Playing Darrell’s Advocate

Darrell Rasner with some help from the bullpen just pitched a beauty for the Yankees against the Detroit Tigers and it got me thinking about the offseason. As of right now, Rasner looks like he’s really helped his career by learning that cutter in the minors. In fact, he looks like a strong #4-5 big league starter.

Now, knowing what we know now, I’ll pose a question about the rotation. Would you have traded Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy for Johan Santana in the offseason (you knew it was coming)? If that trade had occurred and if Rasner performed well in ST (assuming that he would have learned the cutter already), our current rotation would have been Santana, Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Rasner.

Would you have taken that?

It’s really an unfair question to ask now, in retrospect, but I’m sure Yankee fans are wondering about what could have been while Hughes sits on the DL and Kennedy dominates Triple-A ballclubs. I’m still happy that we didn’t make the trade but if the depth in the Yankee minor league system forces us to rethink that decision, it could become one of those big “what ifs” Yankee fans wonder about for years.