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Standing on the grass at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, this spring watching Aaron Judge drill moon shots toward Dale Mabry Highway, you couldn’t yet see into July, when the New York Yankees would hit the eject button on two-thirds of their killer back end of the bullpen and parachute into seller mode for the first time since 1989.

But here in midsummer, Andrew Miller—now property of the Cleveland Indians, as the Yankees’ PR Dept. announced Sunday—and Aroldis Chapman—now of the Chicago Cubs—you sure as heck can look ahead as these ho-hum Yankees slog toward the 2016 finish line and see a future that has clicked from grainy, muddled signals to high-def.

Somebody asked general manager Brian Cashman on a conference call Sunday whether he thought the Yankees fanbase would tolerate this sell mode, a concept that in recent years has been as difficult to imagine as Derek Jeter getting, um, married.

A better question would have been whether the Yankees should have done this a long time ago.

Look, as great as the days of Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera were, what’s evident at the other end of that era is how the Yankees allowed their farm system to become overrun with weeds. The only homegrown position player they’ve developed since 2008 is Brett Gardner. No offense to Gardner, who is a gamer, but he ain’t exactly the second coming of Joe DiMaggio…or Bernie Williams.

Yes, in their efforts to keep the ball rolling in the present over the past few years, the Yankees wound up delaying their future. Birthday candles for Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran don’t exactly lead to the next promised land.

For Miller, the Yankees pulled in outfielder Clint Frazier and left-hander Justus Sheffield, considered two of Cleveland’s three best prospects, along with right-handers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.

For Chapman last week, the Yankees hauled in prized shortstop Gleyber Torres, considered the best prospect in a very rich Cubs system, right-hander Adam Warren and two other minor leaguers.

“I don’t know if I can say there is a change in institutional thinking,” Cashman said Sunday with Miller en route to the Indians. “Clearly, there is a recognition that has to take place that the chessboard that’s lined up that we’re playing on is not the same chessboard we were playing on when I started in the late 1980s and 1990s.

“Clearly, there have been a lot of changes in the game. Access to talent is more restricted; penalties are more in play. Back when I first started under the Boss [Steinbrenner], we could go into the international market and pull down an El Duque [Orlando Hernandez] to replace an Eric Milton we traded away. You could execute and dominate that way.

“You could play in the draft with a Deion Sanders, [taking a flier on] a two-sport star. But now the draft is restricted; you’ve only got so much money to play with. And the cost of international talent is capped.

“Instead of institutional change, it’s a reaction to how the industry is completely different and operating standards are completely different.”

In other words, the game is a lot more balanced now. Old money doesn’t go as far as it once did. The game was forced to react, and it did. Not only does money flow through many more markets in a modern game that last year produced some $9.5 billion in revenues, but rival front offices have gotten smarter. Much smarter.

“If you want to become a superteam, there are different ways to go about that now,” Cashman said. “One thing the Yankees have always stood for is an effort to become a superteam.

“We obviously have a number of World Series titles, and there were years we haven’t been able to win. But I can tell you, the effort is always there—the strategizing and dreaming about how to become a superteam.”

Cashman did not dream overnight Saturday, because he did not sleep. Not a wink, he said. Talks with Cleveland that produced the Miller deal started in earnest around 10 or 11 p.m. Saturday, the GM said, and continued throughout the night.

“It’s hard, especially with Miller, because we’ve had him through last year, and we had him under control, obviously, under a very strong contract for the next two years,” Cashman said. “In his case, it was extremely difficult.”

Reality is, the difficulty should have been in the details of whom the Yankees were getting back, not in the decision to move Miller. As play started Sunday, the Yankees were one game over .500 (52-51). Toronto was 14 over (59-45). Baltimore was 13 over (58-45). Boston was 10 over (56-46). If the American League East teams were swimming in a pool, the Yankees would be the kid learning how to swim, flailing madly just to keep moving forward and hold their head above water.

That’s no way to roll. And that’s coming off last season, when the Yankees were eighty-sixed from the AL Wild Card Game they hosted by Houston.

No, this superteam Cashman talked about, the Yankees haven’t been that in years. And it’s because when you acquire too much of your oxygen from the free-agent market—A-Rod, Beltran, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann, etc.—you get too many players just after their peaks. Maybe you get a brief window of high production, but the returns begin to diminish far too quickly.

As Theo Epstein and the Cubs are showing, as World Series champion Kansas City exhibited last year and the up-and-coming Astros continue to prove, teams cannot thrive in today’s game without a healthy farm system.

Finally, the Yankees are making the moves they need to in that area. Cashman talked Sunday about “doing a dance between the future and the present” to “cushion the blow,” attempting to give manager Joe Girardi a chance to win now while the club focuses on the future. Thus, Warren from the Cubs and the acquisition of reliever Tyler Clippard from Arizona.

But all that is is borrowing furniture during a move because, well, you’ve gotta have someplace to sit in your living room until the move is complete.

Let’s just say the Yankees won’t be having guests over to show off their place right now. But they plan to soon.

“I’m getting a lot of compliments when scouts parachute in to cover us; they walk away impressed with the work we’ve done,” Cashman said. “I know that recognizability hasn’t been the case as much for a period of time.”

Now, he promised, “the picture is brighter than at anytime since I started.”

In Frazier, Cashman said, the Yankees acquired “an electric bat. His bat speed is already legendary. He’s got all the tools: He can run, hit, he has hittability, he can hit for power, play all three [outfield] positions. And he has high energy—he shows up for the national anthem in a dirty uniform.”

Sheffield, he said, “gets up to 95 [mph], has a three-pitch mix and is a competitor on the mound.”

Using their “Prospect Points,” MLBPipeline.com, in a midseason adjustment Wednesday, ranked the Yankees system fourth in the majors.

It now ranks Frazier as the No. 1 prospect in the Yanks organization and Torres No. 2. Judge, the 6’7″ behemoth with the raw power to make any park look small, is No. 4.

“They’re nice additions to what already is considered a very strong farm system,” Cashman said of Sunday’s haul. “When I started with the Yankees, with [current San Francisco GM] Brian Sabean as director of player development and [legendary former Yankees scouting director] Bill Livesey, we had started to build under their direction some of the best young talent we’ve had.

“The system currently in play is hopefully starting to mirror that system that propelled us into the 1990s.

“We’re trying to get back into a situation where we’re building an uberteam.”

Call it what you want—superteam, uberteam, whatever.

The most important thing today is the renewed recognition that the seeds for those teams must begin to flourish in the bushes—and not with the free-agent checkbook.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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The New York Yankees are remaking their bullpen prior to Monday’s non-waiver trade deadline, acquiring right-hander Tyler Clippard from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman first reported the deal. Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted Clippard, under contract through next season, will serve as the seventh-inning setup man for the Yankees, with Adam Warren and a slate of young arms such as Luis Severino, Chad Green and Brian Mitchell bridging the eighth inning to Dellin Betances in the ninth.

The acquisition of Clippard is an interesting one for New York, which is in sell mode for the first time in decades.

The Yankees traded Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs on Monday, and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Sunday that New York dealt Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians.

Clippard has struggled this season in Arizona. He has a 4.30 ERA, which would be his worst mark in a full season, and he’s allowed seven home runs in 37.2 innings.

The 31-year-old is still missing bats with 46 strikeouts, but the key for him to succeed will be keeping the ball in the park. Left-handed hitters have tattooed him for a .534 slugging percentage in 2016, per Baseball-Reference.com.

The Diamondbacks, who are 43-61 and in last place in the National League West, had no reason to keep Clippard. They also perhaps wanted to dump his $6 million-plus yearly salary.

The Yankees are in an awkward position because they are 52-51 but also loaded with aging players—such as Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia—who likely can’t be moved because they are owed too much money.

It’s a credit to New York general manager Brian Cashman that the club reaped solid returns in the deals for Chapman and Miller. Clippard isn’t going to turn the Bronx Bombers’ fortunes around, but he will provide a veteran relief presence.

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The New York Yankees are considering trading catcher Brian McCann ahead of the trade deadline on Monday, though no deal is imminent.

Continue for updates.

McCann Linked to Braves

Sunday, July 31

MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported on Sunday that the “[Atlanta Braves] have discussed trading for [McCann]. It depends on how much money the Yankees are willing to eat.”

McCann previously played with the Braves from 2005 to 2013 before joining the Yankees. He’s in his third season with the Yankees after signing a five-year, $85 million deal in 2013.

McCann Expendable as Yankees Fail to Win

McCann, 32, is hitting .235/.334/.430 with 15 home runs and 41 runs batted in this season. 

The Yankees (52-51) are in fourth place in the AL East. They’re six games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the division lead and 4.5 out of the AL’s second wild-card spot.

McCann hasn’t made an All-Star team since his arrival, but he’s been a generally solid addition. He is on pace for his third straight 20-homer season in New York and could clinch another two-plus WAR (FanGraphs formula) with a good second half. The Yankees have essentially jettisoned him from the lineup against left-handed pitchers in favor of Austin Romine. 

“This year, we have not been getting what we expected,” general manager Brian Cashman said, per Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com. “He is better than this.”

Romine would stand to see a majority of the work if McCann was dealt. The Yankees also have 23-year-old top prospect Gary Sanchez waiting in the wings. Sanchez is hitting .286/.333/.478 with 10 home runs and 48 runs batted in for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season.

Moving McCann now would clear Sanchez to split catching duties with Romine for the remainder of 2016 and perhaps set up a full-time job in 2017. The Yankees already have too many aging players who need time at the designated hitter spot, so McCann has essentially become expendable.

The biggest issue would be his contract, which teams would no doubt expect New York to pay part of. The Yankees are currently on the hook for at least $34 million in 2017 and 2018, and there is a vesting option for $15 million in 2019, should McCann hit certain playing-time barriers. He also has a full no-trade clause, so he would have to approve any trade.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.

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Choose your numbers carefully when evaluating what Chris Archer has become this season for the Tampa Bay Rays and what he could become in the future.

The bloated ERA (4.42) tells you he hasn’t been nearly as good as he was the previous three seasons. He’s also giving up more hits than he ever has (8.6 per nine innings), more home runs than he ever has (1.5 per nine innings) and the most walks since he was a rookie (3.5 per nine innings).

Win-loss records have less significance than they once did, but Archer’s 5-14 mark isn’t exactly an illusion. He’s not having a good year.

So if and when the Rays hold him out as an ace on the trade market, with ESPN.com‘s Jerry Crasnick suggesting this week it would take “a monster package” for the Rays to even consider moving him, it figures that no one will take that gamble.

But maybe someone should.

If it takes a monster package now, that only means it would take a monster package-plus if Archer goes back to being an ace-in-waiting. Giving up a monster package may not feel like buying low, but if the alternative is waiting and then paying monster-plus, well, perhaps now is the time to act.

His numbers aren’t all bad. While Archer leads the American League in losses, he also leads the league in strikeouts (155 in 130.1 innings). His strikeout rate (10.7 per nine innings) is exactly what it was last year. His fastball velocity, according to FanGraphs, is 94.1 mph, a tick below last year but basically in line with his career average.

“The stuff is still there for him to be a horse,” said one National League scout who has seen Archer multiple times this season. “Can he be an ace again? I would bet on that.”

It would be a big bet in terms of prospects surrendered, but not in terms of money. Archer makes $2.9 million this year, and the contract he signed with the Rays in 2014 runs through 2021, if you include two club options.

When he signed, it was the biggest deal ever for a player with less than a year of service time ($25.5 million guaranteed). If he becomes an ace, he’ll become an absolute bargain ace.

The bigger question is why he’s not close to being an ace now and whether he can become one soon.

Not everyone is convinced.

“It’s tough to say with certainty what’s causing his issues this year,” said a scout from another National League team that needs pitching. “It’s at least worth noting not only how much he used his slider last year, but that those sliders were typically 90 mph.

“How taxing is that on the arm?”

According to FanGraphs, Archer threw his slider 39.2 percent of the time last season and has used it almost as often this year (38.0 percent). The velocities are similar (as high as 92 mph, with an 88 mph average), but the results aren’t as good.

Archer told Tim Brown of Yahoo he’s been “this close,” and he suggested that after starting off poorly, he may have shied away from contact and lost some confidence.

“I think people have been very critical of me, and I’m fine with it,” Archer told Brown.

There’s room for criticism, but there’s also room for comparison. Detroit’s Justin Verlander had a similarly bad season early in his career, leading MLB with 17 losses in 2008, with his ERA spiking to 4.84.

A year later, Verlander was back on the All-Star team, with a season good enough that he finished third in Cy Young voting.

Verlander didn’t have to deal with the possibility of being traded, something that is ever-present when you play for the Rays. Last week, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark put this on Twitter:

It’s hard to say how much any of that has affected Archer. His last two starts have been two of his best this season. Tuesday night, he gave up just one earned run in seven innings against the Dodgers, with no walks and eight strikeouts (but still lost 3-2 on two unearned runs).

We can’t know exactly what happened, but the National League scout who has seen Archer multiple times has a few theories.

The scout thought back to spring training, when there were stories (including this one by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports) about Archer’s commitment to visiting schools and hospitals and his dedication to the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program. He remembered Archer’s public criticism of two young Rays pitchers who showed up later than others for workouts (as chronicled by Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times).

“I think he put more pressure on himself,” the scout said.

Even without that, the season could have been a challenge. The Rays worked to improve their offense this season, but they’re no longer a strong defensive team.

“The catcher was Hank Conger, and he doesn’t throw anybody out,” the scout said. “The shortstop, Brad Miller, has limited range. They don’t get big outs. A lot of times, he had to get the fourth out in an inning.”

It’s easy to say a true ace should be able to work through the distractions and work around the poor defense. But when a 27-year-old comes into a season with Cy Young expectations and finds himself with a 5.16 ERA in the middle of May, it can make for a tough season.

As long as he’s still healthy and his stuff is still good, there’s no reason to think he can’t rebound and even go forward. Three years after that poor 2008 season, Verlander was the American League’s Most Valuable Player.

Archer may not be Verlander, but he could become an ace. On a trade market that offers little in top-level starting pitching, even a monster package for him could turn out to be a bargain.

In fact, I would almost bet on it.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Including this one, the New York Yankees have been winners in each of the last 24 seasons. That’s meant 24 years of buying or staying the course at the trade deadline, as one does when one is a winner.

So go figure that doing the opposite before the August 1 deadline is exactly what the Yankees need now. This is a franchise in need of a turning point, and only by selling will it find it.

Brian Cashman, a key player in the Yankees front office since 1992 and general manager since 1998, took a step in that direction with the trade of fireballing closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs. After a quarter-century’s worth of deadline moves with only the short-term future in mind, this could be merely the first in a series of moves with the club’s long-term future in mind.

But for the moment, that’s not a given.

A full-on fire sale seemed inevitable when the Yankees dropped their first two games after the All-Star break. But they’ve since won eight out of 11 to climb to within four games in the American League wild-card race.

“Anything can happen in baseball,” first baseman Mark Teixeira said Tuesday, per Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com. “A lot weirder things have happened. If we get hot, we can play with anybody, but we just need to keep grinding away.”

The bosses may be on Teixeira’s side. A recent report from ESPN.com’s Wallace Matthews claimed Cashman and the Yankees front office want to sell but that owner Hal Steinbrenner and the other suits aren’t yet ready to detach from the ol’ George Steinbrenner edict to win no matter what.

From the sound of things, they haven’t yet changed their minds.

“I have a green light to continue to do my job, which is to assess market values both coming and going and make recommendations, and [Hal will] tell me what he wants done,” Cashman said, per Marchand. “Then I’ll execute as told.”

The idea that the Yankees should still go for it is a defensible position. Chapman was aiding the Yankees bullpen with a 2.01 ERA and tons of strikeouts, sure, but he’s also a free agent-to-be who was superfluous next to Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances. Trading him didn’t fundamentally change the team, which is indeed still alive in the AL playoff picture.

But in reality, the Yankees are “still alive” like the Black Knight was still alive in his fight with King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

Entering Wednesday, Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs put the Yankees’ chances of making the playoffs around 10 percent and of winning the World Series at half a percent. Because a still-terrific bullpen is flanked by an offense with the AL’s lowest OPS and a starting pitching staff with the AL’s ninth-best ERA, it’s hard to say these figures underestimate the Yankees.

If they stay defiant and go for it, the Yankees won’t actually be abiding by the franchise’s proud history of chasing championships. They’ll only be sticking to the more recently established tradition of mediocrity. They’d be asking for a fourth straight season without a postseason victory.

Taking the alternate route wouldn’t be painless. The actual end may have already come, but the Yankees admitting defeat will certainly feel like the end of an era. You can already hear the takes about The Boss spinning in his grave.

What should not be forgotten, though, is that it was when the Yankees’ late owner was out of the way that the foundation for the club’s best years was built.

During Steinbrenner’s three-year ban from baseball from 1990 to 1993, a front office led by Cashman and Gene Michaels cultivated a core of young players that included Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. The rest, as they say…well, you know the rest.

The list of quality homegrown players the Yankees have developed since then is frighteningly short, consisting only of Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner, Betances and a few others. Rather than developing their own stars, the Yankees have spent the better part of the last two decades buying and trading for stars developed by other teams.

In fairness, this used to work. There’s no arguing with five World Series and seven AL pennants between 1996 and 2009. But in today’s MLB, this approach just doesn’t fly anymore.

As Rob Arthur showed at FiveThirtyEight, the notion that baseball’s star power is skewing younger is no mirage. And for good reasons. More young players have grown up playing baseball exclusively. And without performance-enhancing drugs, veterans just don’t age like they used to.

You can’t count on young players landing on the free-agent market, and an environment such as this one makes them tough to pry away in trades. That means the best way to build a winner is to be like the Kansas City Royals or Chicago Cubs and build one from the ground up. 

The Yankees aren’t totally unaware of this. Hal Steinbrenner made a point of wanting to rebuild the club’s farm system in a 2013 interview with Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal. Credit is owed to him and Cashman for following through as much as they have since then.

Four Yankees prospects made it into Baseball America‘s latest top 100: shortstop Jorge Mateo (19), catcher Gary Sanchez (36), right fielder Aaron Judge (42) and right-hander James Kaprielian (99). They got shortstop Gleyber Torres, the No. 27 prospect, in the Chapman trade. The other two prospects in the deal, outfielders Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford, have too much talent to be called mere throw-ins.

However, this is only a good start.

In the coming years, the Yankees need to worry about restocking a lineup with only two players (Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro) under the age of 32 and a starting rotation that features only one guy (Masahiro Tanaka) controlled beyond 2017.

The upcoming free-agent markets aren’t going to help the Yankees do this. The next free-agent bonanza won’t come until the winter of 2018-2019, when guys like Bryce Harper and Jose Fernandez are due to headline maybe the most star-studded winter market in history.

The Yankees’ best play is to load up their farm system as best they can, graduate as many young players to the majors as possible within the next two years and then use their riches to add impact veteran talent to a team already loaded with young up-and-comers.

If the Chapman trade was one step in that direction, it’s now time for the others. Carlos Beltran, another free agent-to-be, should also go. Bolstered by two more years under contract, Miller’s trade value is too high for him to be deemed untouchable. Gardner, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and Ivan Nova look like trade chips too. Guys like CC Sabathia, Brian McCann and Chase Headley may not be immovable.

Collectively, that’s a big pile of trade bait that could net the Yankees a big pile of prospects while also saving them a decent pile of cash. If that’s what they end up with, that’s how they’ll know they’re rebuilding the right way.

It would indeed feel like the end of an era. But what the Yankees must understand between now and August 1 is that this might be the start of an entirely new era that, in time, could be just as good as the old one.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Melvin Upton Jr.’s solid bounce-back season was enticing enough for the Toronto Blue Jays to acquire him from the San Diego Padres, Padres executive vice president and general manager A.J. Preller announced Tuesday.

“The San Diego Padres announced they have acquired right-handed pitcher Hansel Rodriguez from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. and cash considerations,” the press release read.

“Thank you to the Padres organization, fans and teammates for all the support and the opportunity,” Upton tweeted. “I enjoyed everything about my time in SD.”

“Im [sic] excited to join my new Blue Jays teammates today and can’t wait to help continue the winning tradition that’s been built here,” Upton added.

Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported the Padres will pay all but $5 million of Upton’s remaining salary.

According to Spotrac, the 31-year-old Upton is earning $15.45 million this season and will make $16.45 million next year before his contract expires at the end of the 2017 season.

Not long ago, Upton’s career looked like it might be over. He was still putting on a uniform, but he wasn’t doing anything to help his team.

Upton’s stint with the Atlanta Braves was especially difficult, as he amassed a negative-0.2 WAR during 2013 and 2014, per FanGraphs.

After the Braves dealt Upton to the Padres as part of the Craig Kimbrel trade in 2015, he turned things around. He hit a respectable .259/.327/.429, playing in just 87 games because of a foot injury that caused him to miss the first two months of the season.

Upton’s numbers haven’t completely returned to his peak years in Tampa Bay, but he’s hitting for more power this season with 16 homers and is showing good speed with 20 stolen bases.

Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs wrote July 6 that Upton’s performance this season makes him close to worth the salary he will make through 2017:

In the past year, Upton has clocked in with a 36% hard-hit rate, matching Jay Bruce and Andrew McCutchen. The Braves got burned. You do have to wonder how much another team would trust Upton, at this point. But he’s made himself appealing again, at least to some extent, and his contract extends through next year, when he’ll earn around $17 million. What’s crazy now is it’s not too hard to imagine Upton actually being worth that salary. All he’d have to be is something like an average outfielder, and lately he’s been clearing that bar.

Upton has managed to reinvent himself after it looked like all hope was lost. He still has some limitations to his game—his on-base percentage isn’t good (.304)—but he is making up for that by using his legs and pop.

There’s always the chance Upton could regress because his career arc has never followed any kind of consistent pattern. But he does have more than 170 games of solid performance since 2015 that suggest he’s going to hold good value until his contract expires.

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When Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion took Seattle Mariners pitcher Wade Miley deep in the fourth inning of Sunday’s series finale, he surpassed Vernon Wells for third place on the all-time franchise leaderboard for home runs, per ESPN Stats & Info.

With Wells now in the rear-view mirror, Encarnacion (224 home runs) only trails teammate Jose Bautista (255) and Carlos Delgado (336) for the most home runs in Blue Jays history.

Encarnacion and Bautista are both currently playing on the final year of their respective contracts, which could wind up concluding the career of one of the two in Toronto.

Neither of the two is necessarily headed out of town, but that will likely be decided in the offseason. However, the two have had vastly different contract seasons.

Bautista returned to action Monday after missing extended time due to a toe injury and has hit just .231 with 12 home runs over 66 games, while Encarnacion owns a .262 average with 27 long balls over 98 contests and was named to the American League’s All-Star team.

In addition to his home runs, Encarnacion has a league-leading 87 RBI heading into Tuesday’s game against the San Diego Padres. Assuming he continues at his current pace, the 33-year-old should near 40 home runs for a second straight year after finishing with 39 in 2015.

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The New York Yankees are officially trade-deadline sellers. They announced as much by shipping hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs on Monday, per Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball.

It’s an unfamiliar position for the big-spending Yanks, who are typically in the business of adding veteran pieces and keeping the switch flipped to “win now.” 

If the Chapman deal is any indication, however, New York can sell with the best of them.

In exchange for the Cuban southpaw, who will become a free agent after the season, the Yankees will receive prospects Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford as well as big league pitcher Adam Warren, according to to Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago. 

The Yankees inquired about injured outfielder Kyle Schwarber, according to Julie DiCaro of 670 The Score, but were rebuffed. Still, this is a superlative haul, especially when you compare it to what New York gave up to acquire Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds in December.

Torres—a 19-year-old shortstop and the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect, according to Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter—is the main piece. He’s hitting .275 with nine home runs and 19 stolen bases in 94 games at High-A and possesses an “advanced bat and potential for solid tools across the board,” according to MLB.com‘s scouting report.

McKinney, the Cubs’ No. 8 prospect, according to Reuter, is a 21-year-old outfielder and 2013 first-round pick who hit .300 with an .825 OPS between High-A and Double-A last season.

Warren, a 28-year-old right-hander who the Yankees shipped to Chicago over the winter in the Starlin Castro swap, did not pitch well for the Cubs, with a 5.91 ERA in 35 innings. But he posted a 3.29 ERA in 131.1 innings last season for New York and could slot into a middle-relief role upon his return to the Bronx.

Finally, there’s Crawford, a speedy outfielder and 2012 11th-round pick who’s swiped 22 bases in 83 games at High-A this season.

To recap: The Yankees received two of the Cubs’ top 10 prospects plus an MLB-ready reliever and one more young body for a few months of Chapman.

Here’s a Torres highlight reel for forward-gazing Yankees fans:

Yes, Chapman will make the Cubs an even more dangerous contender, as yours truly opined. The Yankees, however, come out looking like winners on this one.

In December, New York bought low on Chapman. A deal between the Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers had fallen apart amid domestic violence allegations that ultimately led to a 30-game suspension for Chapman. 

The Yankees swooped in and sent a four-player package to Cincinnati that included right-handers Rookie Davis and Caleb Cotham and infielders Eric Jagielo and Tony Renda, none of whom currently rank among the Reds’ top 10 prospects, per MLB.com. 

Gauging the future of minor leaguers is always tricky, but when you stack those packages next to each other, it appears New York flipped Chapman for a far shinier return. JJ Cooper of Baseball America shares that view:

It’s not as though the Yankees are suddenly hosed in the late innings, either. They still have lefty Andrew Miller, who sports a 1.45 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 43.1 innings and should slide capably back into the closer slot. Behind him, there’s right-hander and three-time All-Star Dellin Betances (2.57 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 49 innings).

Miller is locked up for the next two seasons and Betances won’t hit the market until 2020, so unless the Yankees opt to trade one or both, the back end of their bullpen will be formidable for the foreseeable future.

It’s still unlikely the Yankees will kick off a full-scale fire sale. They’re hanging around the fringes of the playoff picture at 50-48 entering play on Monday, and an everything-must-go sell-a-thon simply isn’t the Yankee way.

“What has to be noticed here, unlike very few teams, what we’ve done, is we can’t rebuild here,” team president Randy Levine said in December, per Kevin Kernan of the New York Post. “That’s not what we’re about. We’re trying to win every year and we’re trying to get younger and transition.”

Expect New York to dangle veteran right fielder Carlos Beltran, another impending free agent and established postseason performer who could yield a rich return from an offense-hungry contender. 

After that, the Yanks can sit back, content in the knowledge that they’ve strengthened their farm system and will have money to spend in the potentially ludicrously loaded 2018 free-agent class.

Chapman and his triple-digit heater will be a short-term boon for the Cubs. If you take the long view, however, this trade tilts toward New York.

Turns out, the Yanks are pretty good at this selling thing.

All statistics current as of July 25 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The New York Yankees are reportedly planning on keeping left-handed relief pitcher Andrew Miller as the Aug. 1 trade deadline approaches, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

Continue for updates.

Yankees May Trade Aroldis Chapman Instead of Miller

Saturday, July 23

While the Bronx Bombers could trade both southpaws from the back end of their bullpen, Rosenthal noted they are “telling clubs that they are close to trading [Aroldis] Chapman” while also reporting the Miller news.

Miller has been the subject of trade rumors for much of July, and two of the top National League contenders have been on the list of pursuers.

Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported on July 7 the Chicago Cubs had the reliever as one of their primary targets, although Julie DiCaro of 670 The Score indicated the National League Central leaders weren’t interested in parting ways with slugger Kyle Schwarber in a potential deal.

It makes sense the Cubs are intrigued by Miller since they ranked a middling 15th in the league in bullpen ERA entering play Saturday, per ESPN.com. While Chicago already added lefty Mike Montgomery to its bullpen via trade, he allowed a three-run homer in his team debut on Saturday during a 6-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Elsewhere, Bill Ladson of MLB.com reported on July 14 the Washington Nationals were interested in Miller. The bullpen is actually one of Washington’s strengths (tops in baseball in bullpen ERA), but Miller would give it another formidable option late in games.

Despite the rumors, the Yankees are apparently planning on keeping Miller in their bullpen. He has been in the league since 2006 and pitched for the Detroit Tigers, then-Florida Marlins, Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles before joining New York for the 2015 campaign.

He appeared to have turned the corner in pinstripes and is well on his way to posting an ERA of sub-2.00 for the first time in his career in 2016:

As if the resurgence in the Bronx for Miller wasn’t enough, he will not be an unrestricted free agent until 2019, per Spotrac. That means New York could still make a postseason run in the next couple of years with Miller as a bullpen anchor even if it isn’t in prime position to compete in 2016 from fourth place in the American League East.

However, that extended team control could also give New York more leverage in a possible trade, and Miller is 31 years old. He may only have a limited window of his prime remaining, and the Yankees could theoretically receive a favorable package in any deal were they to make the move during that opening.

Alas, it seems as if New York is more interested in keeping Miller around as a critical piece of its bullpen for 2016 and beyond.

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The Toronto Blue Jays had high expectations for 2015 All-Star catcher Russell Martin this season, but he has been struggling offensively and now has an injured knee. It’s unclear when he will return.

Continue for updates.

Martin Out vs. Mariners

Saturday, July 23

The Blue Jays announced Josh Thole would start over Martin against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

Gibbons Comments on Martin’s Playing Status

Saturday, July 23

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters Martin was “feeling better” but would still be day-to-day.

On Friday, Gibbons announced Martin suffered a knee injury after falling in the shower, according to Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. He became lightheaded from spending too much time in the sauna Thursday before the fall.

Veteran Martin Crucial to Blue Jays Pitching, Offense

Martin was experiencing a late-career renaissance, finishing in the top 25 in MVP voting in the previous three seasons.

From 2013 to 2015, he posted the highest mark (50.0) for defensive runs above average among eligible catchers, and only Buster Posey (16.2) has posted more wins above replacement than Toronto’s backstop (12.5), per FanGraphs.

This year, however, has not been kind to Martin offensively. He’s hitting just .228/.317/.338 with seven home runs in 81 games after blasting 34 homers the previous two seasons combined.

Josh Thole has been Toronto’s primary backup catcher this season, offering superior defense to Martin, per FanGraphs. With Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion in the middle of the order, the Blue Jays lineup is loaded. They can withstand one dead spot.

Martin is starting to look like a 33-year-old catcher, so getting a few days off won’t derail the surging Jays.

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