Yankees rumors: Braves prospect Jose Peraza drawing NYY's interest

The Yankees could be looking to solve second base for the long term and are interested in Braves prospect Jose Peraza, according to George King III of the New York Post. King says the Yankees have reached out to the Braves front office and have already sent scouts to watch Peraza play.

Why Peraza, why now?

Before the season, Peraza was ranked as the 54th best prospect by Baseball America, 38th by MLB.com and 92nd by Baseball Prospectus. 2015 has been a slow start for Peraza though, hitting only .214 over the first seven games for Triple-A Gwinnett.

The Yankees already have two prospects in their system at second base, Rob Refsnyder and Jose Pirel; but Refsnyder's defense has been a huge concern, making three errors in six games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre while Pirela has been sidelined with a concussion.

At the big league level, it's not going much better for the Yankees. Their current shortstop, Didi Gregorius, has struggled in his first season in the Bronx by hitting .172 over nine games. At second, Stephen Drew is fairing a bit worse with a .148 batting average in eight games.

Is there a workable deal here?

In terms of prospects, King says the Yankees will not part with top pitching propsect Luis Sverino, but mentions Gary Sanchez as a main piece of a two-player package. Peraza being able to play both shortstop and second-base makes him an intriguing target for a Yankees team struggling at the big league level and not much behind in terms of talent.

Peraza was brought up as a shortstop, which is currently manned by Andrelton Simmons for the Braves. Add to that Jace Petersen, who the Braves acquired from the Padres this offseason, and Peraza certainly seems like a movable piece for Atlanta.