make a trade at some point.  Their needs are obvious and they've been connected to multiple teams by multiple different reports.  By now, it's more a question of "when" than "if" and the more important question than that could actually be the "who", as in who the Yankees are most likely to give up in a deal.

Their most attractive piece right now is probably David Phelps.  He's fresh off his best ST outing of the year (a 5-inning, 3-hit, no-run performance on Sunday), he's a lock to make the roster as either a starter or reliever, and the general feeling is that he still has room to reach his ceiling in either role.  There's a lot to like about Phelps.  He's only 27, he's shown flashes of brilliance in both roles while displaying the flexibility to move from one to other relatively seamlessly, he's been worth almost 2 total fWAR in 2 partial seasons, and in his second pre-arbitration year he's under team control through 2018.

Selfishly as a Yankee fan, I wouldn't be keen on the idea of trading Phelps for someone like Didi Gregorius.  But if the Mariners were willing to talk about Nick Franklin (we already know they're keeping tabs on Phelps), I'd be very open to that and I have to think Cash would be as well.  That's not a deal that's going to happen straight up, but Phelps + somebody for Franklin is still a solid move to make from the Yankees' side.  They've shown no interest in dangling Phelps, so a deal looks like a longshot right now.  If something happens to Brian Roberts though, that could change quickly.