Melky traded to Braves for Vasquez.

[D. Bergin]

Javy has always confounded me. I was excited when the Yankees first got him back in 2004.

By rights he should have been a front line elite ace for whatever team he's been on throughout his career. He's just real inconsistent. He'll look like an ace for stretches and out of nowhere regress into a 4th or 5th type starter for other long stretches.

He's also a season to season question mark. He had a good year last year, so based on his track record he's probably due for an off-season this year.........especially moving to the American League.

Hopefully he can stay healthy, eat up some innings, win 15 games or so for the Yanks and stabilize the back-end of the rotation.

Offensively Melky can easily be replaced. Defensively, that's another matter. I think the Yankees felt the need to try and match the Red Sox signing of John Lackey and it was a chance they were willing to take.