Pirates, Yankees Swap McGehee, Qualls

[Rios15]

The Yankees acquired corner infielder Casey McGehee and $250K from the Pirates for reliever Chad Qualls, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

For all the talk of the Yankees seeking a defense-first third baseman to fill in for Alex Rodriguez, they went with right-handed power in McGehee. Perhaps the Yanks liked McGehee's versatility, with Mark Teixeira ailing as well. McGehee, 29, is hitting .230/.297/.377 in 293 plate appearances for the Pirates. They acquired him from the Brewers for Jose Veras in December; McGehee has about $890K remaining on his contract. He's arbitration eligible for 2013, but may be non-tendered. He was made more expendable by the Pirates' acquisition of first baseman Gaby Sanchez from the Marlins earlier today.

Qualls, 33, has a 4.89 ERA, 4.9 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 1.63 HR/9, and 54% groundball rate for the Phillies and Yankees this year. The Yankees acquired Qualls from the Phils on July 1st after he'd been designated for assignment, and Qualls was a likely roster casualty had he remained with the Yanks.

Source: MLBTR.com

Nice acquisition by the Yankees; McGehee is a pretty decent third baseman on a nice contract. He'll be a good fill in.