Yankees Rumors: What the Marlins asked for in exchange for J.T. Realmuto

Earlier this offseason the Yankees were in talks with the Marlins about acquiring J.T. Realmuto so they could then flip him in a separate trade for Mets RHP Noah Syndergaard. In return, the Marlins reportedly asked for quite the haul from New York for their All-Star catcher.

After a full offseason of speculation, the Marlins finally pulled the trigger on a Realmuto trade this week by dealing him to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday. The wait was worth it for Miami and Yankees legend Derek Jeter as they received top pitching prospect Sixto Sanchez, catcher Jorge Alfaro and minor league LHP Will Stewart.

When the rumors leaked in early December about the Yankees involvement in the Realmuto sweepstakes many figured that Miami would ask for All-Star catcher Gary Sanchez in return. That turned out to be true but it wasn’t just Sanchez they were hoping to acquire. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Marlins wanted both Sanchez and AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Miguel Andujar.

I can’t blame Jeter and Marlins GM Mike Hill for asking but this was an absurd request. They had to figure there was no chance the Yankees would say yes to such a deal. Sanchez and Andujar are key members of the Yankees great young core so trading them for Realmuto just so they could then trade him for Syndergaard wouldn’t have made much sense.

Personally, I wouldn’t have traded either one of them for Realmuto or Syndergaard straight up because I think both Sanchez and Miggy have the potential to be perennial All-Stars. Realmuto is a great player and is probably the best catcher in the game right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we’re saying the same thing about Sanchez this time next year. Yes, he had a miserable injury-plagued season in 2018 but I’d argue that when Sanchez is healthy and clicking on all cylinders his ceiling is higher than Realmuto’s.

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As for Andujar, he has the skills to hit 30 HR and drive in 100 plus RBI while hitting over .300 every season. Realmuto is the better all-around player right now, but to put things into perspective let’s compare the two players offensive numbers a season ago.

Realmuto had a career year in 2018 where he hit .277 with 21 HR and 74 RBI. Andujar in his rookie campaign hit .297 with 27 HR, and 92 RBI. To add more context to the argument when Sanchez had his career year in 2017 he hit .278 with 33 HR and 90 RBI, even though he missed a month of the season.

It’s in the past now, but if Brian Cashman was delusional enough to go through with the trade it could’ve led to the Yankees signing Manny Machado, which I’m sure a lot of fans would’ve loved to have seen happen. Although another thing to consider is what if the Mets ended up rejecting a swap of Realmuto for Syndergaard? Because if they did the decision to trade Andujar and Sanchez just for Realmuto would have been one of the biggest blunders in franchise history.

All things considered, I think both the Yankees and Marlins are happy with how things ended up playing out. The Marlins still got the big haul in return they were looking for all winter and the Yankees still have Sanchez and Andujar, two franchise cornerstones who’s best years are still very much ahead of them.