How They Were Acquired: The New York Yankees’ ALDS Roster
In a season during which all but a handful of Yankees missed time due to injury, it’s amazing that they’ll enter the playoffs with almost all of their best players on the active roster. On paper, they look great. How that translates on the field is another story. They lost nine of their last 17 games, but there’s no question that their starting pitchers can be very good, the bullpen is very deep, and their lineup is filled with guys who can thump. That combination can be quite effective in outlasting a playoff opponent.
Here’s how every member of the Yankees’ 2019 ALDS roster was originally acquired. The team’s full RosterResource Depth Chart and Payroll pages are also available as a resource.
Homegrown (6)
- Brett Gardner, OF: Drafted Third Round 2005
- Austin Romine, C: Drafted Second Round 2007
- Gary Sánchez, C: Amateur Free Agent (Dominican Republic) July 2009
- Luis Severino, SP: Amateur Free Agent (Dominican Republic) December 2011
- Aaron Judge, OF: Drafted First Round (32) 2013
- Tyler Wade, INF/OF: Drafted Fourth Round 2013
Total WAR: 12.2
Signed in Free Agency (6)
- Masahiro Tanaka, SP: January 2014 (Japan) — Signed to seven-year, $155 million contract ($20 million posting fee paid to Rakuten Golden Eagles for right to negotiate).
- Jonathan Loaisiga, RP: February 2016 (SFG) — Signed to Minor League contract.
- Aroldis Chapman, RP: December 2016 (CHC) — Signed to five-year, $86 million contract.
- DJ LeMahieu, INF: January 2019 (COL) — Signed to two-year, $24 million contract.
- Adam Ottavino, RP: January 2019 (COL) — Signed to three-year, $27 million contract.
- Tyler Lyons, RP: August 2019 (PIT) — Signed to Minor League contract.
Total WAR: 12.1
Acquired Via Trade (13)
- Didi Gregorius, SS: December 2014 (ARI) — Acquired in trade that sent Robbie Ray and Domingo Leyba to the Diamondbacks and Shane Greene to the Tigers.
- Chad Green, RP: December 2015 (DET) — Acquired in trade that sent Justin Wilson to the Tigers.
- Luis Cessa, RP: December 2015 (DET) — Acquired in trade that sent Justin Wilson to the Tigers.
- Gleyber Torres, 2B: July 2016 (CHC) — Acquired in trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs.
- Tommy Kahnle, RP: July 2017 (CHW) — Acquired in trade that sent Tyler Clippard, Blake Rutherford, Ian Clarkin, and Tito Polo to the White Sox.
- Giancarlo Stanton, OF: December 2017 (MIA) — Acquired in trade that sent Starlin Castro, Jorge Guzman, and Jose Devers to the Marlins.
- Zack Britton, RP: July 2018 (BAL) — Acquired in trade that sent Josh Rogers, Dillon Tate, and Cody Carroll to the Orioles.
- J.A. Happ, SP: July 2018 (TOR) — Acquired in trade that sent Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney to the Blue Jays.
- Luke Voit, 1B: July 2018 (STL) — Acquired in trade that sent Giovanny Gallegos and Chasen Shreve to the Cardinals.
- Gio Urshela, 3B: August 2018 (TOR) — Acquired in trade that sent cash considerations to the Blue Jays.
- James Paxton, SP: November 2018 (SEA) — Acquired in trade that sent Justus Sheffield, Erik Swanson, and Dom Thompson-Williams to the Mariners.
- Cameron Maybin, OF: April 2019 (CLE) — Acquired in trade that sent cash considerations to the Indians.
- Edwin Encarnación, 1B: June 2019 (SEA) — Acquired in trade that sent Juan Then to the Mariners.
Total WAR: 20.6
You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.
That’s a very impressive trading record.
From what I can see, the Yankees traded away a total of 3 players who were useful in the Major Leagues this season — Shane Greene, Starlin Castro, and Giovanny Gallegos — for 20.6 WAR and more than half of their roster.
Given how the Indians’ season went, that “Cameron Maybin for cash considerations” deal must really not feel great.