Colorado Rockies trade rumors: Five teams that could use Trevor Story as a center fielder

On Thursday, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that at least one MLB is interested in Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story but they are interested in him “with the idea of playing him in center field.”

That is certainly an outside-the-box way of thinking considering that Story has never played a single inning in the outfield in the major leagues or minor leagues. However, as Feinsand noted, Story’s sprint speed is in the 88th percentile so he definitely has the athleticism to do it. The most difficult part will likely be the reads on balls in the outfield.

With that, we have five teams that may be interested in Trevor Story as a center fielder and not a shortstop.

The New York Yankees need to acquire Trevor Story from the Colorado Rockies in the worst way.

The New York Yankees were the favorites to win the American League pennant or the World Series (myself included) but they have been an awful team, by Yankees standards. Read any Yankees publication and you’d think that they are having the worst year not just in franchise history but in baseball history (spoiler: they aren’t). But there’s no denying that they have been a massive disappointment.

The Yankees entered Saturday with a record of 50-46, in third place in the AL East and nine games back of the Boston Red Sox for first place. They were also 4.5 games back of the 2nd AL Wild Card spot.

The Yankees could use Trevor Story at shortstop to replace Gleyber Torres, who has struggled at the plate (.243 AVG, .668 OPS). Their veteran center fielder, 37-year-old Brett Gardner, has been even worse than Torres at the plate (.193 AVG, .624 OPS).

The Yankees always have a slew of other outfield injuries with Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton (Judge is on the IL now but Stanton is healthy now). Currently with Judge, outfielders Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar, Aaron Hicks, Tim Locastro, and Trey Amburgey are on the IL as well.

Our colleagues over at Yanks Go Yard, FanSided’s Yankees site, discussed how Story could be a fit for them in center field in this article from Friday.

So the Yankees could use Story at shortstop or center field and they need a few other healthy position players and pitchers to be running on all cylinders to get to the playoffs.