The New York Yankees have acquired San Diego Padres third baseman Chase Headley and $1 million in exchange for infielder Yangervis Solarte and minor league pitcher Rafael De Paula. The deal was first reported to being close by Jack Curry of YES Network and was confirmed by Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
The Yankees will be getting Headley as a short-term rental, as he is supposed to be a free-agent at the end of this season. The deal was made by New York to get some more power out of their hot corner position. This is big news for the Yankees, who are currently sitting four games back of the division-leading Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. As I said before, this is extremely important to the offense that was in despeate need of help. They rank thirteenth in the American League with only 391 runs scored on the season, which is only ahead of the Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros.
So far this season, it has been very rough for Chase Headley. He is just hitting .229/.296/.355 with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in. He has played incredible defense so far, as he has a UZR/150 of +19.7 and Defensive Runs Saved of +7. Headley is earning $10.535 million this season, where he is still due to be paid $3.97 million. Yankees third basemen are only hitting .245/.323/.391 with 14 home runs, but much was due to the hot streak for Solarte early on this season.
Yangervis Solarte, 27, started off the season hot, as I had just mentioned. In 75 games this season, he has hit .254/.337/.381 with six home runs, while driving in 31 runs.
The other piece to the deal, Rafael De Paula, has pitched the entire 2014 season with the Yankees Advance-A squad in Tampa. In Tampa, De Paula posted a 6-5 record with a 4.15 ERA in 17 starts.
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