3 depreciated assets Yankees missed out on trading

2. Gio Urshela

It’s not that we wanted to trade Gio Urshela, but there’s been chatter about his potential departure this offseason due to a number of rumors, ranging from a Matt Chapman acquisition, to the signing of a stopgap shortstop, to the possibility of the Yankees using the third baseman as bait to bring in some more pitching.

But after a 2021 that was problematic on both sides of the ball, Urshela is far from a desired trade candidate that could net the Yankees something of serious note. He normalized across the board, with his average, OPS, OPS+ and defense all taking hits. In the shortened 2020 (43 games), Urshela logged 17 extra-bast hits. In 2021 (116 games), he logged just 34. He statistically had the worst defensive season of his career.

In other words, we might’ve just seen a regression to the mean. And that’s all it takes for trade value to tank. When you’re the Yankees dangling such an asset? Forget about it.

We’re just not sure why the Yankees didn’t deem it appropriate to move Urshela when his value was higher, if that’s rumored to be the plan now. Urshela was never expected to be what he was in 2019 and 2020. So the Yankees were riding the hot hand? OK, that’s passable. But then you’re going to sour on the once hot hand after a below-average 116 games?

It’s problematic in two ways: they’re either giving up on Urshela at the first sight of a decline or he was never part of the plan. And in the case of the latter, that means he should’ve been moved at least a year ago.