Clippard Sailing Away

It's not the most prestigious of news sources, but MLBTraderumors.com tends to be pretty good with their information, and they're reporting that the Yankees have traded Tyler Clippard to the Nationals for reliever Jonathan Albaladejo. If it's true, which is a big if, it makes no sense to me. The Yankee farm system is filled with hard-throwing righthanders, and I can't find anything that makes Albaladejo seem better than Ross Ohlendorf, Chris Britton or Jose Veras. Granted, they'd only be trading another one of their many righthanded pitching prospect, but Clippard's success as a starter makes him significantly more valuable. I'll try and stay on top of this story and see if things start to make sense.

Update 1:06AM: The Washington Post has picked up the story as well, with no new information that would explain the Yankees would do this. I understand trading Clippard for a reliever; the Yankees need bullpen help and have pitching prospects to spare. What I don't understand is trading for a right-handed reliever with only 14.1 innings of major league success, and 24 innings in Triple-A. Considering that Clippard could very well make it into the Nationals' rotation, you'd think Brian Cashman could at least have found a lefty, or someone with
more of a track record.