Yankees: 3 trades other teams pulled off that prove NYY botched deadline

2. Padres’ big splash acquiring Mike Clevinger from Indians

The Yankees didn’t have to do this, but it showed prices weren’t that excessive.

Let’s preface this by saying that the Yankees should not have traded for Mike Clevinger. His ousting from Cleveland was concerning enough from a character standpoint and he’s still not of the caliber the Yankees need — another top-of-the-rotation arm with ample postseason experience was required for NYY, if they were going to go for it all.

But when you saw Clevinger, a promising young pitcher with two more years of control after 2020, was dealt for San Diego’s Nos. 7, 9 and 11 overall prospects plus a couple of marginal major leaguers in Josh Naylor, Austin Hedges and Cal Quantrill, it was clear other starters out there could’ve been had without having to gut the farm system (especially since the Pads also got OF Greg Allen and a PTBNL).

Why wouldn’t the Yankees call the Nationals about Max Scherzer, who is signed through 2021? How about Colorado Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland? If Clevinger, a guy who has the second-best ERA (Justin Verlander is first!) in MLB across 75 starts since 2017, could be had for that price, why couldn’t someone better with fewer years of control or worse with more years of control be an option? The Yankees have so much talent they can afford to part with.

We don’t know ongoing conversations the Yankees were having, but the fact that there weren’t too many spicy rumors followed by zero results indicates they may not have been as aggressive as fans would have liked.

1. Mike Minor to the A’s

The Yankees could’ve had Mike Minor for relatively cheap.

This is the one that should have everyone enraged. The Yankees desperately could’ve used another effective left-hander in the rotation with James Paxton on the shelf as well as the uncertainty surrounding JA Happ (even though he’s been really good his last two outings). We love Jordan Montgomery, but can he start in the playoffs? We don’t know.

So some insurance in the form of experienced big leaguer Mike Minor would’ve been great! He’s off to a terrible start in 2020, but that means he could’ve been had on the cheap, which is what Cashman probably would’ve loved! The Yankees GM never overpays for players and even when he’s made big deals, he manages to avoid parting with top names.

On top of Minor being acquired for a great price, the Texas Rangers traded him to the division-rival Oakland Athletics. General manager Billy Beane surrendered only his Nos. 13 and 19 prospects for the lefty, who owns a 3.76 ERA in 132 games (67 starts) since the start of 2017. He’s only got one postseason start under his belt, but he can eat innings and get strikeouts.

Isn’t this the guy you go out and get if you need rotation help? He’s cost-effective in terms of price and trade value, a veteran arm, and has no ties beyond 2020 (but you’d have the first crack at re-signing him). It almost seemed too good to be true. Instead, the Rangers were happy to make a rival who happens to be the second-best team in the AL even better.

The Yankees are hopefully they’ll get a number of key guys back from injury in the next week or two, but if they can’t stay afloat during that span, they’re going to look back at the deadline and have a lot of regrets.

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