Yankees: Remembering Brian Cashman’s Best Trades on His Birthday

3. David Wells for Roger Clemens

Somehow, the Yankees managed to upgrade from David Wells.

Most general managers, coming off a 114-win regular season and World Series title, would probably rest on their laurels and hold onto their third-place Cy Young finisher.

Brian Cashman, even at a young age, was not most general managers.

Well aware of the backlash that would soon hit his windshield, Cashman saw a chance for a monumental upgrade when Roger Clemens exerted a clause in his Toronto deal that allowed him to force a trade if he deemed his squad to be non-competitive. Much to everyone’s consternation, the Yankees pounced, swapping David Wells, he of the 18-4 record and perfect game in 1998, to Toronto, along with Homer Bush and lefty Graeme Lloyd.

In exchange, the Yanks got the Rocket, and Wells immediately regressed in ’99 (though he made the All-Star Game and won 20 games in 2000) and possessed significant vitriol against Cash for forcing him out of town — though not enough to prevent his return to NYC in 2002.

Clemens, arriving in New York at the age of 36, struggled to a 4.60 ERA amid an offensive explosion in ’99, but regained his form in 2000, and won the 2001 Cy Young with a 20-3 mark. Clemens also cashed in on two World Series during his time in New York, his signature moment a 15-K, one-hitter in the 2000 ALCS in Seattle.

And speaking of 2000…