Andy Pettitte is gone. And it’s always the same after a breakup. The spurned one goes cruising for randoms: Rosenthal reports that people in the Yankees front office are discussing Joe Saunders, Scott Kazmir, Wade LeBlanc, Clayton Richard and Gio Gonzalez.
It’s less a shopping list than a brainstorming session, it seems. But it certainly doesn’t seem like the case that the Yankees are content to simply stand pat on the rotation. As we discussed yesterday, depth is a concern. Any of those guys -- to the extent they’re actually available anyway -- are good depth options.
The real issue right now is timing. We’re at the point of the offseason where most teams have talked themselves into liking their roster. Or at least they’ve talked their season ticket holders into liking it. Thus there are few teams who are really going to want to give up a serviceable starting pitcher. Unless it’s an overpay or the assumption of a truly odious contract -- which I don’t think the Yankees are willing to do just yet -- teams will tend to wait for their seasons to go a little bit sideways before making trades. As such, this is all so much spitballin’ at the moment.