MLB rumors: Trevor Story? Matt Olson? CC Sabathia suggests Yankees upgrades

Retired Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia thinks general manager Brian Cashman wouldn't be making the wrong move if he went after free agent shortstop Trevor Story (above). (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
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Trevor Story at shortstop? Matt Olson at first base?

Yankees fans would probably sign up for that in a heartbeat.

And that’s what retired Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia suggested as upgrades when the MLB lockout finally ends.

“I love Trevor Story,” Sabathia told Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney on WFAN on Thursday. “I think Trevor Story is a superstar. I think you get him out of Colorado, and I think people will really recognize how good of a player he is. I would love to see us maybe get Trevor Story and try to figure out a trade. Everybody’s talking about Matt Olson, figure out a way to bring him in. You talk about left-handed pop and a guy that can hit the ball to all fields. He’s a great hitter. He walks. He can run the bases and he’s a great first baseman. Those would be the two guys I would target and maybe one more starter.”

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Sabathia also had an assessment of the current state of the Yankees.

“We need to get way more athletic,” he said. “We need to be able to score on a double from first base. That’s something we can’t do. Moving runners around. The best teams in the big leagues now, if you look at the lineups whether it’s the White Sox or even Atlanta, who won th World Series, or even the Astros, they all had the combination of speed and power. Kind of built like those A’s teams in the late 80s. I think the game is shifting back to that. I think we were in that mode of where the game was: Getting power hitters, guys that can hit the ball out of the park and walk. Now, I think the game is shifting back to that speed and power, and we’re kind of behind on that.”

He added that he’s mostly content with the current roster.

“(Aaron) Judge played great last year,” Sabathia said. “Giancarlo (Stanton) is turning into the guy that he was in Miami up here. We get Aaron Hicks back healthy. You get Severino in the mix. You get another year of Jordan Montgomery behind Gerrit Cole. I think you saw the back end of the bullpen a little more. I think that team’s good. It’s the same core of guys that I played with and I know that they have the desire and the talent to go out there and win the (American League) East and really win a World Series. It’s just up to them to put that together now.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com.

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