The back page of today’s New York Post has the headline “Phil Speed Ahead” and the subhead, “Yanks willing to deal Hughes; move to lead in Johan derby.” There’s a big picture of Phil Hughes. The story, also reported by the New York Daily News, La Velle and other media outlets, is here.

To some Yankee fans, the thought of trading Hughes for anyone is absurd. Check out the website Save Phil Hughes. The latest headline reads, “If this trade is consummated it will haunt the Yankees for generations.”

Minnesota’s own Aaron Gleeman wrote this about Hughes this week:

Hughes’ minor-league track record is nearly flawless and the former first-round pick has overpowering stuff, which the Rangers experienced first-hand when he no-hit them for six-plus innings before leaving his second career start with a hamstring injury. Short of cloning Francisco Liriano or convincing the Mariners to part with Felix Hernandez, Hughes represents the best chance the Twins have of replacing Santana with an early-20s pitcher capable of being a true No. 1 starter.

Even if the Yankees offer Hughes, Melky Cabrera and another prospect, the Twins might push them to add Ian Kennedy, and that (Hughes and Kennedy) would be a deal breaker, the Yankees insist. Another deal breaker, of course, could be Johan’s contract negotiation, but it’s hard to imagine the Steinbrenners letting it reach that point and not getting it done.

Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 8:21 am and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.