Yankees: 3 best trades NYY didn’t make in recent years

1. Judge and Severino to Atlanta

Three years ago, the Atlanta Braves were in the middle of a multi-year rebuilding project, and they held negotiations with New York about a potential 10-player blockbuster trade that, when looking back at it, featured some of the best young studs in MLB today.

Let’s start with a breakdown of the near-disaster.

Yankees get: Andrelton Simmons, Jayson Heyward, Melvin Upton Jr., David Carpenter and Chris Johnson.

Braves get: Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Manny Banuelos and Ian Clarkin.

We all know that Cashman loves nothing more than completing a trade, but there’s really no reason for fans in the Bronx to think that this mega blockbuster was even close to coming to fruition. Still, the fact that the details were made public proves that the Yankees dodged a massive bullet.

Imagine if New York was forced to watch Judge, Severino and Sanchez morph into the stars they are and will continue to be for several years with the Braves? And in exchange, all the Yankees would’ve gotten is Jayson Heyward (aka Mr. Rain Delay in Chicago), a defense-first short stop in Simmons, and some relievers and backups? Just picturing that reality is enough to make us want to vomit.