As expected, the Yankees have confirmed that Xavier Nady will undergo season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery, likely ending his time in New York after just 66 games.
Nady was acquired from the Pirates last July with his value at an all-time high thanks to a fluky .330 batting average, but he’d hit a more modest .272/.327/.441 coming into the season and predictably regressed to those numbers by batting .268/.320/.474 in 59 post-trade games with the Yankees.
Nady took over as the Yankees’ starting right fielder this season following the departure of free agent Bobby Abreu, but played just seven games before leaving a mid-April game with a “sharp pain” in his elbow. Reports immediately surfaced that he’d need surgery, but Nady opted instead to rehab the injury and appeared to be making solid progress in his recovery before suffering a setback in a minor-league game last week.
Now he’s facing 9-12 months on the sidelines and the Yankees seem unlikely to make a strong effort to re-sign the impending free agent when bigger, healthier bats will no doubt be available this winter. All of which means that they’ll end up parting with Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutcheon for 66 games of Nady hitting .270/.319/.469 and 23.2 innings of a 7.61 ERA from Damaso Marte.
Meanwhile, the Pirates have already gotten 238 innings of 4.57 ERA pitching from Ohlendorf and Karstens, both of whom are in their mid-20s and under team control at low salaries for the foreseeable future. Tabata was actually the centerpiece of the deal and at 20 years old still has considerable long-term upside, but he’s battled injuries while hitting just .269/.343/.359 in 135 games at Double-A since the trade.