There's no chance Guardians-Yankees Josh Naylor trade would've worked this seamlessly

Debate the merits of Josh Naylor vs. Paul Goldschmidt all you want, but if you wouldn't mind, just make sure you're debating to a wall. Because trades don't take place in a vacuum. Just because you think the Diamondbacks underpaid doesn't mean the Yankees wouldn't have been forced to pay double. And just because you think Naylor's lefty power would've been tempting in the Bronx doesn't mean the team was at all interested, nor does it mean the player was even available to them.

Naylor may not be a dysfunctional presence in every city, but in New York? Sharing a clubhouse with his "little f***ing son" Gerrit Cole? It may not have been an actual issue, but why bother outbidding the D-Backs by 2.5x when you could just import a calming clubhouse presence (and ex-MVP) in Paul Goldschmidt instead for money alone?

Naylor's trade value may have appeared shockingly low over the weekend (pitcher Slade Cecconi and a Comp Round B draft pick), but either that was the best they were offered/the market coalesced weirdly around a walk-year slugger who was only worth 1.5 bWAR last year, or the context was stripped from this particular discussion.

If you think the Guardians preferred to deal Naylor to their budding rival in New York over the NL West, and would've done so willingly at the same price, you're barking up the wrong family tree, overflowing with little f***ing sons. Besides, cost-aside, it's very unlikely that Naylor was the Yankees' top target.

Yankees would've never been offered same Josh Naylor deal from Guardians that Diamondbacks accepted

Not saying Cole couldn't have gotten along with Naylor, but the last time the Yankees forced that level of awkwardness ... I mean, was Josh Donaldson worth it?

Besides, the clubhouse concerns are secondary. No one knows how the Guardians view Slade Cecconi, the controllable reliever they added in this deal. It's possible he was 1A on their big board all along (unlikely, but possible). But if you think that two top-five teams in the American League could've swapped Naylor-for-pitching at the same price it cost the faraway Diamondbacks to obtain him, you're out of your mind. The Yankees could've added a Cecconi equivalent (a 25-year-old with a 6.66 ERA in 77 MLB innings last year) ... and then would've been asked to send over a power bat, too. It's very likely that their "Cecconi" (awful big-league tenure, projectability) would've been Will Warren, who scouts think very highly of (and compare to Michael King, pre-breakout).

Would you have done Warren and Everson Pereira for Naylor? Would you have preferred to thin out the system and bring in a live wire, or are you fine having brought in a calming balm in Goldschmidt instead?