The Yankees blue chip prospects who will be traded next

The Yankees are betting that 2018 will bring a championship. Now it’s time to see which blue chips they will soon bet with, and which they will bet on.

The Yankees have plenty of potential in their farm system. It’s a system that the fans and front office have grown accustomed to appreciating, like a gift basket stocked with talented players who will be unwrapped a few at a time for years to come.

Visions of sugar plums dance in observers’ heads.

But that is not reality; it was never reality. And that’s because there is a very simple formula for success in the modern era: Grow young talent until you believe the team is close to winning a title and then surround it with as much now-talent as possible.

That’s true in all sports, and dynasty building.

And just between me, you and Giancarlo Stanton’s contract, I don’t mind a little evil with my empires. I actually relish it. Mostly, I think, it is the fear and panic a good ol’ Yankees dynasty instills in their so-called opponents that delights me.

They quiver, quake and finally quail in the face of certain defeat. The next thing you know, 27 turns into 28, turns into 29, and so on. I’m gonna let you in on a secret: When the Yankees are dominant, I pay extra to watch NESN for the sheer schadenfreude of it all. [Insert maniacal laugh here.]

I better stop there before I lose all objectivity and this devolves into a fan-boy piece. Whew, just in time.

No one noticed that

Fortunately, Brian Cashman reads my stuff and we seem to be simpatico. He has cleared the dross, mostly, and opened the path for younger, better players. But one thing fans love, and observers applaud against their will, is that the Yankees don’t just try to win a World Series, they bum rush that stage.

One thing they will not do is blow up their future, though, which makes for difficult choices.

On paper, the Yankees have a WS-caliber team, right now. But all that means in the real world is that they should make the playoffs and be favored to reach the Fall Classic. That sounds like something the Tigers would settle for. And did.

Not the Yankees. It’s clear that adding a player like Stanton should put them in the WS. And that’s why they are going to add four or five more important pieces. Wouldn’t Mets’ fans have liked their team to really load up after their recent WS trip?

That means that Cash is going to take a few of the Yankees’ best prospects and trade them right now, maybe even today.

Brian, CDACE and Corky Cashman

But before that happens we get our chance to play GM. One standard way of working out trades is to put players on four lists: C, B, A and Untouchable.

Therefore, I have grouped the players who are most likely to be traded, followed by a few of the trades I would like to see happen. If I included a player who has already left the Yanks’ system, feel free to excoriate me.

Please remember that the C group has to be the biggest, and A very exclusive. And that players who might be A’s on other teams are B’s here. When Jorge Guzman was traded, he went from the Yankees’ ninth or tenth ranked prospect to the Marlins’ top ranked.

Pick players from each bracket and put together trade packages. Any who choose to consider the monetary impact should, but this is meant to be a bit less formal.

I passed over players that spent the recent season injured, except for Jonathan Loaisiga. That means no Matt Sauer, Clarke Schmidt, or Nolan Martinez.

That is not to say they wouldn’t be included in any deals, just that their production with the Yankees has been too low to count them as losses. The same is true for players in the system who have lost all real value as prospects, such as Kyle Higashioka.

And some of you will take exception to my groupings. Great, but if you criticize, remember to come up with your own groupings. With all of that in mind, here are most of the Yankees’ top prospects in their likely groups, as well as the ones I hope are still untouchable.

The B Group

SP Glenn Otto: 21/Staten Island

1.17/0.72/25/3

SP Brian Keller: 23/Tampa

3.07/1.12/145/25; It was tough to keep him out of the A group, but that group has to be small.

SP Rony Garcia: 19/Charleston

2.37/0.97/51/15

CF Carlos Vidal: 21/Charleston

.304/.363/.374

OF Jake Cave: 24/SWB

.310/.354/.565; A great year but too inconsistent.

SP Jonathan Loaisiga: 23/SI

1.38/0.61/33/3

SP Domingo German: 25/SWB

2.94/1.13/107/29; Good MLB debut, but not overwhelming.

SP Taylor Widener: 22/Tampa

3.57/1.16/121/48

2B Nick Solak: 22/Trenton

.301/.390/.467; If his defense was better, he would definitely be an A. His bat is very real.

RF Billy McKinney: 22/SWB

.279/.346/.500; Another good year but still a role player.

SP Domingo Acevedo: 23/Trenton

3.25/1.20/142/34

SP Albert Abreu: 21/Rehab assignment GCL

3.55/1.20/53/15

RP Nestor Cortes: 22/SWB—Gone in Rule 5 Draft

2.16/1.03/85/28

U Tyler Austin: 26/SWB

.286/.357/.562; He only has one more chance to prove he can stay healthy and produce consistently.

The A Group

No pitcher made it into this group who is not absolutely seen as a starter. That is why Acevedo and Abreu were not elevated, for example.

RF Clint Frazier: 23/SWB

.256/.344/.473

SP Freicer Perez: 21/Charleston

2.88/1.15/107/39

SP Justus Sheffield: 21/Trenton

3.09/1.35/79/33

SP Dillon Tate: 23/Trenton

3.07/1.17/51/2

SP Chance Adams: 23/SWB

2.27/1.03/127/53

Thairo Estrada: 21/Trenton

.300/.349/.387; His performance in the Arizona Fall League elevated his status.

The Untouchables

SS Gleyber Torres: 20/SWB

.287/.383/.480

3B Miguel Andujar: 22/SWB

.320/.357/.508

CF Estevan Florial: 19/Tampa

.298/.374/.476

It is an embarrassment of riches to have three untouchables.

Tis the season of giving

The Yankees need two starters; a front line as well as a back end innings eater. I think it very likely that they will sign a free agent to fulfill one of these roles.

And to keep this from being the longest article ever, I will also assume that a package for any of these starters will be the same, although time under control would play a significant factor in any real trade discussion.

Of course the top pieces the Yankees now want to move are Clint Frazier and Chance Adams. The team does not see Adams as a future star while his trade value will never be higher. I think they look at Sheffield and Tate as players with higher upsides and will prioritize them.

You know the players out there under consideration: Manny Machado, as well as starting pitchers Patrick Corbin, Chris Archer, Gerrit Cole, Danny Duffy and Michael Fullmer. There are others but these seem the most likely, at present.

And here come the angry comments

So, to get one of those aforementioned pitchers, the Yankees should offer Frazier and Adams, and any two C’s the other team wants; only one of those a pitcher. Marcel Ozuna went for a similar but lesser package and pitchers always cost more.

If the bigger Corbin/Brandon Drury trade comes down, the Yanks will need to add another C or two, or possibly a B. Thairo Estrada for Drury would be overpaying.

If they are then forced to trade for a second pitcher from that group, they would then have to offer one C, two B’s (one pitcher only), and one A. And that would mean another farm hand pitcher would be leaving.

The left-handed Sheffield is likely to be the last one traded and might already be on the Untouchable list, so look for the Yankees to push Acevedo and Tate, if it comes to that.

Talk is cheap, Machado is not

There has been some talk about Manny Machado. As much as acquiring the mercurial infielder seems unlikely, the same was said by me last week about Stanton. The added barrier here is that it is highly unlikely the Orioles would trade directly with the Yankees.

Unlikely yes, impossible no.

Perhaps more likely is the scenario we see playing out with Yankees’ trading partners. The Marlins are presumably shopping Starlin Castro and would be wise to turn him into multiple prospects. Another team might do the same with Machado.

If the White Sox, for instance, want to trade for Machado only to re-trade him for a better package from the Yankees, a circuitous route would bring him to New York. And the reason it might work that way is all about the money.

Machado is set to earn over $15 million in this, his final year before free agency. The Orioles want to get rid of his salary and so, will take a lesser packet of prospects. But the White Sox want prospects. They might be willing to eat Machado’s salary for one year in order to get far superior replacement players.

Assuming the Yankees make the first trade for a pitcher I proposed, but not the second, they would have to really pony up the players to get Machado. That means two C’s, two B’s and two A’s.

That is going to hurt. Again, there has to be a limit of one pitcher per group. That would mean saying goodbye to Estrada for sure, and Nick Solak as a strong possibility. And even Sheffield might have to be conceded.

Odds and Ends

Of course there might still be another Chase Headley-type trade, and well worth it to lose Chance Adams in order to say goodbye to Ellsbury. And there are going to be more small, prospect-for-prospect type swaps.

But there is only good news in Yankees land. Cashman’s boys blossomed into world beaters before our eyes. Imagine the team that went to Game 7 of the ALCS, a year older and better.

And now imagine it with the Giancarlo Stanton batting somewhere in the middle of that order, and with Gleyber Torres leading off.

Now picture that team going seven pitchers deep, starting with Cy Young candidate Luis Severino, followed by Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, Patrick Corbin and Chris Archer as the first five, with Jordan Montgomery and Justus Sheffield or Dillon Tate at Triple-A.

And with the money to get help in July.

One quick note: Some of you will write that the Yankees need to give Montgomery a chance. I root for the Yankees, not the Jordan-Montgomery’s. And I don’t want the Yankees to take a chance on winning, I want them to ensure they win.

I love Montgomery but if the Yankees could trade him and three C’s for Corbin, trading Jordan would be a slam dunk. Sorry, but I had to write that.

Beat you so bad your ancestors will feel it

Now that sounds like a super team built to absorb injuries during the regular season and still be the most talented club every night. And the odds are likely that the regular season tryouts will reveal the best postseason starters.

I have previously advocated that the Yankees go all in and use every spare part at Triple-A to win this year, and beyond. The team got off to a great start by giving up only one future star, Jorge Guzman, for a superstar in his prime. One or two more deals and the Yankees will be ready for the 2018 season.

And now it’s your turn to suggest the deals you think the Yankees should make, or are likely to make. Because there are more truths than just death and taxes. One is that the Yankees are going to trade players from this list.

Another is that other teams might grouse about those trades as much as they did when the Stanton deal was consummated.

Next: Giancarlo Stanton trade brought a bizarre response from the Daily News' Bill Madden

The final truth most teams are awakening to is that the 2018 season is likely to be one long, slow, painful beat down by the Yankees. And, in case I was somehow vague, I mean painful for all the other teams, and hilarious for Yankees fans, like me.

[Insert maniacal laugh here.]