July 25, 2016: Cashman's Surrender

July 25, 2016: With the Major League Baseball trading deadline 7 days away, Brian Cashman, the general manager of the New York Yankees, traded his main relief pitcher, Aroldis Chapman, to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Gleyber Torres, outfielders Rashad Crawford and Billy McKinney, and pitcher Adam Warren.

This was only the beginning. 

The re-acquisition of Warren, in particular, angered me, as a Yankee Fan. He had previously pitched for the Yankees from 2012 to 2015, very badly. Cashman seemed to have figured out that he was useless, and traded him away. Now, he had gotten him back.

At the time, the Yankees were 50-48, as bad at that point of the season as they had been in 24 years. They were 7 1/2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Eastern Division, and 4 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the 5th and last Playoff slot in the AL. The 1978 comeback against the Boston Red Sox had shown me that no Division lead is ever safe, although a Wild Card berth seemed considerably more likely.

That day, after the trade was made public, I wrote:

Cashman may have blown the Yankees' chances at either the Division or the Wild Card with this stupid trade he made. He sent Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs, weakening the Yanks' one real strength.

Now, we go back to what we had last year? (Dellin) Betances to pitch the 8th inning, and (Andrew) Miller to pitch the 9th. But who will pitch the 7th? The starting pitcher? Not as long as (Joe) Girardi continues to let his damned binder manage for him! Who? (Chad) Green? He was fine yesterday, but is he a long-term solution? (Chasen) Shreve? Don't make me laugh. Nick Goody? No goody. Richard Bleier? Forget it. Anthony Swarzak? I don't trust him yet. Somebody from the minors?

Luis Severino has been brought back up. Do we put him in the bullpen? Or move (Nathan) Eovaldi or Ivan Nova back there? No, because both Nate and Ivan have pitched well lately. Maybe Severino becomes the 7th inning guy, and the presumptive heir to the closer role?

Face it: Whoever the Yankees got from the Cubs had better be damn good, good enough to help us get through the 7th inning with a lead, because, as long as Girardi is managing, that's going to be an enormous hole in our staff.

So who did the Yankees get?

* Adam Warren. Yes, that Adam Warren, who has already failed as a Yankee relief pitcher. Maybe he's gotten better? No: His ERA this season is 5.91, his ERA+ is 68, and his WHIP is 1.429. That's right, boys and girls: Adam Warren has gotten worse. I don't want him pitching the 7th inning for the Yankees, or any other inning. Let him screw things up for some other team!

* Gleyber Torres, a 19-year-old Venezuelan shortstop. currently in A-ball-plus.

* Rashad Crawford, a 22-year-old outfielder currently in A-ball-plus. He and Torres are both at least 3 years away from being ready for the majors.

* And Billy McKinney, an outfielder about to turn 22, who is currently at Double-A, and missed the last quarter of last season with an injury. The odds of him ever becoming a major league contributor are slim.

Essentially, the Yankees traded the best closer in baseball for a proven failure and 3 hunches.

Even of all 3 eventually pay off, they've essentially thrown away a shot at the Playoffs this season.

Don't tell me they didn't have a shot: They did.

Had the GM made this trade while George Steinbrenner was the team's operational owner, George would have called the Commissioner, and told him to cancel the trade. Then he would have fired Cashman on the spot for surrendering.

But by 2007, George's cognitive decline meant that his sons Hank and Hal took over. They built the 2009 World Champions. Hank was like his father: He wanted to win, and wasn't afraid to spend big to do it. But Hal wasn't that way: He wanted to make money, and if the team also won, he was okay with it. George died in 2010, and, by that point Hank was already ill with liver trouble, enabling Hal to win a power struggle between them, and his philosophy has ruled the organization ever since.

Cashman's trade-deadline-week capitulation got worse. On July 31, he traded Andrew Miller, the team's 2nd-best reliever after Chapman, to the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Clint Frazier, and pitchers Justus Sheffield, J.P. Feyereisen and Ben Heller. Sheffield was 20, Frazier was about to turn 22, Feyereisen was 23, and Heller was about to turn 25. Sheffield and Feyereisen were in Class AA, Frazier and Heller in Class AAA.

On August 1, Cashman sent a good starting pitcher, Iván Nova, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for players to be named later. On August 30, the trade was completed when the Yankees got outfielder Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley. Polo was about to turn 21, Tarpley was 23, and both were in Class A.

Finally, also on August 1, Cashman traded outfielder Carlos Beltrán to the Texas Rangers for pitchers Erik Swanson, Dillon Tate and Nick Green Swanson was about to turn 23, Tate was 22, Green was 21, and all 3 were in Class A.

So the Yankees traded a near-Hall-of-Fame slugger who still had something left, a decent starting pitcher, their superstar closer and an excellent reliever. Here's what they got for those players:

* Tito Polo was in the Yankee organization less than 1 full year, before being traded to the Chicago White Sox. He never played a game in the major leagues.

* The Yankees released Rashad Crawford after the 2019 season. He never played a game in the major leagues.

* The Yankees released Nick Green after the 2021 season. He has never played a game in the major leagues, and probably never will.

* Erik Swanson never appeared for the Yankees. More on him in a moment.

* J.P. Feyereisen was traded in 2019, before ever reaching the Yankees, and debuted in 2020 with the Milwaukee Brewers.

* Dillon Tate never appeared for the Yankees, and was traded in 2018 to the Baltimore Orioles, for a package that included Zack Britton, a reliever who gave the Yankees 4 good seasons before injuries struck him down in 2022.

* Billy McKinney debuted with the Yankees in 2018, and played 2 games, and then was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a package for pitcher J.A. Happ, who gave them good seasons in 2018 and 2019 before injury wrecked him in 2020.

* Stephen Tarpley was called up for 3 games late in 2018, and did all right. But he was awful in 2019, and was traded to the Miami Marlins for a player who never reached the majors.

* Justus Sheffield appeared in 3 games for the Yankees, all in 2018, and, along with Swanson, was traded to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher James Paxton, who gave the Yankees a good 2019 season before getting hurt in 2020 and being traded. Swanson made his MLB debut for the Mariners in 2019.

* Ben Heller debuted for the Yankees on August 25, 2016, but kept getting hurt, and was released right before Spring Training 2021.

* Aside from some minor power in 2019, Clint Frazier, whom I nicknamed "Can't Miss Clint" due to all the hype about him, didn't do much for the Yankees, and was released after the 2021 season.

* Adam Warren actually pitched reasonably well for the Yankees over the rest of 2016, 2017, and early in 2018 before being traded to the Mariners for "international bonus slot money." (Read: "Increased ability to sign a promising player from Japan," something both the Yankees due to their fame and the Mariners due to their Pacific Coast location have specialized in.)

* As of July 25, 2022, the jury is still out on Gleyber Torres: He has shown flashes of brilliance, but also flashes incompetence and laziness. He has made 2 All-Star Games, and helped the Yankees reach the postseason in each of his 1st 4 seasons with them (2018-21) -- but not to win a Pennant. He is 25, and may still develop. Or, he might flame out like Frazier did. As for all the others, none ever did anything for the Yankees. None.

It is true that Chapman was just a "rental" for the Cubs. Cashman signed him back for 2017. But he ended up falling apart at the worst possible times, including giving up a Pennant-clinching home run to Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros in 2019. When Chapman is pitching, you don't need to cheat: The reason you know what pitch is coming is that Chapman only has a fastball.

Essentially, Cashman traded 3 months of Aroldis Chapman -- August, September and October 2016 -- for 4 good years of Gleyber Torres and the promise of more; 4 good years of Zack Britton; 2 good years of J.A. Happ; 1 good year of James Paxton; and 1 semi-decent year of Clint Frazier.

Those 3 months gave the Cubs something they didn't have for 71 years: A Pennant. And something they didn't have for 108 years: A World Series win.

And even if, like Derek Jeter -- and Cashman does seem to treat Torres as "his Jeter," the way Jeter was to Gene Michael -- Torres helps the Yankees win 5 World Series, all of them, combined, still won't mean more to Yankee fans than that one does to Cub fans.

Throw in the fact that Beltran helped the Astros win the 2017 World Series, and that the team that the Cubs beat in 2016 was the Indians with Miller, and it can be said that, with these trades, Cashman won three Pennants -- for three different teams, none of which was the team he actually works for.

Ironically, if, at the 2016 trading deadline, Cashman had traded Chapman, Miller, Nova and Beltrán for Paxton, Britton (47 saves that season), and especially Happ (20-4), it might have been a great trade. As has so often been the case -- Richie Sexson, Vernon Wells, Jacoby Ellsbury, Josh Donaldson, to name a few -- Cashman got good players too late.

Since Cashman broke up the team that won the 2009 World Series -- a team built to win one more title before George Steinbrenner died, using his methods, not Cashman's "analytics" -- the Yankees have not won a Pennant. Everything else has changed, including the field manager. The only thing that hasn't changed is the general manager.

As of July 25, 2022, Brian Cashman still has a job.

UPDATE: In 2023, the Yankees brought Billy McKinney back as a free agent. At the age of 28, he finally developed into a serviceable backup outfielder. It doesn't make the Capitulation of 2016 look any better.

In 2024, Torres was a part of the Yankee team that won the American League Pennant, the team's 1st in 15 years. He batted .143 a home run and 3 RBIs in the 5 games of the World Series, which the Yankees lost. He turned 28 in December, an age at which he should be at his physical and performative peak. But his contract ran out. Cashman made no effort to sign him to a new one, and he signed with the Detroit Tigers.

In 7 seasons as a Yankee, with enough plate appearances to amount to 6 full ones, he batted .265, had an OPS+ of 112, hit 138 home runs, 441 RBIs, and 53 stolen bases -- averaging 23 homers, 73 RBIs and 9 steals. He never won a Gold Glove, made 2 All-Star Games, and helped the Yankees reach 6 postseasons, including 3 AL Championship Series and 1 World Series. Not showing up in the stats: His poor attitude.

Was he worth acquiring? Maybe. Was he worth what the Yankees gave up for him? No. Was he worth the hype? No. Are most Yankee fans sorry he's gone? No.

As of December 27, 2024, the day Torres signed with Detroit, Brian Cashman still has a job.

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July 25, 2016 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* In spite of their GM's stupidity, the New York Yankees beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Michael Pineda outpitched Dallas Keuchel. Austin Romine doubled home Chase Headley with the winning run in the top of the 8th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Manny Machado grounded back to pitcher Jordan Lyles, who threw the ball away, allowing Adam Jones to score the winning run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins, 4-0 at Marlins Park (now Loan Depot Park) in Miami. How many Phillies pitchers does it take to pitch a 2-hit shutout? Apparently, 4: Jeremy Hellickson (1 hit over 6 innings), David Hernandez (1 hit in the 7th, and became the winning pitcher), Hector Neris (a perfect 8th inning) and Jeanmar Gomez (a perfect 9th).

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the crosstown Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-2 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-5 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.