Yankees keep eyes open for an arm

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees say they don’t want to pay the premium price teams with tradable starting pitchers are seeking.

Yet that hasn’t stopped them from flooding major league ballparks with scouts to watch the arms that might be dealt by the July 31 trade deadline.

Last week, scout Jay Darnell was in Denver to eyeball Rockies’ right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez. Sunday, Darnell’s name was on the scout’s list in Houston, where lefty Wandy Rodriguez started for the Astros. Tonight the Yankees will have a scout watching Jimenez face the Braves in Denver.

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The Yankees got the same message every other team received about a month ago from the Rockies: If you want to talk about parting with high-end prospects, we can talk.

“We would have to be absolutely overwhelmed,” Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd told the Denver Post. “It would have to be a Herschel Walker deal.”

In 1989, the Vikings ruined their roster in a deal to get Walker from the Cowboys.

The Yankees have catcher Jesus Montero and Double-A pitchers Dellin Betances, who started for Trenton yesterday, and Manuel Banuelos, who pitched Sunday. All fill the bill for what the Rockies might bite on. But the Yankees are hesitant to deal them even for Jimenez, a 27-year-old with a very manageable contract.

Jimenez is making $2.8 million this year and $4.2 million next season. There is a club option for $5.75 million with a $1 million buyout for 2013 and a club option for $8 million and a $1 million buyout for 2014. The second option is only good if the 2013 option is exercised and may be voided if Jimenez is dealt.

“I don’t think there is much to chase there,” a Yankees source said yesterday, 24 hours before Bartolo Colon faces the Rays tonight at Tropicana Field trying to bounce back from a morbid outing in Toronto.

With the trade deadline approaching, the Yankees have to decide if a rotation that houses Freddy Garcia, Phil Hughes and Colon is strong enough to help catch the Red Sox in the AL East or hold off the Rays and Angels in the AL wild-card race.

The Yankees have 13 days to decide if they have enough quality in the rotation or must make a deal.

Rodriguez is likely cost prohibitive because he is owed $25.5 million beyond this season, in which he is earning $7 million. The Yankees haven’t engaged the Astros about Rodriguez.

They have scout Bill Emslie following the Astros.

“I don’t get into the ‘What If?’” Joe Girardi said. “You can’t count on that. There are too many variables to acquiring somebody. I don’t get caught up in that.”

Girardi said he was encouraged by Hughes’ outing in Toronto, where he went six innings, allowed two runs and four hits in his second outing after an extended stay on the disabled list.

Always one to accentuate even the smallest positive, Girardi blamed the fielders for Colon’s last outing in which he didn’t get out of the first inning of an eventual 16-7 loss to the Blue Jays.

Of course, had Girardi said something negative about Colon, that might put the Yankees in a position of weakness when talking to other clubs.

Colon, 38, could take a step in stopping the questions surrounding him when he starts vs. the Rays tonight.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/minorleague/bushes_prospects_shouldn_stop_yankees_Skp4dgSNt8qfs8bUXkSnhO%3c/p%3e%3cp/%3e”>BUSHES ON JIMENEZ DEAL