Brian McCann shouldn’t still be in New York

Make no mistake; Brian McCann is still a useful player. But it’s past the trade deadline, and he shouldn’t still be in New York.

Let’s start with who he is as a player. He’s no longer the stud that played for the Atlanta Braves for all of those years, but he still provides league-average production on offense. (Don’t forget, league-average offense is just fine from a starter; it’s awesome from a catcher.) The metrics still like his framing ability and overall defense too. Overall, he’s valued at about two wins so far this season, and a full-season pace of three wins is pretty good from your catcher. How good is it? He’s 10th out of all MLB catchers in WARP; he’s 10th in TAv (min. 200 PA) as well. So by a literal definition, ignoring contracts and other factors, McCann would represent an upgrade at catcher for 20 out of the 29 other MLB teams.

So then why wasn’t he moved at the deadline? There are two possible explanations:

1) He wasn’t desirable to other teams.

On one hand, this makes some level of sense. He’s owed $17 million a year through 2018, and he has an easily-vesting option in 2019 for $15 million. He’s already 32 and will be 35 by 2019. To put that in perspective, A.J. Pierzynski is the only starting catcher in the MLB that’s age 35 or older. Brian McCann also has more MLB miles on his legs than the average 32 year-old catcher. Even though he’s been productive throughout this contract, because he’s making $17 million, he’s probably worth his salary, but without much (or any) surplus value. Also, even if he’s “worth it”, many teams just can’t afford to absorb a $17 million salary into their payroll at the deadline. It’s possible that he wasn’t a fit for many teams.

2) The Yankees were asking too much in return.

This was referenced in a Mark Bowman tweet about a possible McCann deal with the Braves. It said the Braves weren’t willing to trade major prospects or assume McCann’s entire contract. However, this is the only mention I heard about the Yankees trying to move him at all. They could have shopped him covertly, but there’s a good chance that the Yankees just weren’t particularly keen on moving him.

From the Yankees’ perspective, they are justified in asking for a decent return for McCann, especially if they eat some money. He is a solid player earning his salary, and the Yankees are ideally trying to contend next season. On the surface, it seems as though there should be no impetus to move him.

However, there are much stronger counterarguments to both of those points:

1) A limited number of interested teams is not the same thing as limited interest.

Yeah, so there probably weren’t many teams that were good fits for McCann. It had to be a contender, and they had to have a major hole at catcher. Catcher is a very important position, and most teams are contending because they have a good catcher. However, that isn’t true for all teams. The Rangers acquired Jonathan Lucroy, and they could’ve used McCann instead. The Indians definitely could’ve used him; their catching has been a black hole all season, and Yan Gomes is on the shelf for the foreseeable future. The Mariners probably could’ve fit McCann, as well, and the same goes for the Astros.

I’m pretty confident that the Yankees could have found multiple takers for McCann if they shopped him.

2) A strong return for McCann is the third priority in trading him away.

Priority No. 2 is to rid the future payroll of his contract obligations. McCann may be fine now, but he probably won’t be fine when he’s making $17 million as a 34 year-old. Some teams may have requested the Yankees to eat some money, but then this would be a give-and-take with priority #3. More eaten money means better players in return.

Priority No. 1, however, is to make room for Gary Sanchez. Coming up through the minors, Sanchez’s strongest point in his favor (besides, you know, that he was good) was that he was always extremely young for his competition. However, that no longer applies, as he will turn 24 in December. He’s not old by any stretch of the imagination, especially for a catcher, but he’s had more than enough time to develop in the minor leagues. If the Yankees see him at all as a potential solution in a starting role, then they have to actually begin to start him at some point. Assuming that the Yankees have plans for contention in 2017, that makes this year’s developmental playing time at the major-league level very valuable and increasingly scarce. Sanchez has nothing left to prove in the minors, as he’s currently producing his second .800+ OPS campaign at Triple-A in as many years.

Right now, with McCann still here, it doesn’t look like Sanchez will get a crack at the starting job anytime soon. It makes no sense for the Yankees to prioritize McCann’s future over Sanchez’s, especially with the Yankees’ minuscule playoff odds this season. As it currently stands, I don’t see an obvious way to a bright future for Sanchez in the Bronx.

However, there is still hope. Because of the limited number of fits and the hefty salary mentioned earlier, McCann is the type of player that could easily clear revocable waivers in August and still be traded. Or, because his market is limited anyways, the Yankees could always just work out a deal with any team that claims him without fear of losing too much leverage.

At the end of the day, none of us were in the front office conversations today (unless you were). None of us know exactly what talks took place with which teams. There’s a chance that the Yankees tried desperately to move him and were met with teams that would neither give up any type of value back nor assume a reasonable portion of his remaining contract. However, from where I stand, it certainly appeared that moving McCann wasn’t a priority for the Yankees, and it’s a problem that still has time to be rectified. We want Gary Sanchez, Mr. Cashman.

Photo: Kim Klement / USA Today Sports