New York Yankees empire looks like it will rebuild Death Star fast

Gregg Patton writes the Yankees, with their deadline trades, have infused their farm system with high-end talent just as they can begin mapping a strategy for certain stars' oncoming free agency.

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. Kathy Willens / AP Photo / August 1, 2016

For the legions of baseball fans who hate the sport’s most successful franchise, it was a rare thrill watching the New York Yankees sell off some of their prized pieces as the August 1 trading deadline approached.

The Yanks, of course, are hard-wired to win at all costs, usually buying and buying more to keep pace. “Rebuilding” is a word they use in places like Atlanta, Minnesota and San Diego, not in the city that never sleeps.

The last time the team seriously shed assets, admitting it needed younger talent, was 1989 when they dealt 30-year-old star Rickey Henderson, still in his prime, to the Oakland Athletics.

Yes, it’s an odd summer when the Yankees are going nowhere, saddled with an aging roster and a bloated payroll, humbled into being deadline “sellers”.

Enjoy it while you can, haters.

Several prospects the New Yorkers got in return are special talents. As for that bottomless well of spending money usually available to this overtly wealthy organisation, it soon will be replenished. Three of their declining 20-plus-million-dollar-per-year players will be off the books within a season-and-a-half.

As soon as 2018, when a certain free agent named Bryce Harper will be eligible to leave the Washington Nationals, the Yankees could be right back where they usually are: annoyingly and dangerously powerful buyers.

For a general manager who doesn’t usually play the deadline game from the selling end, Brian Cashman did quite well.

The abridged version is that he traded reliever Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for their No 1 prospect, shortstop Gleyber Torres, 19; reliever Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians for their No 1 prospect, outfielder Clint Frazier, 21; and outfielder Carlos Beltran to the Texas Rangers for right-hander Dillon Tate, 22, the first pitcher taken in the 2015 draft.

The consensus among those who rank farm systems is that New York went from about twelfth to third in the upside potential of their minor league talent.

Among those already in the Yankees pipeline is slugging outfielder Aaron Judge, 24. He could be a New York regular by next year. First baseman Greg Bird, who had an impressive two-month stint last summer (11 home runs in 46 games), is expected to take over for Mark Teixeira in 2017 after missing the current season with a shoulder injury.

Teixeira’s $23 million (Dh84.5m) anchor is gone after this season. Struggling geezers Alex Rodriguez ($22 million per year) and CC Sabathia ($25 million per year) will come off the books at the end of next season.

If this is a rebuild, keep in mind that it will be a New York Yankees kind of rebuild. Which means it might also include Chapman, who will be a free agent as soon as the Cubs finish with him in October. The lefty with the 100-mile-per hour fastball departed New York with a tweet that said, in part, “goodbye, for now”.

No doubt the franchise, which hasn’t won a post-season game since 2012, will be anxious to satisfy its base of expectant fans, who don’t handle mediocrity well. Besides eyeing Harper down the road, the Yanks figure to be in the bidding for two more megastars from lesser-moneyed teams – third baseman Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles and pitcher Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins – if they don’t sign long-term deals before the end of 2018.

One more thing. The Yankees aren’t horrible now. They are a .500 team with not a lot of ground to make up.

In short, in the very near future, there could be a whole lot more for Yankees haters to hate.

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