Yankees trade for left-hander Andrew Heaney at the deadline

Rumors have swirled around the Yankees on deadline day, putting Luke Voit’s status with the team into question, and linking the club to Jose Berrios. However, as the hours slipped by, it seemed as though nothing would come to fruition for the Bombers ahead of the 4 pm EST deadline. Not so, as just before the buzzer sounded, the Yankees traded for Angels pitcher Andrew Heaney, in exchange for minor league pitchers Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero.

Heaney doesn’t represent quite the coup that many fans surely hoped for, not when players like Berrios, Max Scherzer, and Craig Kimbrel came off the board. The 30-year-old left-hander has had an inconsistent career, struggling with injuries at times and never fully making good on his once shiny prospect pedigree.

For the season, Heaney owns an unsightly 5.27 ERA, though it’s belied by a 4.05 FIP and an attractive 10.8 K.9 rate. Those peripherals, and Heaney’s interesting stuff, are likely what the Yankees are betting on. Though his fastball sits just around 92 mph, Statcast rates his fastball spin in the 89th percentile, and he’s always excelled at inducing chases from opposing batters.

In all, this is an underwhelming, if necessary, deadline deal. It behooved the Yankees to bring someone in to aid a pitching staff that’s had its recent ups and downs. Well, they got someone, and it appears that someone is a backend starter. It’s more than nothing, though, and it caps off what was an aggressive, buying deadline for New York.

What do you think? Did the Yankees needed to do more? Let us know in the comments below.