Former fan favorite Yankees prospect dominates in MLB debut to add more pain

While we were all distracted by the Yankees picking up Mark Leiter Jr. and Enyel De Los Santos on deadline day (and who wouldn't be?!), a former Yankee fan favorite from below the surface switched clubs as well.

Andrés Chaparro, taken from the Yankees this offseason by the Diamondbacks as a minor-league free agent, represented the Washington Nationals' return in the Dylan Floro trade. Arizona, surging down the stretch, received a dependable middle reliever, while Chaparro received an opportunity; Washington promoted the red-hot slugger this past week, and the 25-year-old got a chance to play a role on a rebuilding club. It sure beats Rochester.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, this now places them squarely in Chaparro's crosshairs. While New York polished off the "Arizona" portion of their schedule in the season's first week, they'll head to Washington to face the Nationals from Aug. 26-28.

And what do you know? Chaparro debuted to the tune of a 3-for-4 night with three doubles, two runs scored and an RBI.

Former Yankees slugger Andres Chaparro called up by Nationals, will face NYY this season

We've kept paranoid tabs on Chaparro all year, but for good reason. He started off impressively enough, but scorched through July, hitting .438 with five bombs and 22 RBI in the month. That got him back onto the national radar after he'd faded into obscurity a bit with the Yankees at the Triple-A level.

His glove remains suspect, but diehard fans always knew there was a powerful bat buried in there somewhere after he shattered the exit velocity scale in 2022 with Double-A Somerset, racking up 19 bombs in 64 games. Though he was passed up on in the Rule 5 Draft following that season, he eventually found his way out of an organization where he was plainly blocked (and ignored), and has now fulfilled a long-held dream in DC after four homers in his first 10 games with the organization.

Hopefully, Chaparro shows the Yankees what they were missing at the tail end of August, but New York manages to take care of business on the scoreboard, and the effort lands largely with irrelevance. It'll never happen, but it's nice to think about.

Those three doubles against Baltimore? Made him the first Nationals rookie to ever do that. It begins. At least he helped the Yankees get to first place for the time being.