Yankees helped fuel Guardians' postseason run with Jo Adell trade deadline blunder

The New York Yankees, seeking offense at the trade deadline, clearly prioritized a right-handed hitting outfielder who mashes lefties. Ultimately, they chose Heliot Ramos, surrendering a top-five prospect in their system in Henry Lalane to secure him on deadline day. A few days earlier, they had a chance to acquire a different player for the same role at a cheaper cost. Whether they truly pushed, as was rumored, or the reporting was faulty, the result was the same: Jo Adell went to Cleveland, the Yankees paid a higher price for Ramos, and one team is surging in the ALCS while the other sits at home.

Ramos heated up down the stretch after the Yankees faced righty after righty in the wake of his acquisition, but was buried in October. Adell? He's been a playoff star, slashing hard-hit grounders that have shifted both the ALDS in Chicago and Game 1 of the ALCS at The Trop on Monday night, propelling Jose Ramírez to gleefully round the bases against a pitching staff the Yankees could not solve.

Hindsight is 20-20 - but, in this case, so was foresight. Adell seemed like just as good a bet as Ramos, if not a better one, at a lower barrier to entry.

And yet, for whatever reason, the Yankees' reported "engagement" with the Angels became nothing, while they allowed the Giants to sneak Lalane AND Kaeden Kent from their system in exchange for Ramos, whose massive home run off Ranger Suárez helped tremendously, but who clearly didn't endear himself to the Yankees enough to earn playoff pinch-hitting reps against Ian Seymour. That was ... that was literally the whole point of him.

Yankees-Jo Adell rumors may not be true, but their Heliot Ramos decision is still damning

Whether the rumors about the Yankees' pursuit of Adell are accurate or not, the bottom line is they blundered. The Guardians surrendered a singular catching prospect - top-20 name in their system Jacob Cozart - to the Angels for Adell. What would the equivalent Yankees package be? Who knows what the Angels valued from their system, but ... No. 16 prospect and 2026 draftee Brendan Brock?

Regardless, unless the Angels were foolishly demanding the moon from the Yankees and settled with Cleveland - always possible! - it can't have been as expensive as the Ramos package. The Yankees managed to fall out of love with the player they targeted in the two months after the deadline - again, despite some strong results late! - while the Guardians have ridden Adell to a 108 OPS+ and seven homers in the regular season, followed by the clutch three-run double that flipped the ALDS in Game 3 and a brilliant hit-and-run to salt Game 1 of the ALCS away late in Tampa.

This isn't hindsight. The Yankees had two comparable outfielders in front of them on the market. Whether they walked down the line with the Angels and balked or not is irrelevant. They chose the player who made himself nearly unplayable in New York, while the AL Central champions scouted their target properly. The rest is history.

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