Thoughts following the 2019 trade deadline

I'm going to start with a positive: Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told Chris Smith he didn't make any additional moves at the trade deadline because the Yankees have buried them in the AL East. "If we were closer to first place, I would have been more open-minded," he said. Music to my ears. Anyway, here are my post-trade deadline thoughts as I wonder when the Yankees went from "World Series or bust" to "good enough is good enough."

1. Second best. The Astros clearly separated themselves as the best team in the American League yesterday. I'm not getting caught up in the moment here. I picked the Astros to win the World Series before the season and I've seen nothing to change my mind since. They went into yesterday's trade deadline needing pitching (like the Yankees) and with a thinned out farm system (like the Yankees), and they still walked away with three bona fide big league hurlers (Zack Greinke, Aaron Sanchez, Joe Biagini) while the Yankees were left telling everyone boo hoo the prices were too high. "These were prices that were making things way out of reach and way out of line, so that’s why we’re here talking about the decision to do what we did, which was stand pat," Brian Cashman told Randy Miller after the deadline. The Astros have thoroughly and authoritatively kicked the Yankees' ass when it comes to high-end pitching in recent years. The Yankees passed on Justin Verlander because their priority was the luxury tax, not fielding the best possible team, and Verlander sent them packing in the ALCS. The Astros then outbid the Yankees for Gerrit Cole, and now they added Greinke*. All that while the Yankees are making excuses for Sonny Gray, bringing James Paxton back from the injured list early, and complaining about asking prices being too high. The Yankees had a chance -- and they still do have a chance, I suppose -- to be the dominant team of this era. Instead, ownership is prioritizing payroll flexibility, and the front office is maybe outsmarting itself a little too much. It seems they've grown arrogant (and maybe even a little complacent) after hitting big on so many buy-low pickups like Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, and Luke Voit. As good as they are, the Astros aren't a lock to win anything even after adding Greinke. I once saw a team start Verlander, Max Scherzer, and David Price in the ALDS and get swept by a team that started Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, and Bud Norris. True story. Weird things happen in short series. That all said, when it comes to the organization's very basic responsibility of putting the team in the best possible position to win, the Yankees failed spectacularly yesterday. They will get raked over the coals if they don't win the World Series this year, and they will deserve every last bit of it. The Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball and they had a glaring need at the trade deadline, and they did nothing to address it. Nothing.

* To be clear. I'm not complaining the Yankees did not acquire Zack Greinke specifically. They've made it perfectly clear they don't consider him a fit for New York, plus he had the Yankees on his no-trade list (the Astros were not on the list). I'm talking in general here.

2. Relitigating the offseason. Now that the "let's see what they do at the trade deadline" question has been answered, it's time to go back and revisit the offseason. The Yankees spent all winter -- they spent the last two winters, really -- saying their top priority was pitching, yet when it came time to back up the talk with money, they balked. Patrick Corbin all but shouted from the rooftops that he wanted to be a Yankee, yet they limited their offer to four years. Why? Because future payroll flexibility is more important than short-term success, apparently. The Yankees are worried about World Series No. 2 and No. 3 with this core before winning World Series No. 1. As for Dallas Keuchel, I wanted no part of him on a multi-year contract -- the same will be true again this offseason! -- but once it became clear he would be signing a discounted half-a-year contract, there was no excuse for the Yankees to pursue him so half-heartedly. "We made an offer that we were comfortable with and that was it. Atlanta made a higher one. It wasn’t like a back-and-forth," Brian Cashman said at the time, and man, that's a bad excuse. The guy was a free agent for nine months. There was plenty of time for back-and-forth. And am I really supposed to believe Scott Boras wouldn't listen if the Yankees said, "hey, give us a chance to top any offer?" Please. Anyway, the point is the Yankees had a chance to address their pitching with money, their single greatest resource, and they backed away. The Keuchel thing is especially egregious because it happened at midseason, when it was already known Luis Severino was out long-term and when it was already clear the Yankees needed rotation help. Instead, they cheaped out and backed themselves into a corner where they had to trade prospects to add pitching, and they didn't pull the trigger on that either. The Yankees are getting four-inning starts every day and the bullpen looks fried, and the Yankees have been gun shy each time they had a chance to use their financial might to make things better dating back to the offseason. "If you turn the clock back to Corbin, there’s a lot of guys sitting in that locker room that wouldn’t be here, because all that money would have gone in one direction. It’s all inter-related … We repackaged that money and produced various assets like DJ LeMahieu and (Adam Ottavino), amongst others. That might not have materialized if we went all in on one particular player," Brian Cashman told Bryan Hoch yesterday, pretending the Yankees couldn't afford every single one of those dudes and then some.

3. Shrinking market. I mentioned last week the Yankees were completely out on Trevor Bauer for makeup reasons and, sure enough, as soon as the news broke that he had been traded to the Reds, reports saying the Yankees were never really serious about him began to surface (Joel Sherman, Andy Martino). Their interest -- "interest" -- in Bauer was a smokescreen to create leverage in trade talks with other teams. And, even if the Yankees wanted Bauer, there's no way they were beating that package. The Indians made a hell of a trade. Two big league outfielders and three prospects? Goodness. The Yankees couldn't make that work, even in a three-team deal. Makes what the Blue Jays took for Marcus Stroman look like a pittance. The Bauer and Stroman trades threw a wrench into things for the Yankees because arguably the two top trade candidates went to non-contending teams, so the supply shortened but the demand among contenders did not. Other teams with pitching to sell could stick to their guns and demand the moon. Jon Heyman and Bob Nightengale say the Diamondbacks wanted Clint Frazier, Clarke Schmidt, and two other prospects for lefty Robbie Ray. The Yankees were willing to deal Frazier plus another prospect, apparently, but that's it. Arizona didn't have to trade Ray -- he'll remain under team control as an arbitration-eligible player next year -- so they kept him rather than be forced into trading him for what they considered a subpar return. Good for them. Same with the Tigers and Matt Boyd. I think that caught the Yankees off-guard a bit, and when you add in the fact two other top trade candidates (Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler) were not realistic options due to the whole Yankees-Mets thing, plus the Giants got hot and decided to keep Madison Bumgarner, it sure seems like the market shrunk on the Yankees on a hurry, and they ran out of time to react. I'm not excusing their lack of activity, mind you. I'm just trying to rationalize it and figure out where everything went wrong. The market wasn't great to begin with, then pieces starting coming off the board in a hurry, and sellers were more emboldened to stand their ground. The Yankees are very methodical and don't go outside their comfort zone to acquire players, but championship windows can close quick, and if they weren't willing to take a leap into their discomfort zone to help this team, I don't know when they will. The Yankees were not the only team to act this way (wtf Dodgers) but I don't care about other teams. There are times to make the best value deal and times to just say screw it and get the help you need (see: Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman), and I think the Yankees are that point. Hopefully these kids (Frazier, Schmidt, Deivi Garcia, Estevan Florial, etc.) all make it worth it, because yesterday the Yankees told us they are more important than the big league roster of a World Series contender. "As a buyer, it almost has to hurt. I get that, but I was not willing to (pay for) what was available and what was being presented, and certainly my counterparts were unwilling to do what I was willing to do in my offers. Maybe my counterparts felt my offers were underwhelming and I felt their offers were overwhelming. We just never matched up," Cashman told Randy Miller.

4. The plan now. So what is the plan now that the Yankees missed their opportunity to add pitching? Sounds like this is the plan now:

• Hope Luis Severino gets healthy.
• Hope Dellin Betances gets healthy.
• Hope Jonathan Loaisiga and Jordan Montgomery get healthy too.
• Hope everyone else stays healthy.
• Hope James Paxton figures it out.
• Hope Masahiro Tanaka finds his splitter.
• Hope Domingo German doesn't wear down as the innings pile up.
• Hope CC Sabathia comes back well from his latest knee injection.
• Hope David Hale's back injury isn't serious.
• Hope the bullpen isn't completely exhausted come October.
• Hope Deivi Garcia (and Mike King?) can have an impact.

The current plan relies way too much on hope. The Yankees need an awful lot to go right to be at their absolute best come postseason time. "Because of how it shaped out, we're gonna basically look to hopefully add from our (injured list). We have some pretty star-studded guys sitting there waiting in the wings. Hopefully their rehabs finally finish off properly and they can join this club and reinforce us,” Brian Cashman told Lindsey Adler. I wonder what the feeling is in the clubhouse now. Imagine posting up every day through all those injuries and helping the team open up a huge lead in the AL East, and the people upstairs reward you with absolutely no help at the trade deadline. Imagine being Sabathia, grinding it out on your one good knee in your final season because you want another ring, and none of the team's problems are addressed. The Yankees have said all the right things -- "(I was) in there celebrating the win and looking around the room, knowing we have everything we need to be a championship club," Aaron Boone told Adler yesterday, while Zack Britton told Dan Martin, "I think we’re good enough to win a World Series with what we have in-house. This is by far the best team I’ve seen (the Yankees) put together since I’ve been in the big leagues" -- but my gosh, every single pitching flaw was (greatly) exposed the last ten days or so, and the club's response was to do nothing. I don't know how that could sit well with anyone. Two years ago Dallas Keuchel called the Astros out for an inactive deadline -- "I'm not going to lie, disappointment is a little bit of an understatement. I feel like a bunch of teams really bolstered their rosters for the long haul and for a huge playoff push, and us just kind of staying pat was really a disappointment to myself," he told Brian McTaggart (the Justin Verlander trade came a few weeks later) -- and I have a hard time believing there isn't at least one Yankee who feels the same way. Maybe the Yankees need a player to call them out like that. Someone who carries weight in the organization, like Sabathia or Aaron Judge. Whatever. That's not happening. It's a fantasy. The Yankees' rotation is currently middle of the pack in park-adjusted run prevention (15th at 102 ERA-), and, now that the trade deadline is in the rear-view mirror, any improvement has to come from within, and that involves far too much hoping and praying for my liking.

5. Call up Clint. I don't know about you, but I am very surprised Clint Frazier is still with the Yankees. He's happy about it and I am too. The Yankees have buried Frazier in Triple-A close to two months now for whatever reason. Defense, attitude, whatever. Now that the trade deadline has passed and he remains with the team, it's time to call him up. Luke Voit is on the injured list and is probably going to miss six weeks with sports hernia surgery -- Aaron Boone said yesterday they may try treatment rather than surgery, but lol at that -- so a whole bunch of DH at-bats just opened up. The Yankees start a stretch of 19 games in 17 days tomorrow -- yes, 19 games in 17 days -- which means the regular outfielders are going to get days at DH and days on the bench. You know how this team is when it comes to resting players. There are DH at-bats and outfield at-bats available. Playing time is in no way an issue. Frazier hit .283/.330/.513 (116 wRC+) in over 200 plate appearances earlier this year, including .375/.417/.825 (201 wRC+) with runners in scoring position and .400/.417/.650 (158 wRC+) in high leverage situations, and a talented 24-year-old should be given a chance to build on that. Imagine if the Red Sox sent Rafael Devers to Triple-A to work on his defense last year rather than let him continue to grow as a big league hitter? The Yankees ran Miguel Andujar and his defensive issues out there every single day last year, and now I'm supposed to believe Frazier is unplayable? Get outta here. Clint is closing in on 190 career Triple-A games. It's time to get this show on the road. The Yankees did not use Frazier as a trade chip to get pitching help and that's cool. I'm glad he's still around. Now get him on the roster and let him help you win games, and let him build on what he did earlier this year. When you're trying to win a World Series, get the best and most talented players in the show. That is a hill worth dying on.

6. Garcia trade. The Yankees did make one small trade prior to the deadline yesterday. Up-and-down righty Joe Harvey was sent to the Rockies -- what's with all the ex-Rockies lately? -- for lefty pitching prospect Alfredo Garcia. It is a largely inconsequential trade that Brian Cashman admitted was 40-man roster maintenance more than anything. "It is trying to get ahead of the roster crunch. It could play its way in-season in 2019 as well as anticipation as Rule 5 issues in the future," Cashman told George King. The Yankees have nine players on the 60-day injured list and will have to start clearing 40-man spots soon, so they traded Harvey for Garcia now rather than lose Harvey on waivers in a few weeks. The 20-year-old Garcia has a 6.00 ERA (4.24 FIP) with 26.2% strikeouts and 9.6% walks in 105 Single-A innings this year, and he is nowhere to be found on any prospect lists. Colorado gave him a $900,000 bonus on the first day of the 2016-17 international signing period, so he was a capital-G Guy at one point. Here's what Ben Badler (subs. req'd) wrote about him back in the day:

In 2015, Garcia had been 5-foot-10, throwing 85-87 mph, but by January (2016) he had grown to 6 feet, improved his conditioning and was throwing 88-90 mph. Now 17, Garcia is 6-foot-2 with a stronger frame, sitting at 88-91 mph and touching 93. With a good delivery and easy arm action, Garcia also shows feel to spin a curveball and feel for his changeup as well.  

Sounds good? That was two years ago though, so who knows what the scouting report is now. The Yankees have a pretty good track record in Latin America and when it comes to identifying unheralded arms in other organizations, so maybe Garcia is the next Chad Green or Mike King or Luis Gil. We'll see. This is the move though. The only move the Yankees made at the trade deadline was a 40-man roster shuffle. Hard to believe.

7. Single trade deadline. The new single July 31st trade deadline is complete trash. MLB managed to suck all the fun and excitement out of free agency and the trade deadline in the last 20 months or so. Free agency was such a slog that I don't even want to talk about it anymore. What a terrible thing for the spot. The trade deadline? There were a bunch of nonsense, plainly transparent rumors, and mostly talk about how bad teams were not sure they should sell. And that's going to happen at all times. Move the trade deadline back to August 15th to give teams more time to decide whether they're in the race or not? Please, there are always going to be bubble teams no matter where we are on the calendar. Moving the deadline is rearranging the furniture on the titanic. Also, August is going to be really boring without trade possibilities. In theory, getting fans to focus on the action on the field is a good thing, except so few postseason races remain (the Central divisions and the Wild Card in both leagues, basically) and so many teams are tanking that they're no fun to watch. MLB is trying like crazy to cultivate younger fans and yet they've made free agency and the trade deadline less exciting than I ever thought possible. What a lame, unsatisfying trade deadline. Can't wait to see what perfectly fine thing MLB decides is in need of a solution next.

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