Cashman Passes on Valuable Trade Targets

 …Pre Deadline Thoughts by Cary Greene

July 27, 2024

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This is a fun time of year to be a baseball fan, the Deadline looms! Tuesday at 6pm it's all over - Cashman has lots of options, but moving the needle will be costly. I'm scratching my head regarding Cashman's inactivity yesterday as two very important deals went down regarding two players I've had my eyes on as surprise trade targets. Both are now off the board. Using Baseball Trade Values as an evaluation tool, it's kind of nauseating to evaluate a couple of perplexing opportunities that Cashman passed up recently as there is no denying that the Yankees could have made better offers than the receiving teams in the deals I’m going to highlight.

The Rays traded Randy Arozarena ($7.3 MTV) to the Mariners for Single-A prospects Aidan Smith ($2.5 MTV, 2023 4th Rounder) and Brody Hopkins ($5.2 MTV, 2023 6th Rounder) -- trading out of the Division as I said they would do with their fire sale all along. I never thought the Yankees had a chance to land Arozarena but he does represent quite an upgrade over Alex Verdugo ($1 MTV).

Though it’s a stretch to suggest this, if the Yankees offered far off Minor Leaguers Henry Lalane ($5.7 MTV, 2021 International Free Agent) and Anthony Hall ($2.5 MTV, 2022 4th Rounder ) as a proposal to the Rays, they likely would have taken it because it's a heavier offer than what they got from the Mariners ($8.2 MTV vs $7.7 MTV).

Doubling down on their ability to coach and develop young players, the Rays advanced scouting department must have liked the return on this trade, but I’m sure the Yankees had a slightly better package, if not Lalane and Hall, that the Rays would have gone for. Allowing a quick, potent bat like Arozarina to slip away to the west coast without a fight is yet another Brian Cashman oversight – it serves as further proof that he routinely fails at assembling a cast of supporting players to supplement his stars.

The other deal that made me want to throw up was the Marlins trading their lights out lefty reliever A.J. Puk ($8.2 MTV) to the Diamondbacks for Deyvison De Los Santos ($8 MTV, 2019 International Free Agent) and Andrew Pintar ($2.5 MTV, 2022 5th Rounder). De Los Santos plays first and third base and he was recently promoted to Triple-A by the Diamondbacks. He’s actually the type of corner infielder with power prospect that Cashman should be scouring the market for, even if he is still a ways off. Meanwhile, Pintar is a middle infielder with some pop, so I like the return the rebuild minded Marlins got in this trade, but still – we’re talking about a missing link type of game changing lefty out of the bullpen in Puk.

I \have wanted Puk for a long while and I have always preferred him coming out of the bullpen. Puk has pitched to the tune of a 1.52 ERA since the beginning of June and opposing batters are hitting .142 against him during this time. Puk, a lanky lefty who features a 95 mph four seamer and who consistently locates his sweeper and his hard sinker for strikes would have exactly what the Yankees bullpen needed. Instead, Cashman turned a blind eye yet again on a key trade target that was easily obtainable.

Unfortunately, I’ve written this before, but if the Yankees are going to win big this season, they’re very likely going to do it in spite of Brian Cashman. We’ll see what Cashman has in store leading up to Tuesday’s 6pm Deadline, perhaps he has a few trades in store that would have even trumped acquiring Arozarena and Puk. I’ll be interested to read SSTN fan reactions on these two deals and any others that may go down prior to this piece being published. Is Cashman approaching the Deadline the right way?