The giddiness in Cleveland over two major acquisitions by the Indians in a 12-hour span wore off Sunday morning after one of the trades fell apart, but the go-go Indians did finish one deal, getting lockdown reliever Andrew Miller from the retooling New York Yankees for four prospects.
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Beltran insisted he wasn’t paying attention to business beyond his control, but the message from management about the direction of the 2016 Yankees was unmistakable.
That’s not the way the team framed it, of course, but in more than two decades – arguably in the entire history of the organization – there was never a day quite like Sunday, when the Yankees traded away their dominant, popular, team-controlled closer and shifted unmistakably toward rebuilding for the future. Between the Chapman deal last week and the Miller deal today, many people are saying that the Yankees now have some of the best players in the farm system. In all, NY was able to add eight total prospects for the price of just two relievers.
Chapman was an obvious move because he is a free agent at the end of the season, whereas Miller had two years left on his contract after this season, and was making only $9 million per year. Upon learning about the deal, I immediately began singing Boyz II Men’s 1991 hit “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye.”
In Cleveland, Miller will be no closer to home than he was in NY, but he and wife Katie Roark get back there for Gator football or basketball games whenever possible. A recent hot streak had propelled them back into the fringes of the playoff race, putting general manager Brian Cashman in a tricky position ahead of Monday’s nonwaiver trade deadline.
The Yankees will reportedly receive four prospects.
The Lucroy deal was agreed to late last night as the Indians sent four prospects to Milwaukee, including their top catching prospect in Francisco Meija who now has a 42 game hitting streak at Hi A. Meija was ranked as Cleveland’s #6 prospect in MLB Pipeline’s mid-season rankings. It’s time I’m going to look back at fondly.
NY is expected to receive prospects Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield in the deal, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney. Given what the Indians gave up, I’m a little curious about what the Rangers were asked for. The Indians had to part with Frazier along with minor league pitchers Justus Sheffield, Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.
Ausmus said he couldn’t speculate about whether the Indians’ aggressive actions at the trade deadline would prompt the Tigers to act. “So we’ll see where it takes us, but that’s the effort that we’ve got going on here, and I think fans should be excited by that”. He was not shocked by the deal but admitted it won’t be easy leaving the Yankees. “He helped us the last couple of years”. They didn’t go halfway. Sheffield now becomes the top pitching prospect for NY and the eighth in the seventh player overall in the system.
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All-in-all it’s a very good trade. “If you want to be a super team now, there are certain ways you have to go about it”.
