Revisiting the Curtis Granderson for Austin Jackson Trade

Let’s take a look at one of the components of a major blockbuster trade that happened last offseason: Curtis Granderson for Austin Jackson and Phil Coke. They also gave Ian Kennedy to the D-Backs. Anyway, Curtis has played at a level that was less than the one the Yankees thought he’d play at when he first acquired him. He is batting .247 with 11 homers on the season. His strikeout to walk ratio is 76:34. He has been a little unlucky with a BABIP of .289. A normal BABIP is .300. According to UZR/150, he’s played above average defense, with a UZR/150 of 5.3

Jackson, meanwhile, batting leadoff for the Detroit Tigers is batting .302 with 65 run scored and 1 homer on the year.  His SO to BB ratio is 124:34, the K’s being pretty high for a leadoff man. His BABIP is a monstrous .419, which means he has been really lucky. If his BABIP was near the league norm, he’d be batting closer to .250 than .300. His UZR/150 is 3.4, meaning he’s played somewhat above average defense also.

~Conclusion: This was a pretty even trade at the time, and it looks to stay that way. Although Yankees fans complain about trading a top prospect for Granderson, Austin really isn’t playing at a higher level than Granderson: In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Jackson has a .419 BABIP, Granderson would be the better player, and the Yankees would be winning this one.~

This was written by Teix4MVP