MLB Trade Rumors: The New York Yankees have interest in Texas Rangers starting pitcher Mike Minor despite the fact the Yankees are on Minor’s no-trade list, according to Ken Rosenthal. Rosenthal says that the Yankees’ “top evaluator,” Tim Naehring, was at the last two starts Minor has made, as the Bronx Bombers continue to scour the starting pitching market.

Minor has a 10 team no-trade list, and while the Yankees are the only team on that list that has been reported, there’s a good chance that Minor included teams expected to be contenders on the list. This strategy is increasingly used by players and agents in an effort to make it harder for a player to be dealt without his permission to the teams most likely to be interested in a player, therefore giving the player more control over where he ends up, or providing leverage to extract financial concessions as part of the deal.

(And before anyone complains that teams shouldn’t give out no-trade clauses, if I’m a player and signing a multi-year deal, especially as a free agent, I’m probably going to insist on having some control over where the club I’m choosing to play for can send me.)

Deivi Garcia, a tiny 20 year old righthanded pitcher who has shot up from high-A to AAA this season, is reportedly being made available by the Yankees, and Clint Frazier, the outfielder/DH who has bounced up and down between AAA and the majors this year, would also seem to be expendable. Whether the Yankees would give up one or both of those guys in a deal for Minor, and what sort of additional pieces the Rangers would want in a deal headlined by one of those guys, remains to be seen.