As for Gardner being arb eligible, he won’t be that expensive for another two years. And maybe he ends up liking it here, maybe he signs an extension that eats into his free agency years. The Royals will have enough payroll to make him a nice offer. They certainly have enough to pay him through arbitration. Then, if he walks as a free agent in 2015, well, five years of a plus defender in center field who can hit and steal bases is still plenty of value.

Yep, the more I think about it, the more I really want this trade to happen.

Kalish and Redick both look like studs in the field with enough plate discipline and power to make nice corner outfielders. Both, they claim could possibly play some center. Lavarnway, the catcher, has an MLB comparison of John Buck, only difference I see is that his OBP is about 120 points higher than batting average, not sure Buck ever did that. The shortstop looks to be a defense wizard, he is young but we have the wunder kid Yuni there for now and maybe you have to sign a one yr. stopgap until he is ready. I pretty sure they view him as their untouchable since they have been having so much trouble with that position on the MLB team and with all the offense they could carry a slouch at SS with the bat.

I know Myer, maybe, and Gordon will be our corners in the rose-colored glasses future, but, surplus is never bad to have. Redick supposedly can handle center very well with a cannon for an arm and he fits into our swing happy mantra.

I would love to see Montero come back in that trade, but the Royals would have to figure out a way to keep him at C or trade Butler this offseason too. Montero’s bat is MLB ready now, but I would like to see what Kila and Butler can do at the 1B/DH spots. A AAA team with Montero, Moustakas, Hosmer, and C.Robinson in the lineup would be pretty sick though.

Gardner is a lot of the things that fans always wanted DeJesus to be: he is fast, he is a plus defender is center, he runs the bases well, he is a threat to steal a base, he is a successful base stealer (85% for his career), and he draws walks. But, Gardner is also 26, he strikes out a lot, he has been relegated to left field by a Yankees organization that seems to consider him a “lesser than” player, he will be arb eligible after next season, and he has only one good season under his belt (though it was his second full season, and it closely tracked his minor league numbers).

Short answer: I like Gardner a lot, and I think, with Dayton Moore looking to get help up the middle, he makes a lot of sense.

Montero’s bat speaks for itself. Probably a DH in the making, but so what, he would probably become the best bat in our minors, and that is saying quite a lot with the talent we have now. Then maybe DM would feel comfortable enough to parlay Butler or Kila or Hosmer or Robinson or whomever into help at anther position.

As for the other parts, I of course like both Manny Banuelos and Austin Romine, who would give us another lefty arm with good upside and a catcher who actually projects to be a ML regular at the position.

This would be a lot for NY to give up, and I don’t see it as realistic, but right now it is my current fantasy haul for Greinke.

Boston acquiring Greinke would be the final dagger in the Yankees’ offseason and it would give them a rotation of Lester/Greinke/Beckett/Lackey/Buchholz to go along with that amazing offense.

The BoSox are still loaded with prospects even after the Gonzalez trade, here are just a fed of the highlights:
SS Julio Iglesias; plus plus defender on same development path as Hosmer
C Ryan Lavarnway; hit 285/395/494 at AA
LHP Felix Doubront; MLB ready, deceptive FB and very good changeup
OF Ryan Kalish; MLB ready corner outfielder
OF Josh Reddick; MLB ready, said to be capable of playing CF
LHP Drake Britton; mid 90′s heat with plus curve
CF Che-Hsuan Lin; plus plus defender

Jacoby Ellsbury could probably be had, but I’m not that big a fan.

Rangers – Profar, Perez, and Beltre would have to be included.
Yankees – Montero, Romine or Sanchez, and Betanunce would have to be included.
Blue Jays – Snider, Drabek, and Laurie would have to be included.
Nationals – Espinosa, Zimmerman would have to be included.

Moore has all the power here, so there is no reason he should have to settle.

I still think it’s Texas who gets him and I am fearful DM takes the wrong guys- there is a trade to be made there but DM will go for toolsy too much

need at least 1 B+ prospect at MI-C CF (or power LF-RF) 1 promising SP (rh preferred) and something else bullpen – SP prospect of lesser promise but upside

I don’t think Yankees will give up Montero – if it is Yankees it would have brett Gardner in it and I’m very yellow-neutral -meh on that- the Yankees need SP themselves so I don’t see a very strong SP prospect coming back