MIGHTY DODGERS ADD DARVISH
Yanks, Dodgers add top prizes
There st of the major leagues should be afraid — very afraid. After multiple collective bargaining agreements designed to try to neutralize mega-teams such as the Yankees and Dodgers, those clubs are now more frightening than ever.
That is because they added the most important capital (high-level smarts) on top of just financial capital. The results were overt in the final hours of t he Monday trading deadline.
The Ya n - kees and Dodgers wisely saw the value of investing to create farm systems deep at every level, so deep that they were able to make the two largest trades at the deadline without having to surrender their closest-to-the-majors elite prospects. That is why they are the big winners of this trade season.
Obtaining Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish does not assure a FOX dream L.A.-NYC World Series. But how they got those players emphasizes the Yankees and Dodgers are good now and should be for a while, a fact made scarier if they can get under the luxury-tax threshold and increase their financial flexibility in the next two years.
After all, these are organizations deep in 20-something major league talent with more percolating just below.
The Yankees took Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres out of the discussions, the same for the Dodgers with Walker Buehler and Alex Verdugo. Yet both landed their top targets.
The acquisitions of Gray, Jai- me Garcia, Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson solidified the Yankees pitching staff, and all but Garcia are under control through at least next year.
Gray is 27, so is Kahnle, so is Starlin Castro, Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius. Do you see a pattern in what Brian Cashman has been stockpiling after so many years of the Yankees adding expensive veterans with their best seasons in the rearview mirror? Add that to the fa r m yield of Aaron Ju d ge, Ga r y Sanchez, Greg Bird, Frazier, Torres , Lui s Severino, Jordan Montgomery, etc., and you see a nucleus that should be good for a while.
The Dodgers are playing the same long game, in part because their baseball chieftain Andrew Friedman resisted dealing the Cody Bellingers and Corey Seagers in years past. But like Theo Epstein saying, “if not now, when?” when he gave up Torres for walk-year Aroldis Chapman last year to try to win the Cubs’ first title since 1908, the Dodgers gave up Willie Calhoun and others for walk-year Darvish, seeing him as the same kind of final piece for October that can bring the first title to Chavez Ravine since 1988.
This is why the Dodgers and Yanks were the big winners on July 31 (and may be for many years to come).
WINNERS
Cubs The Cubs have deployed a lot of their farm depth the last two years to win. But they did win it all last year and upgraded their chances to repeat by securing
Jose Quintana and Justin Wilson, who also are under control through at least next year.
Nationals The Nationals added Minnesota closer Brandon Kintzler
after Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to go from a laughingstock bullpen to something deep and powerful, without giving up the best of their farm system. White Sox The White Sox’s rebuild began last offseason with the hauls for Chris Sale and Adam
Eaton, and did not stop as they kept adding to their pile of prospects by dealing Quintana, Kahnle, Robertson, Todd Frazier, Dan Jennings and Melky Cabrera. They didn’t stick their toe in the rebuild waters, they dove headlong. Royals The Royals kept the championship band mostly together for one last run and augmented it the best they could with limited funds and a shallow prospect base adding Cabrera, Trevor Cahill, Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter. Rays The Rays countered payroll restrictions by importing pieces that help in various ways such as Jennings, Sergio Romo, Steve Cishek, Lucas Duda and Adeiny Hechavarria. Astros The Astros tried to land a difference-making pitcher such as Darvish or Baltimore’s Zach Britton, and ended up obtaining just Blue Jays starter Francisco Liriano with the idea of putting him in their bullpen. After a dominant 3 ¹/₂ months, Houston has real worries with Carlos Correa and George Springer out with injuries, uncertainty about the durability of their top two starters, Dallas Keuchel and Lance
McCullers, and a pen suddenly dive-bombing from elite. For an organization that has never captured a title and has a win-now core, if not now, when?
LOSERS
Orioles The Orioles were unable to translate Britton and Brad
Brach into huge returns to help a shallow farm system at a time when the market craved big-time relief. Will Britton have as great a value this offseason approaching his walk year than he had when an acquiring team would have gotten two pennant races out of him? Mets The Mets were the wrong-place-wrongtime team. The pl a ce was noncontention. The time was when a market that had almost no appetite for position players and would overpay for a great reliever and only pay well for a very good one such as Addison
Reed. The Mets moved Duda, but not Jay Bruce, Asdrubal Cabrera, Curtis Granderson or Neil Walker. They might all pass through waivers, giving the Mets another shot to deal them in August. Tigers The Tigers dealt J.D. Martinez, Wilson and Alex Avila for a haul that the rest of the industry did not see as much more than good — if that. Meanwhile, Detroit did not have the chutzpah to put Michael Fulmer out in a market that hungered for young starters and would have paid a ton for him, or slash enough off Justin Verlander’s 2018-19 $56 million payday to make him attractive. Giants The Giants, expected contenders with the majors’ secondworst record, were so burdened by age, bad contracts and underperformance that they were able to trade only Eduardo Nunez, which did nothing to address trimming those bad contracts.