Yankees made trade proposals with Cubs for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel

It's not a secrete that the Yankees have an obvious need to add a starting pitcher or two in order to make a run for October. CC Sabathia is likely done for the year, joining Ivan Nova, and Michael Pineda won't be back until probably August.

The trade deadline is still a few weeks away, but Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman hasn't been sitting around, rather is is trying to get deals done.

As you may have heard by now, the Oakland Athletics pulled off a big blockbuster deal on Friday night, acquiring both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Cubs last night, sending a couple of top prospects the to Chicago, including MLB.com's 11th ranked prospect for 2014.

The A's weren't the only team going after either one of those pitchers. FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports that the Yankees and Cubs swapped proposals regarding both Hammel and Samardzija, but in the end, Oakland came out on top with Addison Russell, the centerpiece of the deal.

There was never really a sense that the Yankees would be able to pull off a deal surrounding Samardzija given how much less talent their farm system has compared to other teams, like the A's, but Hammel was a much more realistic for the Bombers, who, like I said, really need to add at least one starting pitcher before the trading deadline, but two would be nice -- and a reliever, and an infielder.

Adding on to that, since Russell is a shortstop, that gives the Cubs more than enough of those in their system, putting him in line with Javier Baez, and the team's current big league shortstop Starlin Castro.

With Derek Jeter retiring after the season, and the Yankees also needing to add an infielder, Joel Sherman of the NY Post says that the Yanks have checked in with the Cubs on their shortstop surplus, but Chicago is currently planning to hold onto all of their infield players, and thus nothing is going to happen right now -- at least this season -- between the two side regarding that.

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