Finally some movement this offseason! The New York Yankees made a trade with Miami and are starting to collect some money for a special Japanese player.
Naturally, Derek Jeter’s first trade with his new team was with the New York Yankees. Old habits certainly die hard.
The Yankees announced yesterday that they’ve made a trade with the Jeter-run franchise, giving the Marlins Garrett Cooper and left hander Caleb Smith in return for right hander Michael King and a whole lot of cash.
The @Yankees have acquired minor league RHP Michael King and 2017-18 international signing bonus pool money from Miami in exchange for INF Garrett Cooper and LHP Caleb Smith.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) November 21, 2017
That second part of this deal is probably what excited Yankees fans most. They are practically already placing pre-orders into MLB Shop for Shohei Ohtani shirts, jerseys and custom socks or something ridiculous.
According to Buster Olney, the international signing bonus received from the Marlins puts them at $3.5 million to spend overseas.
The Yankees are prepping for the arrival of this incredible Japanese player. They even announced earlier this week that Hideki Matsui would play a key role in recruiting Ohtani for the Yankees.
At the same time, they lost Garrett Cooper, a guy who literally was in the Bronx for a split second. Cooper expressed his excitement for his new adventure yesterday on Twitter.
First off I want to say thank you to the @Yankees for giving me the opportunity to make a lifelong dream come true. But super excited about this new opportunity with the @Marlins #LetsGoFish ?
— Garrett Cooper (@CoopaLoop1) November 21, 2017
Best of luck to Cooper, a guy who played in 13 games and hit .326 in the process. Tear it up, Coop!
But that wasn’t the only trade that occurred yesterday; The Yankees also made a small trade with the Texas Rangers.
The @Yankees today announced they acquired minor league LHP Reiver Sanmartin from Texas in exchange for RHP Ronald Herrera.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) November 20, 2017
Another lefty to add to the mix. The Yankees are clearly looking to explore all options for a strong lefty starter in the future. while Sanmartin’s only been in Single-A, the Yankees have time to either develop him into the Bronx rotation or ship him off for more prospects.
Did that cover all the excitement that happened yesterday? Not even close. The Yankees also used that open 40-man roster space to protect some players from the Rule 5 Draft.
The @Yankees have added RHP Albert Abreu, RHP Domingo Acevedo, INF Thairo Estrada, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga, OF Billy McKinney and INF Gleyber Torres to the Major League roster.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) November 21, 2017
That’s right, Gleyber Torres is slowly making his way to the big leagues. Remember when Brian Cashman stated that Torres would be in the starting lineup come 2018 and it looks like that dream will definitely come true.
And Billy McKinney? Thairo Estrada? The Yankees are planning for the future and they’re doing everything exactly right.
Now they can enter the Rule 5 Draft with a deep sigh of relief. Now the real question is, who will their victims be for the draft? Stay tuned to find out.
