According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees are “one of a dozen teams” looking to add starting pitching at the trade deadline. Heyman cites a source from a rival team, so take this for what it’s worth. That said, pretty much every team wants to add rotation help at the deadline, so this isn’t far-fetched. It certainly passes the sniff test.

Right now the Yankees have one reliable starter (Masahiro Tanaka), one really good starter who might be in for some home run rate regression (CC Sabathia), two frustrating starters (Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Pineda), and one Ivan Nova. Luis Severino is in Triple-A working on things and both Chad Green, who will make a spot start today, and Luis Cessa are available for depth.

Adding a starter doesn’t have to be about buying for this season. All five pitchers in New York’s current rotation can become free agents at some point in the next two years. The Yankees reportedly prioritized young controllable starters in offseason trade talks about Andrew Miller and Brett Gardner, and I doubt anything has changed. They still want someone to build their rotation around going forward.

The upcoming free agent class is very light on pitching, so expect the trade market to be active over the next eight months or so. It’s going to be a seller’s market and that’s bad for the Yankees. Prices will be high. That’s definitely one of the reasons why they traded a setup reliever (Justin Wilson) for two Triple-A starters (Cessa, Green) over the winter. It was a cheap way to add rotation depth now and for the future.

Which teams could look to capitalize on the seller’s market and trade a starter(s)? The Rays, Braves, and Padres immediately jump to mind as last place clubs with some spare arms. Contenders like the Indians, Mets, and Nationals could also look to take advantage of the market by trading one of their extra arms for big time help elsewhere. We’ve seen a lot of big league for big leaguer trades in recent years. Nothing would surprise me.