There is little doubt that the Chicago Cubs’ victory over the Cleveland Indians in game seven of the World Series will go down as one of the most thrilling and memorable games in the history of Major League Baseball. While both teams played tremendous gut-wrenching baseball, it was not a good outing for either of the former New York Yankees relievers, Aroldis Chapman or Andrew Miller. Yet going into this game, it looked like the Bronx Bombers may have made a grave error in trading these massive fireballers as Chapman came into the game with a World Series ERA of 1.42 with 9 K’s in 6.1 innings, while Miller came in with a 0.53 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 17 innings.
With the high profile dominance of these two relievers, some Yankees fans have been clamoring for Brian Cashman’s head, contending that he gave away two incredibly valuable assets that helped bring two championship deprived teams to the Holy Land that is the World Series.
Well to my fellow Yankees fans, I declare: Do not fret!
Yankees fans should not feel good about this trade because both Miller and Chapman performed poorly in the clutch in Game 7 (which would really only serve as a pretty weak consolation), but rather because these two relievers allowed the Yankees to rebuild their farm system big-time.
Through the trades of Miller and Chapman alone, the Yankees acquired top-100 prospects Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield, Gleyber Torres, and Billy McKinney, in addition to Dillon Tate (acquired in the Carlos Beltran deadline deal to Texas Rangers). The cream of this crop certainly seems to be Frazier, who projects as an All-Star corner outfielder, and Torres, a plus-power shortstop. Some scouts view the lefty Sheffield to be the next big thing, and some executives in the Indians front office were more hesitant about trading Sheffield than Frazier. Nonetheless, the Yankees acquired five top-100 prospects to improve an already strong farm system.
While the Yankees season ended strong, it would be unwise to think that the Baby Bombers, led by Gary Sanchez’s offensive explosion, were not playing over their heads. Subsequently, I believe it to be in the team’s best interest to build towards the 2019 Yankees, rather than frivolously spending on 2017 or 2018.
2019 is the year in which most of the Yankees top prospects will be big league ready, but more significantly, free agents like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Donaldson, Matt Harvey, Andrew McCutchen, David Price, Dallas Keuchel, and many more stars will be hitting free agency after the conclusion of the 2018 MLB season. It would not be surprising that a Yankees front office with currently few long-term commitments would spend big money to land two of these names.
But what to do between now and 2019?
Obviously, the Yankees need to make sure they are responsibly and carefully nurturing their top prospects. Additionally, they should continue giving young players with some form of Major League success, like Sanchez and Luis Severino, continued roles on the team going forward. I also propose that the Yankees deal veteran backstop Brian McCann for a medium to small return in order to save the club some cash and to give Sanchez an increased role (it has been rumored that the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros are two potential landing spots for the veteran, and the Yanks would likely need to eat a significant portion of McCann’s annual $17 million salary).
While the McCann trade is fairly conservative, I believe that trading Masahiro Tanaka, the team’s undisputed ace, this winter would be in the Bronx Bombers’ best interest. Tanaka is coming off of an astounding 14-4 season with a 3.07 ERA and 5.4 WAR, placing him behind only Corey Kluber as the most valuable pitcher in the American League.
Tanaka’s value will never be higher than it is right now. The Japanese ace has the opportunity to opt out of his contract at the end of 2017, and declare free agency if he so chooses. The only case in which he would not do so is if he has a poor 2017 season or if he gets hurt. In other words, if the Yankees want to keep their ace beyond 2017, they’ll either need to give him a new gargantuan contract or have a less effective/hurt pitcher. Because 2017 is another year of rebuilding for the Yanks, I say that the team trades him for young talent, in order to further the potential of this exciting 2019 roster.
Yes 2017 and 2018 might be rough years Yankees fans, but the team has the potential to reinvent itself and return to the perennial success of the late-90’s Yankees. Trading Chapman and Miller were two great steps for the organization, but if Cashman manages to trade McCann and Tanaka for substantial hauls, we may be looking at one of the greatest farm systems in the history of baseball.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT YANKEES FANS!