According to Jon Heyman, the deal is pretty much done. Last I heard, the Yankees are giving up No. 2 prospect Austin Jackson, lefty reliever Phil Coke, and Ian Kennedy for the all-star center fielder. The Arizona Diamondbacks will be giving up Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth and receiving Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson. The Tigers will get Scherzer, Schlereth, Jackson, and Coke in the deal.

Curtis Granderson had somewhat of a down year in 2009, posting a wOBA of .340 compared to his career mark of .358, but he plays a good center field and should be able to rebound. The short porch in left field should allow him to improve his power numbers and a rebound on batted balls in play should make his overall hitting like look quite a bit better.

In 2009, he hit only .276 on balls in play. Due to his speed, he has been able to maintain an above average mark of .323 for his career. Even though he hit markedly more fly balls in '09, it is unlikely that he posts a BABIP as low as .276 in the upcoming seasons.

Granderson's biggest problem is his struggle versus left handed pitching. For his career, he has a weak .614 OPS versus lefties and an .894 OPS against righties. It will be interesting to see how the Yankees play him with these platoon splits, but there is no doubt he is a very valuable piece. He's owed around $25 million over the next three seasons, a bargain for a player of Granderson's caliber.

In exchange, the Yankees did give up some very good pieces. Austin Jackson has been a top prospect for a few seasons now, but I think his value decreased in 2009. He managed to hit .300 in AAA, but didn't show much power and strikes out quite a bit. Right now, it's unlikely that his skill set would transition well to a major league roster, but he definitely has room to improve.

The most likely outcome for Austin Jackson at this point is a league average center fielder. The Yankees already have two players in Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner who can fill that role, so that made Jackson expendable.

I expected Ian Kennedy to play a significant role with the Yankees in 2010, pitching out of the bullpen and making some starts. He seems to have recovered strongly and put together a very nice string of starts in the Arizona Fall League. His trade value may have improved after the 2010 season, but he's another guy who has limited upside, so he's not the type of player the Yankees should hesitate to move in the right trade.

The third piece that the Yankees gave up was a reliever for the entire 2009 season, Phil Coke. In 2008, it looked like he was going to develop into a very good reliever, but his propensity for giving up the longball severely limits how useful he is as a reliever. Again, Coke is an okay piece, but really not someone you need to hold onto.

I absolutely love this trade. The Yankees gave up two useful pieces and a prospect with upside and managed to get an all-star center fielder in return. Curtis Granderson is known as one of the best people in baseball, and adding that to the clubhouse can never hurt. Look for Granderson to rebound in 2010 and thrive in pinstripes. This trade is a huge win for the Yanks and makes them an even more dangerous team than they were yesterday.

Edit by Sean

I agree with Greg that the Curtis Granderson deal is a win for the Yankees. It’s hard to part with Austin Jackson after so many years of dreaming on his possible upside but the Yankees made the absolute right decision once factoring in his most likely future potential and ultimate utility to this team. As has been said in many other places, a win today is always worth more than a win tomorrow, and that's exactly what this is. A few of my own thoughts:

- Granderson now gives the Yankees OF a pretty bad split against lefties as a whole. Swisher (who surprisingly does well against lefties, minus SLG%) might be the exception but now we have Melky/Gardner, Granderson and potentially Damon who all hit worse against lefties. The Yankees might use that Rule 5 pick from the Nationals to get some right handed outfielder with some amount of upside to back up the Yankees in the OF this year. It certainly bears watching.

- I think this move makes the Halladay trade especially unlikely. This is the first time since Cashman has really taken the reigns of this team that he’s traded a very well regarded prospect for an established player (2006 or so). I would be incredulous to find then that he would then be willing to part with Montero (who would definitely need to be included in the deal) for Halladay. Again, I think if Montero is to be used as a part of some trade, let it be for something the Yankees will actually need rather than something they’d like to have. Lot’s of interesting decisions/questions coming up for the Yankees in the next few years, the paramount one being where are we going at catcher post-Posada?

- Again, I totally agree with Greg that Jacksons upside is probably exactly what Granderson will be right now. As much as Greg and myself value Brett Gardner as a league average centerfielder I’m not sure the Yankees see him the same way. I think the bar is set a little higher for the Yankees in terms of what they call average (no secret there) and I think defensive value for them will never be as important as offensive, due to a million factors (I am not personally agreeing with that). The difference between Austin Jackson and Melky Cabrera then in my mind is that Austin Jackson has the potential to grow into something more. Melky is averg-ish. But again, a win today is worth more than a win tomorrow.

- I’m also really looking forward to all the national prognosticators and scouts starting to talk about what good prospects Jackson and Ian Kennedy are, now that they’ve left the Yankee farm system. National media just loves them some Yankee hate.

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