Deal the capper on surprisingly swift return to power

NOW WE know the precise running time for “Extreme Makeover: Baseball Edition.” It’s a year. The Yankees are going for it … just one year after going the other way. From sellers back to buyers. From rebooting back to reloading. The acquisition of Sonny Gray from the A’s on Monday, shortly before the 4 p.m. non-waivers trade deadline, put the Yankees back in their familiar seat as strong buyers. It served as the robust finishing touch to a busy 18-day stretch in which they acquired six new players and made clear their intentions and hopes that 2017 would not be a transition season, but rather the f irst of a multiseason run at the World Series title.

“We’re j ust t r ying to take it from good to great,” GM Brian Cashman said, before the Yankees beat the Tigers 7-3 at Yankee Stadium. “I can’t predict a time frame on that. I just know we’re the New York Yankees, and we’ve represented a championship-caliber effort on a year-in, year-out basis, and we are trying to get closer to a championship and eventually deliver one. The sooner the better.

“I think we def initely improved ourselves,” Joe Girardi said. “When I look at ownership and the front office, they’ve given us an opportunity to do something special here. And now we have to go out and do it.”

It’s a better team, unquestionably. The Yankees’ 10-22 stretch from June 13-July 19 served as a market correction to their surprisingly stellar, 38-23 start, with the bullpen a primary culprit. Cashman addressed the bullpen’s fatigue by picking up Tommy Kahnle and old pal David Robertson from the White Sox on July 19. Then, in order to keep Girardi from wearing out that strengthened bullpen, Cashman bolstered the shaky starting rotation with Jaime Garcia from the Twins and Gray.

They’re still no sure thing to win the American League East, or even qualify for the playoffs, despite the returned-favor proclamation by Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski that the Yankees are “the Golden State Warriors.” Gray has an injury history; Garcia’s one start with the Twins (who had acquired him from the Braves earlier in July) gives him one career appear- ance for an AL team; and Aaron Judge’s post-Home Run Derby hangover has made the offense human. Yet going with the status quo, while understandable for the long-term visa-vis protecting minor league assets, would’ve been a near- g uaranteed route to .500-ville.

This July revamp, as big as if not bigger than any team in the industry, occurred because the industry informed t he Yankees they were ready. They set out to make improvements while protecting the crème de la crème of their system: the recently promoted Clint Frazier as well as Gleyber Torres, Chance Adams and Justus Sheffield. So they gave up Blake Rutherford, an interesting outfielder not ranked as high internally, as the centerpiece to ge t Kahnle and Robertson (and Todd Frazier).

For Gray, the Yankees surrendered a most interesting and unusual package: the ul t ra - a t hl et i c Jo rge Mate o and a pa i r of damaged goods in Dustin Fowler and James Kaprielian. If Fowler, who memorably suffered a grisly right knee injury on the night of his major league debut June 29 in Chicago, and Kaprielian, who is rehabilitating from Tommy John surgery, can reach their preinjury peaks, then man oh man, the A’s will have themselves a haul. But man oh man, that is some serious risk the A’s are assuming, especially because Fowler relied heavily on his speed.

Yet the A’s obviously l i ked the Yankees’ package the best, and the Yankees obviously expressed a willingness to go further than others. It speaks to the Yankees’ remarkable organizational depth.

“Our seven through 12 [ranked prospects], or maybe it’s our nine through 13, are equivalent in some cases to people’s one through six,” said Cashman, who repeatedly credited his deputies, Gary Denbo, Damon Oppenheimer and Donny Rowland, for acquiring and developing the talent.

“Stay tuned and let’s see how it pl ays out,” Cashman sa i d. “They def initely have created some exciting moments and that’s what our fans deserve. And that’s obviously what we’ve been trying to build back towards, is some exciting moments, exciting times and exciting seasons.”

The baseball world is rotating on its standard axis once more. The Yankees are in it to win it.