Yankees acquire Alfonso Soriano

He's back

 After several days of rumors the Yankees acquired Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs for prospect RHP Corey Black. The deal was essentially confirmed last night when Soriano took a red eye flight to New york and real issue was just the Cubs deciding on Corey Black or Tommy Kahnle. I know I kept checking twitter to see if the deal had gone through and Corey Black even tweeted about it.

Well I've gotten about 100 new followers
— Corey Black (@CblackNYY) July 26, 2013

Soriano, 37, had full no-trade protection through his ten-and-five rights and had to agree to return to the Bronx. Nick Cafardo says the only team he was willing to accept a trade to was the Yankees. According to Buster Olney, the Bombers will pay $6.8M of the roughly $24.5M owed to Soriano through next season. They will pay $5M of that $6.8M in 2014. I'm not sure how it works with the luxury tax stuff, but needless to say the Yankees $189 million plan takes a hit with having to acquire Wells and Soriano.
Soriano has hit .254/.287/.467 (100 wRC+) with 17 homers and ten stolen bases. That includes a .273/.310/.496 (112 wRC+) line against left-handers. Over the last 30 days of this season, he’s put up a .286/.330/.714 (178 wRC+) line with ten homers, which as many people have pointed out means that Soriano has out homered the Yankees 8-7 in July. Soriano will provide a much needed bat and Right handed bat at that as the Yankees have not had a right handed home run since Jayson Nix took Yu Darvish deep o June 25th. The Yankees have been dreadful against left handed pitchers and Soriano should help that, but also he is likely going to step in and be the cleanup hitter simply because he will be the second best hitter on the team. Soriano is going to play everyday and while he does not walk like Hafner, Pronk has been atrocious since May hitting 174/.255/.299 but he is not likely to go anywhere with the acquisition of Soriano. I assume that Thomas Neal or Melky Mesa will be sent down for now and more moves will happen when Jeter and/if Arod return.
Soriano will likely be in todays lineup so we will get to see him impact soon.