Wells Set to Don the Pinstripes

The deal for Vernon Wells is now complete. Wells will don uniform #56 for the Yankees and is overjoyed at the idea. Wells sounded a little like Spiderman in relaying how he feels about the deal: "I feel like I'm a kid again. It gives me chills. "There are great expectations and great responsibility."

Wells has been wearing #10, but that was unavailable due to it's Hall of Fame wearer Phil Rizzuto. Bench coach Tony Pena wore 56 up until this point.

The two players the Yankees are sending to the left coast are minor leaguers Exicardo Cayones and Kramer Sneed. Cayones is an outfielder that was signed out of Venezuela  by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009. The Yankees acquired from the Pirates before the 2012 season as part of the A.J. Burnett level. Though just 21-years old, he can't be considered a prospect based on his career numbers to date.

The Yankees took Sneed, a left-hander pitcher, in the 32nd round of the 2010 MLB Amateur Draft. The Barton College (NC) product had worked his way up to a full time gig at Tampa ('A' ball)  last year after, but with an ERA over 5.00 and 40 walks issued in 63.2 innings pitched, he had fallen off the Yankees' radar.

With the Angels paying $28.5MM of the $42MM owed to Wells and the prospects having just a longshot at making it to the Major Leagues, the deal feels like a win/win to the Yankees.

Now Wells has to produce for the Yankees or it won't matter how much they pay for him or how little they feel they gave up for him.