Yanks may be back to big-spending ways
• This was to be a transitional year for the New York Yankees, one that would bridge the divide between the bloated also-ran they had become and the future juggernaut they hoped to build. One of the more difficult tasks in baseball these days is to straddle the line between getting younger and leaner for the future while also contending for the present — although, as in everything else, a US$ 200- million payroll helps.
” We thought this team was capable of all colours of the rainbow,” general manager Brian Cashman said in April.
By Tuesday, 91 games into an up- and- down season, Cashman had determined the Yankees’ colour was green. A handful of games above .500 and a handful of games out of first place, he moved swiftly and decisively to shift his team into go-for-it mode for 2017. The Yankees’ seven- player trade with the Chicago White Sox was not a blockbuster in the truest sense — as it brought them a .207-hitting corner infielder, Todd Frazier, and a pair of relievers in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle — but it accomplished a number of important things: ❚ It filled their biggest hole. While Frazier, 31, is having a down year by his standards, his .761 OPS is more than respectable and would represent a significant upgrade over the production the Yankees have been getting at first (.686) and third base (.685). ❚ It gave them the sort of bullpen that wins in October. With Robertson and Kahnle joining Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and Chad Green, the Yankees have five relievers averaging at least 12 strikeouts per nine innings. ❚ It kept Frazier and Robertson away from Boston. The Yankees- Red Sox rivalry is a long way from the days of the Evil Empire, mainly because the Yankees have just one playoff appearance since 2012, but all of baseball knew the Red Sox ( 53- 42), who led the Yankees ( 48- 44) by 3 ½ games in the American League East heading into Wednesday’s play, coveted both Robertson and especially Frazier. ❚ It didn’t cost them a huge chunk of their future. Last summer’s trades of Miller, Chapman and Carlos Beltran helped transform the Yankees’ farm system into one of the best in the game and on Tuesday Cashman dealt from his surplus without sacrificing his best prospects. Outfielder Blake Rutherford was their first- round pick last year and the 36th-ranked prospect in baseball according to Baseball America, while Ian Clarkin is a highly regarded ( but injury prone) left-handed pitcher and outfielder Tito Polo was more of a throw-in.
While the downsizing White Sox have now added seven top- 100 prospects via trades in the past eight months — an astounding haul that has turned their farm system into the envy of the game.