Heading into the trade deadline the Yankees had several needs. After pulling off a relative steal to plug the lefty reliever and righthanded OF bat holes, the remaining areas that needed addressing were the Ponson/Rasner situation and the fact that Jose Molina's 58 OPS+ was in the lineup daily as the starting catcher. The 4th and 5th starters are a fairly complex situation because Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are both throwing in the minors, and should both be able to get back to the Bronx fairly soon. The catcher situation was much more simple: Jose Molina sucks offensively. He's a tremendous defensive catcher, and we can't diminish in any way his contributions to this Yankee team. It is an absolute pleasure to watch him work with the pitchers, frame pitches, gun down runners, and generally control the game while he's behind the plate. These are things we haven't seen from a Yankee catcher in just about a decade. But in the end, his offensive contributions suck. There's no way around it. Jose is an admirable fill-in, but his lack of production becomes a drag over time on a team with championship aspirations.
So the goal is to find a starting catcher. The goal is not to find a hidden gem who could possibly be used as a starter, as there are about 50 games left in the season, and there is no time to see if something "might work." Surveying the pool of ML catchers, there are currently 12 starters with OPS+ numbers in excess of 100, or in other words, league average. Here is the list, along with their ages:
Brian
McCann, 25 years old, 144 OPS+
Ryan
Doumit, 27 years old, 144 OPS+
Joe
Mauer, 25 years old, 137 OPS+
Gerlad
Laird, 28 years old, 121 OPS+
Geovany
Soto, 25 years old, 117 OPS+
Russell
Martin, 25 years old, 113 OPS+
Dioner
Navarro, 24 years old, 113 OPS+
Kurt
Suzuki, 24 years old, 108 OPS+
Kelly
Shoppach, 28 years old, 106 OPS+
Jesus
Flores, 23 years old, 102 OPS+
Chris
Snyder, 27 years old, 101 OPS+
Ivan
Rodriguez, 36 years old, 101 OPS+
This all of a sudden becomes very simple, no? While the Yankees have built up their farm system dramatically under Ca$hmoney, they're still waiting for the talent to fully saturate at the upper levels. The few pieces that have made the ascension to the majors, but have not established themselves due to injury (Hughes and Kennedy) are currently close to coming back, but at an all-time low in value. Trading them now would not only be selling low, but depriving the team of their potential contributions when they are back in pinstripes. If the Yankees were interested in acquiring almost any of the guys (except for Rodriguez) on that list, including Gerald Laird, the minimum price would be Ian Kennedy. Young, cost-controlled catching that is proven at the ML level is one of the hottest commodities in the sport.
Ivan Rodriguez solves every single problem the Yankees have from a catching standpoint. The key point to understanding this deal is to ignore the name "Ivan Rodriguez," because that can cloud even the most objective viewpoints. The Yankees have acquired a proven starting catcher who has a league average bat (which means he's above average for a catcher), still plays very good defense, and was a minimal cost. The fact that it was a straight up deal for Farnsworth is spectacular. We're not ignorant to Farnsworth's contributions to the team this year. He's gotten big outs and pitched well on the whole, however the bullpen was a legitimate point of strength for the Bombers. It's because of Brian Cashman's elegance with the media that he described the deal as "robbing Peter to pay Paul," but the truth of the matter here is that the Yankees have a littany of options in the minors, as well as Edwar, Veras, Marte, and Robertson all having great H/9 and K/9. Removing Farnsworth from the equation is neither dramatic or foolish.
For anyone that is wondering, Rodriguez is a very good bet to be a Type-A free agent this offseason. Yes, we understand there is a complicated system that is used by Elias to determine these rankings, and in looking at their lists from last offseason he is sitting very pretty for Type-A status this year. Whether or not that will even be an issue is another matter, as it remains to be seen if offering Rodriguez arbitration in the first place may not be a risk the Yankees are willing to take. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, though. The bigger picture here is that the Yankees addressed their desperate need for a starting catcher, and did so without damaging the 25-man roster significantly OR losing the futures of any young players. The upgrade offensively from Molina to Pudge is massive, while defensively they are both well above average. Great move by Ca$hmoney, but just make sure Pudge knows that Mariano is a hand-shaker after games, and to keep his lips to himself.