Hal Steinbrenner wanted to dream, wanted to believe his Yankees could make a late surge to at least a wild card this season.
But in his own backyard in Tampa, the Yankees owner watched the team lose a second and third straight game on Friday, then Saturday. So, Steinbrenner gave his blessings to what his general manager, Brian Cashman, wanted to do all along: Maximize Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller in a trade market with a few teams in a frenzy for late-inning relief help.
Because Chapman was in his walk year, Steinbrenner approved that more readily. But on Saturday – after even taking the time to read scouting reports and watch film of Indians prospects Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield – he gave his approval to deal Miller to Cleveland.
The swap was finalized Sunday morning with the Yanks giving up arguably the best reliever in the majors, Miller, for one of the best outfielder prospects in the game, Frazier, lefty Sheffield and two relief prospects, Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.
The Yankees are listening on all of their veteran players. They have gotten a few nibbles from the Braves about Brian McCann. The Rangers have circled a bit around Carlos Beltran. But the Yankees current policy is not to throw money into trades to complete them, which – at minimum – is holding up those deals. They also want to move Ivan Nova in his walk year and will listen on Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Brett Gardner and pretty much anyone.
However, Steinbrenner also told his baseball operations people that despite falling 4 1/2 games back in the wild-card chase, he wants to continue to try to win as much as possible in 2016. Dellin Betances will become the closer and young starters such as Chad Green, Luis Severino and – when his injury-rehab is complete – Bryan Mitchell will be given more prominent bullpen roles. The Yankees also have a deal in principle with the Diamondbacks for righty reliever Tyler Clippard.
This was a trading places trade – the Yanks as sellers, the Indians as buyers taking on an elite player on his salary (Miller is owed $18 million for 2017-18). Cleveland also tried to trade with the Brewers for Jonathan Lucroy, pending his approval to waive his no-trade clause. However, he exercised the provision and refused to go to the Indians.
Nevertheless, that the Indians did trade for Miller and tried for Lucroy emphasizes how much they are going for their first title since 1948. The Indians, like the 2015 Mets, have a powerhouse rotation and – as the Mets could explain with injuries to those arms this year – you better capitalize when the opportunity arises. That Miller and Lucroy have control beyond this season was a big motivator for the Indians.
By sending Chapman to the Cubs and Millers to the Indians, the Yanks furthered the concept that those are the teams to beat in the NL and AL, respectively.
The Yankees privately liked the Indians farm system better than that of the Cubs and were frustrated they could not push Cleveland further for Chapman. But Miller’s future control (which Chapman did not have as a free agent to be) prodded the Indians to give up Frazier and Sheffield, in particular. Those two plus Gleyber Torres (whom the Yanks got for Chapman) and also Jorge Mateo, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and James Kaprielian were all in Baseball America’s midseason top 100 prospects. Thus, the Yanks are now viewed as having one of the game’s better farm systems.
Frazier, who is at Double-A, is a 5-foot-11 corner outfielder, righty swinger considered to have high-end bat speed. He projects to a potential 20-20 player. Sheffield, who is at High-A, is a 5-11, athletic lefty, so he draws some comparisons to Mike Hampton. He has a 92-95 mph fastball with advance feel on a change and slider. The Yanks believe he will begin at Double-A next year with a chance to quickly advance.
Heller, who is at Triple-A, has a 94-97 mph fastball and sweeping curve, and the Yanks would not be surprised if he were a factor to pitch the seventh inning next year. Feyereisen is further away, but because of a quality slider to go along with a 91-94 mph fastball, the Yanks think he could grow into a set-up man, as well.