Brian Cashman Just Pulled Off One Of His Best Trade Deadlines Ever As The Yankees Transform Their Bullpen And Defense

I like to think of myself as one of Brian Cashman's strongest critics, but I'm pleased to write that what he did during this trade deadline was outstanding. While to the casual eye this influx of players might not knock your socks off, it's exactly what they needed. Allow me to explain. 

Heading into the deadline the Yankees arguably needed too much to fix their holes. Their bullpen was bleeding and in desperate need of a makeover. Their defense was a disaster. Their bench was too left handed. At some point you gotta just come to grips that it wasn't feasible to pull off. 

First they bring in Ryan McMahon who immediately tightens up 3rd base on both sides of the ball. This dude is just a ball player. We're talking one of the best defensive players at the position in the whole sport. His offense isn't amazing, but it's a great improvement from Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas. So far he's been tremendous in a small sample size. Wanna talk about a guy who is thrilled to be playing meaningful baseball? 

Next they add Austin Slater who will serve as a depth piece for the outfield. His .859 OPS against lefties gives them a good right handed option off the bench. Same with Amed Rosario for the infield. Just two vets that give you a more respectable bench. In past Yankees seasons, including this one, they had non-major leaguers in that role. 

Jose Caballero also joins the bench as a speed option and someone who can actually spell Volpe at short. He's got 34 stolen bases on the year and should be a great pinch runner option late in the year and into October. Also hilarious that him and Cole hate each other. Oh well. 

But the big need was bullpen help. They needed 3-4 arms realistically to make me feel like this team is worth a damn the rest of the year. Not an easy task. Well Cashman swung deals for David Bednar, Jake Bird, and Camilo Doval. All three guys gives you legit swing and miss, strikeout stuff —something this bullpen was missing. All three guys are locked up past this season. Doval and Bednar are legitimate closers, which gives them four on the team with Weaver and Williams. 

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Bird is a little bit more of a project, but he's the kind of arm with his elite breaking ball that pitching coach Matt Blake can have a lot of fun with. 

Did they add a starting pitcher? No, but the market never really developed for that to be fair. Here's the list of SP that moved: Merrill Kelly, Charlie Morton, Taj Bradley, JP Sears, Zack Littell, Shane Bieber, Dustin May, and Bailey Falter. Dylan Cease, Joe Ryan, Zac Gallen, Mitch Keller, Edward Cabrera, and Sandy Alcantara all stayed put. If the Yankees weren't going to add a starting pitcher, making the pen this good was definitely the move. If Fernando Cruz returns and has the same form that he did earlier in the year this group becomes ridiculous. Weaver, Williams, Bednar, Doval, Bird, Cruz, Hill, Hamilton, and Loaisiga is as good as it gets, at least in the AL. You go from a massive weakness that was killing you to a giant strength. 

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The sneaky part of this is they really didn't have to give up much to get these seven players. They traded from their catching depth, which a lot of teams value. Rafael Flores ends up with the Pirates, but they didn't have a path for him. Lefty pitcher Griffin Herring went to Colorado in the McMahon deal, but he was two years away at best. They avoided having to pick from their SP depth of Lagrange, Cunningham, ERC, Hess, and Beck. George Lombard and Spencer Jones didn't go anywhere. Cashman really did a great job throughout this whole process and made the team a lot better. 

Are they a World Series team? It was always going to be an uphill battle without Cole and now Schmidt in the rotation. Rookie of the Year winner Luis Gil returns in a few days. They'll need to piece the starting staff together with Will Warren and Cam Schlittler needing to step up. It greatly helps that you have this elite superpen to lean on if you need to. Judge's return and need to DH will be interesting to navigate, but considering where they were a week ago this is way more hopeful. It's a grade of an A from me. Now let's hope Bednar and Doval can handle New York. 

P.S. I feel so bad for Pirates fans