Yankees: What’s behind the proverbial “Player to be named later”?
The Yankees sometimes find themselves in a deal where they are either giving or receiving a player to be named later in a trade. What’s up with that?
In April, the Yankees completed a minor deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was reported on by SNY TV with the following blurb:
"The Yankees have traded RHP Johnny Barbato to the Pirates for a player to be named later or cash considerations, it was announced Monday."
Does anyone know if that deal has been finalized? The Yankees are owed a player. Who is he? We can bet that Brian Cashman hasn’t forgotten he was owed a player, but the rest of us? In case you missed it, because I sure did, the deal was finalized, and after an exhaustive search on Google, I found the missing piece as reported by Pirates affiliate OV Sports.net:with this blurb:
"The Pittsburgh Pirates sent minor-league pitcher Matt Frawley to the New York Yankees to complete the trade that sent reliever Johnny Barbato to Pittsburgh. 21-year-old Frawley was (3-1) with three saves for Class-A West Virginia."
Now, what do Michael Brantley, Gio Gonzalez, David Ortiz, Marco Scutaro, and Coco Crisp all have in common? With the theme of this column, you may have correctly guessed they are all players who have been named later in trades, which eventually landed them with a new club.
Ortiz, you may recall, did not become a Red Sox until the offseason because he was the PTBNL in a deal between the Twins and Seattle. When the Mariners released him, the Sox signed him as a free agent.
What’s the why and the how behind it, though
I’ve always been intrigued by the player to be named later. We don’t get to do that on a birth certificate, so why is it allowed in baseball? And somewhere in the back of my mind, I always thought there was something sinister going on in the back room with the door closed.
It turns out, that’s not the case at all. And come to find out, it’s usually something efficient between two general manager’s that makes a deal work that otherwise wouldn’t.
As an example, when Brian Cashman traded Barbato to Pittsburgh, his only purpose was to clear a roster spot for Jordan Montgomery, who was scheduled to make his first start in Pinstripes within days.
Barbato is out, Montgomery is added, he gets called up the same day and voila – Cashman has what he needs at the moment, and the Pirates have a reliable reliever they didn’t have the day before. And then the haggling begins over the PTBNL.
Another Scenario
Say the Pirates, to use them again as an example, have drafted but not yet signed a player. The Yankees have scouted him, and they have an interest in acquiring him. Because he is not yet signed, he cannot be included in a deal, officially.
But a deal can be made without naming him per se as the PTBNL when the Pirates do indeed sign him for a player the Yankees send to the Pirates on the day the deal is announced.
Injuries can also be a factor occasionally. Say the Yankees have a player currently on the DL and the Pirates express an interest in him but are not ready to pull the trigger on a deal for a player the Yankees desperately want.
Again, with the cooperation between the two GM’s a deal is made, usually with a deadline by which time the Pirates have to decide on whether to take the injured player, or they go back to the drawing board to negotiate a player to replace him.
In practice, it’s about as close as you can get to Fantasy Baseball with real life maneuverings by teams and general managers.
Next: Yankees face crucial decisions in August
But as we’ve learned, you need to keep a close eye on the Yankees Transaction Wire to see, eventually, how a deal shakes out when a PTBNL is involved.
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