With less than an hour to go until the 2017 MLB Trade Deadline, the New York Yankees struck and landed their primary target, Sonny Gray.
The Yankees, who currently reside in first place in the American League East, sent Jorge Mateo, James Kaprielian and Dustin Fowler to the Oakland A’s in exchange for Oakland’s ace pitcher in Gray.
Sonny Gray will join a rotation that already consisted of Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and the newly acquired Jaime Garcia. It’s not clear what will happen with Jordan Montgomery, who’s had his share of ups and downs in his rookie season.
Sonny Gray was considered one of the top prizes on the trade market heading into Monday’s deadline along with Yu Darvish. Teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, and Cleveland Indians were all linked with interest, but in the end, the Yankees made the move.
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With this move, it signals a few things.
It states the obvious, which is the fact that the Yankees are clearly going for it this season and want to win a championship. Once they had acquired Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from the Chicago White Sox, the Yankees were already all in on playing October baseball.
With the trade for Jaime Garcia, it further enhanced it.
And now with the trade for Sonny Gray, they are not only just all-in on the postseason. The trade for Sonny Gray showed that the Yankees are back to being “the Evil Empire.”
There was a time when the Yankees seemed to trade for a lot of big-time players and signed the top free agents, although lately, they had been getting away from that pattern and instead, wanted to develop the players in their farm system. And they have done that.
But with that said, the Yankees also wanted to add star quality and proven names to a team that has played better than anyone could have expected. Remember, the Yankees were supposed to be a fourth placed team in 2017, and here they are in August as the division leaders in the A.L. East.
By getting Sonny Gray, the Yankees are back to being a threat to deal with. The Yankees became a desirable landing spot again, whereas they hadn’t looked like one for a few years.
They’re still going to stick to the plan and continue to develop their own guys; guys like Clint Frazier, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and of course, Aaron Judge have proven that this method is clearly working wonders.
But now the Yankees were able to get previous All Stars on the team to mix in with the current group and thus far, it’s been working wonders since the Yankees got themselves back into first place. How far they go this season remains to be seen.
But this trade for Sonny Gray was a clear indicator that the Yankees are to be taken seriously in the American League and are ready to be a top team in the league again.
The Sonny Gray trade was a clear sign of the Evil Empire resurfacing and they don’t plan on going away anytime soon.