Yankees Finally Make an Off-Season Splash January 14, 2012, 3:48 pm If you thought things were way too quiet these past few months in the Bronx, you were right. The Yankees finally pounced Friday night, making their first, and possibly last, significant acquisitions of the off-season by trading for Seattle's promising 22-year-old starting pitcher Michael Pineda and coming to terms with the Dodgers" veteran hurler Hiroko Kuroda, who was considered by some as the best available free-agent pitcher still on the market. While the upgrades did not come at a heavy price financially, with Kuroda agreeing to take a one-year deal worth $10 million and Pineda under the Yankees" control for the next five years, the Yankees did part with their prized catching prospect Jesus Montero, whose bat many Yankees fans were anxiously awaiting to see in its first full season in the majors. Montero hit four home runs and drove in 12 runs in 61 at-bats as a late-season call-up for the Yankees last season. While he's long been considered one of the top catching prospects in all of baseball, he was not considered strong defensively and was likely to serve more time as the Yankees" designated hitter in 2012. Pineda found success immediately with the Mariners in his rookie season, going 9-9 with a 3.03 earned run average and a strikeout per inning in the first half, earning a spot on the All-Star team. His second half was shaky (3-7 record and a 5.12 E.R.A.), but he still averaged over a strikeout per inning and finished the season with 173 strikeouts in 171 innings. Tyler Kepner wrote today that the deal made too much sense for the Yankees to turn down. Reasons include: the team's depth in their catching prospects, obvious need to improve starting pitching depth and desire to keep the designated hitter position open for their aging stars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. But, as with any trade, there is the potential for regret. As Kepner writes, in the future, "the trade could be a punch line on some latter version of "Seinfeld," if Montero slugs like Jay Buhner and Pineda fizzles like Ken Phelps."