The Yankees and Cubs finalized a trade Monday that sends Aroldis Chapman to Chicago for elite shortstop prospect Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren and two other pieces.
Hal Steinbrenner, who initially balked at his team selling, gave his blessing to the deal. The Yankees’ plan now will be to see how they play over the next four or five days heading toward the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.
If the Yankees make inroads toward the playoffs, they will retain their current roster and maybe even try to add to make a postseason push. If they falter in the coming days, general manager Brian Cashman is positioned to move other pieces such as Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran, Brett Gardner, Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda and others.
The Nationals and Indians were the other teams talking most seriously to the Yankees, but never put a prospect into the deal the Yankees felt matched Torres.
Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein told the Yankees from the outset that their primary target – Kyle Schwarber – would not be included in any trade, even for the more desirable Miller. The Yankees’ focus eventually became Torres vs. Eloy Jimenez, a power-hitting, 19-year-old, Single-A outfielder who homered earlier this month in the Futures Game.
The Yankees decided they liked the makeup, high baseball IQ and skill set of a middle infielder more. Torres is just 19, and already playing well in High-A (.791 OPS). The Yankees also have arguably their top prospect, another shortstop, Jorge Mateo, at High-A. But the philosophy is shortstops can more easily move to other positions, as have Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, Jurickson Profar, Javier Baez, Starlin Castro, etc. Plus, shortstops usually retain strong trade value.
The other pieces in the package from the Cubs are Double-A outfielder Billy McKinney and Single-A outfielder Rashad Crawford.
Warren, who was traded last winter to the Cubs for Castro, has not pitched particularly well (5.91 ERA) and recently was sent to Triple-A.
He could return to the seventh-inning and/or multi-inning role he did well in last year and give the Yankees a reliever that Joe Girardi trusts to feed the ball to what would be the back-to-the-future end-game of Dellin Betances and Miller – sans Chapman.
Only Chapman would be going to the Cubs in this close-to-finalized deal.