Yankees swaps are flops at the trade deadline as Bombers play small ball while ...
What it all came down to Thursday - Oakland's Billy Beane adding Jon Lester for his already formidable World Series-primed starting rotation, Dave Dombrowski bringing in a third Cy Young Award winner in David Price to his rotation, the Red Sox addressing their own 'What outfield?' issues with deals for Yoenis Cespedes and Allen Craig, and the Cardinals fortifying their injury-riddled rotation by acquiring Justin Masterson and John Lackey - was a dose of hard reality for the Yankees.
Because of what they've been these last 20 years - a team that's always in it, with the financial resources to get what they need for the August-September stretch, be it David Cone, David Justice, Bobby Abreu or Ichiro Suzuki - the Yankees could always be counted on to be big players at the non-waiver trade deadline. But this is clearly no longer the case. Not only is it becoming increasingly questionable as to whether the Yankees are legitimate postseason contenders, the fact is they're not a very good team at all. They have a minus-30 run differential, a makeshift rotation of No. 3 or No. 4 starters at best and entered Thursday only 17th in the majors in runs (429) and on-base percentage (.314).
Quite simply, they had too many holes to fill and not nearly the necessary pieces, particularly in their fallow farm system, to address them. So they end up with Stephen Drew, who becomes their second baseman, even though he's never played there, and Martin Prado, a great clubhouse guy with some righthanded pop whose $11 million salary through 2016 was what made him available and whose primary positions are third base and left field. Unfortunately right field, where he's played exactly two games in his career, is the only position available to him with the Yankees.
Are the Yankees better with Drew and Prado? Perhaps, but only marginally. On the other hand, the AL East-leading Orioles made a huge move in acquiring lefty reliever Andrew Miller from the wheeling-and-dealing Red Sox. Despite his pending free agency, Miller (69 strikeouts in 42.1 innings, 0.898 WHIP) was the most coveted reliever on the market, and the Orioles showed guts in sacrificing one of their top pitching prospects, lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez, to rent him for the rest of the season. And even though the Red Sox chose to part ways with their lefty ace in Lester, they have positioned themselves to again be a force in the AL East next year by filling their gaping voids in left and right field with Cespedes (who could be a monster at Fenway Park) and Craig.
As for the Rays, who jettisoned Price just as they had managed to climb back into striking distance of .500 (and hence contention in the AL East), they had better hope Willy Adames, the 18-year-old shortstop prospect they got from the Tigers in the deal, fulfills his potential quickly because the other returns - lefty Drew Smyly and utility man prospect Nick Franklin - don't appear to be nearly enough for a pitcher of Price's caliber.
Meanwhile, you have to admire Beane's 'going-for-it-all' boldness, not to mention Dombrowski's relentless efforts to ensure his team will be there in October.
After trading two former No. 1 draft picks in shortstop Addison Russell and outfielder Billy McKinney for Jeff Samardzija three weeks ago, Beane now trades his cleanup hitter, Cespedes, for what amounts to a (hoped-for) three-month rental of Lester. We now know the anguish Beane must have been feeling over the last 14 years when the perennially payroll-challenged A's went to the postseason seven times under his watch, only once got out of the first round, and never made it to the World Series. In sacrificing Cespedes, who had only more year on his contract and would not have been able to be retained by the A's, Beane is confident the offensive hit to his lineup won't be nearly as drastic as it seems on the surface.
Beane loves those on-base percentage guys, and in Jonny Gomes (.400 OBP vs. lefties), whom he got from the Red Sox in the Lester deal, and Sam Fuld (.343 OBP vs. righties), acquired in an equally bold trade from the Twins for lefty starter Tommy Milone, he figures to have a left field platoon that could be offensively superior to Cespedes (.303 OBP) in some ways, albeit minus the power. It's all part of the '25-man' Beane philosophy in which the A's get maximum production out of every player on their roster. The Fuld trade was almost as bold because he essentially has been a No. 4-5 outfielder for his entire career and was actually released by the A's in April, while Milone was the odd man out in the Oakland rotation, having been sent to the minors despite being 6-0 with a 2.63 ERA in his last 11 starts - and seemingly had more value.
When Beane made the Samardzija deal, Tigers 2011 Cy Young winner Justin Verlander said: 'They made that trade because of us.' On Thursday, Dombrowski turned the tables, swinging the three-way deal with Seattle to acquire Price, the 2012 AL Cy Young winner, as a response to Beane's deal for Lester. And what a compelling potential ALCS matchup of baseball's two deepest, star-quality rotations - the Tigers' Max Scherzer, Verlander, Price and Anibal Sanchez vs. the A's Lester, Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir and Samardzija - this now poses.
I'm told the Yankees would like to have been in on Price, and were even willing to discuss some of their best prospects - including pitchers Luis Severino and Ian Clarkin, and the bull slugger at Tampa, Aaron Judge - but Tampa Bay never even called, probably because the Rays didn't want to deal Price within the division, especially to the Yankees. Instead, the Yankees, who no longer have the ability to make the big plays at the trading deadline, will take their multitude of needs - starting pitching, power-hitting right fielder, shortstop, lefty reliever - into the offseason, where they will then do what they always do best: Buy it off the free-agent market, starting with either Scherzer or Lester. Or both.
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