The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees have a tentative deal to send Phillies right fiedler Bobby Abreu and pitcher Cory Lidle to New York ESPN.com's Jayson Stark and ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reported Sunday.
Stark reported the Yankees will send 20-year-old minor-league shrotstop C.J. Henry -- their No. 1 pick in 2005 -- and 27-year-old left-handed reliever Matt Smith. The Phillies will also pick one other minor-leauge player from an agreed-upon list, while the Yankees will take on responsibility for Abreu and Lidle's contracts. Abreu is owed $15 million for 2007 alone.
Abreu is hitting .277 with 8 home runs and 65 RBI in 99 games. He has a career batting average of .301 with 198 home runs and 841 RBI over 10 seasons.
Lidle, a right-hander, is 8-7 with a 4.74 ERA in 21 starts in 2006. In eight seasons he has a career mark of 78-69 with a 4.54 ERA.
I'm no big Lidle fan, but his numbers are a bit better than Lieber's and....Ponson. I liked Matt Smith, I think he has a future in the bigs. Listening to Torre on WFAN, he said that he wanted a bat more than pitching so I figured this was the way the Yanks were headed. Now, let's hope Soriano and Tejada go to the National league. It'll be interesting to see what Boston does.