Each December, New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and GM Brian Cashman have given their team’s fans plenty of holiday cheer. But how they’ve done it this Christmas is nothing short of astounding.
Over the past three years, and most notably over the past 24 months, Cashman has turned an aging and decaying roster into one of the most envied in the game. What stands out is how the Yankees GM, with help from Steinbrenner’s financial might and some stars emerging from the farm system, has turned a stocking full of coal into solid gold.
All in all, beginning with the Didi Gregorius deal in December 2014, this is the current before-and-after of his main trades (since Cashman re-signed Aroldis Chapman and got Starlin Castro for essentially nothing — we’ll explain below — we are leaving them out of the players he dealt, despite Castro’s role in the Giancarlo Stanton trade):
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Cashman dealt: Andrew Miller, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, Brendan Ryan, John Ryan Murphy, Shane Greene, Rookie Davis, Eric Jagielo, Caleb Cotham, Tony Renda, Jorge Guzman and Jose Devers.
And he got back: Stanton, Chapman, Gregorius, Gleyber Torres, Albert Abreu, Aaron Hicks, Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney, Dillon Tate, Nick Green, Erik Swanson, Ben Heller, J.P. Feyereisen and Rashad Crawford.
Here’s how he did it
The Reds, noncontenders not interested in paying a closer more than $11 million, dealt Chapman for the discount price of four middling prospects. Davis has an 8.63 ERA in 24 major league innings and Renda batted .183 in 32 big league games in 2016, while Jagielo hit .204 between Double-A and Triple-A this year and Cotham is no longer in the Reds’ organization.
Meanwhile, Cashman flipped Chapman that July to the Cubs in a trade that netted Torres — considered one of the top five prospects in the game, who might start at second or third in the majors this season — McKinney, who has major league potential, Warren and Crawford, who is at Double-A. In the offseason, Cashman signed Chapman for five years and $86 million. If Torres turns into an All-Star and, putting aside the Chapman moral question at the time of the initial trade, these are historic transactions.
This was the biggest value-for-value trade Cashman has made, but it’s one he’d likely make again, because he could flip Frazier to get more pitching and Sheffield might end up as good, if not better, than Miller.
So Cashman put together a package of Castro and two relatively unknown Single-A players, Guzman and Devers.
Incidentally, Guzman was acquired a year ago in the McCann trade with Houston, which also netted Abreu, a 22-year-old righty with 100-mph stuff who is fast becoming one of the better prospects in the game.
Castro, as it turned out, was basically acquired for nothing, though the Yankees had to take on the $38 million and four years remaining on his contract. They added Castro in a December 2015 swap with the Cubs for Ryan and Warren. The Yankees were going to cut Ryan before 2016 and then went on to re-acquire Warren with Torres as part of the Chapman trade with the Cubs.
That’s why we left out Castro from the give-and take above, even though he could really be considered another plus for Cashman since Castro was productive as a Yankee and even made the All-Star team last year.
Meanwhile, Hicks for Murphy is very good on the surface, but even better since Murphy didn’t pan out in Minnesota. Cashman & Co. come off as especially intelligent because, in his year with the Yankees, Murphy looked like he might be a very serviceable backup catcher. The Yankees chose to cut bait in exchange for the former Twins top prospect.
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At least a third of next year’s starting lineup — Stanton, Gregorius, Hicks and possibly Torres — will have been a result of these trades, while Chapman and Warren will be vital bullpen pieces. Meanwhile, Sheffield could become a top starter in the coming years, maybe even getting a chance in 2018. Frazier could be in line to be a starting outfielder eventually if he isn’t flipped for pitching. Abreu could be used in a trade, or the Yankees might wait and see if his talent carries him to the Bronx.
The only true major league contributors dealt were Miller, McCann, Greene and Beltran, who retired after winning a title this year in Houston.
Last season, Cashman made trades for veterans and used his farm system to his advantage. He acquired Sonny Gray for three top prospects, pitcher James Kaprielian, speedster Jorge Mateo and outfielder Dexter Fowler. In that trade, Cashman received $1.5 million in international signing money, which was designed to go to the Babe Ruth of Japan, Shohei Ohtani, who ultimately didn’t want any part of the Bronx. Cashman also reacquired reliever David Robertson, along with third baseman Todd Frazier and reliever Tommy Kahnle for Tyler Clippard and three prospects, left-hander Ian Clarkin and outfielders Blake Rutherford and Tito Polo. These deals have been good for the Yankees so far, though the players Cashman dealt do have potential.
On top of all this — and perhaps equally if not more impressive — Cashman has put the Yankees in place to fall under the luxury-tax threshold by the end of next season.