I don’t doubt the Yankees need another starting pitcher and another relief pitcher. Trouble is, whether making such deals makes any sense depends on what’s available. I’m thinking that right now, either there aren’t any players being shopped around who are upgrades on internal options, or the available upgrades have too high a price tag.

There’s also the cat-mouse element. At the moment, it appears the Yankees are probably a bit better team than both the Rays and Boston. If Boston made a big move significantly upgrading their team, the Yankees might be more pressured to gamble on something like, say, a big prospect/trade package for Lee or Halladay.

I’m not talking about pulling Hughes from the pen and replacing him with nothing, I’m talking about trading for a Danys Baez or a Mike Wuertz to replace Hughes seamlessly so that we can put him in the rotation WITHOUT weakening the pen.

Trade for a reliever and you kill two birds with one stone.