Finding Fuentes

From Ed Price:

Colorado lefty reliever Brian Fuentes has drawn interest from the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, among other teams, according to an official from another American League team. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not directly involved, said the Rockies have scouted the Yankees system; one player of interest could be Double-A reliever Mark Melancon.

The Yankees have used just two left-handed relievers this year, Billy Traber and Kei Igawa. Lefties were hitting .318 against Traber going into tonight’s game, and Igawa is back in the minors.

Fuentes has held lefties to a .217 average in his career, including a .200 mark this year, and has not allowed a homer to a lefty since 2006.

I’m a big Brian Fuentes fan (the stats at the end of Price’s post say it all), but I doubt the Yankees would ship Mark Melancon to Colorado for Fuentes. Melancon is a highly regarded prospect that could be a future closer for the team. The Yankees are in a good place right now as their bullpen has really come through for them. They don’t necessarily need Fuentes at this point, especially with Farnsworth having a respectable year, so Melancon is probably safe in the system. However, I do believe that they’ll still go after him (you can never have too many strong BP arms), but for a lesser package or player.