Yankees Minor League Note: Corey Black Going to Cubs in Alfonso Soriano Trade

The Yankees filled a need for some right-handed pop by acquiring Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs in exchange for Corey Black, who was ranked #20 in my mid-season top prospects list.

Black can be likened to a lottery ticket.   The smallish (5'11") 21-year old right-hander with the big arm (consistently hits the mid-90s and has dialed it up to triple digits) was pitching in High-A Tampa, where he currently has a 3-8 record with a 4.25 (3.01 FIP) ERA in 19 starts.   As you would expect with a pitcher with his kind of deceptive power, he has a strong strikeout rate (9.6/9 this year; 9.2 over his career), but also has struggled with his control and command (4.0 BB/9 in his minor league career).  Many scouts project him as a future reliever, but there are also those who feel he has the real upside of a pitcher like Roy Oswalt.    In all likelihood, the scouts within the Yankees organization lean towards the former.     His fastball/curve combination has the potential to be devastating in a major league bullpen, but to reach his full potential as a starter, his changeup will need a lot of development and he will need to improve his stamina, which may not be easy given his frame.

If the Cubs were to convert Black into a reliever, he could move extremely quickly into a big league bullpen.  This is not a current area of need for the Yankees, however, and I suspect the Yankees would have continued to try him as a starter until he showed them he truly couldn't do it anymore.

This is the type of trade a rebuilding team like the Cubs have to make every chance they get.  Black is not just a throwaway like the Angels received for Vernon Wells.  He has a legitimate chance to make it to the major leagues.  Soriano was not going to help them in any way get to where they need to be.

For the Yankees, it is always a gamble when you give up a good arm for a player like Soriano.  However, they do need the right-handed power in their lineup, and Soriano provides that.  He is an upgrade over Vernon Wells (1.1 WAR vs. Wells' 0.1), though the likelihood is that both Soriano and Wells will be featured prominently in the lineup, especially against left-handed pitchers.   He does not put the Yankees over the top, but it can't be denied that he is an offensive upgrade on a team that needs it desperately.