The Yankees Have Been Impressively Rebuilt

You’ll have to forgive me if I think of Andrew Miller as the travellin man. Now in his 11th major league season, Miller is headed to his sixth major league team, all east of the Mississippi. But unlike most journeymen, for the most part the teams acquiring Miller have been quite excited about the possibility. The latest team to celebrate getting the lanky lefty are the Cleveland Indians, who are now looking quite formidable. But they’re not the only team looking formidable. The Yankees may no longer be in 2016 contention, but they’re setting up well for 2017 and beyond.

The Yankees didn’t give up Miller for cheap, and rightly so. With Miller under contract for the next two years, and in a third straight season of total domination, he was never going to be cheap. While I first saw the news from Ken Rosenthal, Buster Olney was the first person I saw with the return for the Yankees:

Yankees expected to get Indians prospects Frazier and Sheffield and others in the trade for Andrew Miller.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 31, 2016

Starting with those two players, this is already a great haul for the Yankees. Heading into the season, Clint Frazier was tabbed as the team’s second-best prospect here, and Justus Sheffield fifth. The two have done nothing to diminish their prospect status since. Looking at Chris Mitchell’s new KATOH 100, we see Frazier clock in at 73rd. Over at Baseball America, Frazier clocked in at 21st on their midseason top 100, with Sheffield landing at 69th.

Our own Eric Longenhagen recently got looks at both players, and came away impressed. He projects Sheffield as a league average starting pitcher, and one who may have four average or better pitches. And, as a sentimental bonus, Yankees fans will likely love having Gary Sheffield’s nephew in pinstripes. Eric also liked Frazier, and thinks he may have more power potential. That’s a scary thought, since he just posted a .194 ISO at Double-A at 21. Eric said thusly:

Frazier has elite bat speed but it plays down because of the extra loop his hands make as he triggers his swing. There are pitches he should be murdering to left field that he’s pushing the other way because his barrel arrives late. Frazier is so strong and physically gifted that some of these balls get muscled into the right-field bleachers anyway and I think, even without a change, he’s going to be a solid big leaguer with above-average game power.

That’s a pretty tasty package. But that isn’t the whole package! Jon Heyman later added the other two players, though his spelling wasn’t in top form:

Heller and Fryerson go to yanks in miller deal, too

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2016

That is relief pitchers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen. Neither gets much prospect shine (Heller currently checks in at #30 for MLB.com), but you can see the thinking here. First, relief pitcher will be a position of need this winter, and the more live arms they have, the better. Both of these guys are in the upper minors — Triple-A for Heller, Double-A for Feyereisen.

Second, they both strike out oodles of players, and if there’s one statistic you want to make a bet on minor league pitchers, it is on strikeouts. Feyereisen is sitting down 33.1% of batters this year, and for his career has struck out 136 batters in 105 innings pitched. Heller began his season by striking out 38.3% of Double-A hitters, and has ascended to Triple-A, where he is striking out 24% of hitters, while lowering his walk rate. For his pro career, he has struck out 226 batters in 172.1 IP. Not bad. Oh, and Heller touches 100.

Like they did in their deal to land Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees have landed a top 25 hitting prospect, and in this deal they got another top 100 prospect and two potential pieces for the bullpen who are close to the majors. That is a great deal, and Frazier is even closer to the majors than Gleyber Torres.

With both Frazier and Aaron Judge close to the majors, the Yankees outfield looks pretty robust moving forward. Out of the playoff picture for the first time in a long time, the Yankees knew it was time to unearth some diamonds, and they have done so this week. For a team that doesn’t usually find itself in that position, this has been a particularly impressive week for Brian Cashman and Co. Let’s do a 2017 Yankees reset, as we stand now.

First, the players under non-league minimum contracts:

• Starting Rotation: CC Sabathia ($25 million), Masahiro Tanaka ($22M), Nate Eovaldi (third year of arbitration), Michael Pineda (Arb3), Adam Warren (Arb2)
• Catcher/Infield/Designated Hitter: Alex Rodriguez ($21M), Brian McCann ($17M), Chase Headley ($13M), Starlin Castro (~$10M), Dustin Ackley (Arb3), Didi Gregorius (Arb2), Chris Parmelee (Arb1), Austin Romine (Arb1)
• Outfield: Jacoby Ellsbury (~$21M), Brett Gardner ($12.5M), Aaron Hicks (Arb1)
• Bullpen: Dellin Betances (Arb1), Anthony Swarzak (Arb3)

They have roughly $141 million tied up in guaranteed deals to eight players. They also have 10 arbitration-eligible players, but it could easily be eight — they won’t miss Parmelee or Swarzak. They could probably part with Ackley. Eyeballing the future salaries with a conservative eye, let’s call it $45 million for the eight, thinking that they hang on to Ackley. That’s $186 million for 16 players, leaving the team down from their 2015 Opening Day payroll of $216 million. As such, there should be plenty of room to sign who they want to this winter. But they might not have to sign too many players, because now the farm system is bubbling over with prospects:

After these trades, Yankees will have 7 of our midseason Top 100 (also Sanchez, Mateo, Judge, Kaprelian). https://t.co/LNaToQvn0q

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) July 31, 2016

Sanchez has already been up this year, and with a 132 wRC+ at Triple-A, he doesn’t have much to prove. He’ll compete for a spot on the 2017 roster. The same is true for Judge, and his 139 wRC+ at Triple-A. Hopefully both will be September call-ups. Frazier may need a bit more minor league time, but not a ton. He’s already graduated to Triple-A, and while he only has four games played there, he’s also still just 21. Jorge Mateo should be ready for Double-A next year, as should Torres and Sheffield. With just three starts at High-A and a burgeoning elbow problem, James Kaprelian may come along slower, but that still leaves the Yankees with six top prospects who might be ready for major league duty at some point in 2017. (And don’t forget about Greg Bird!) That is a dramatic transformation for the Yankees.

There’s also this:

Hard to think NYY stops here at this point. Beltran and Nova could be next. Gardner, Eovaldi, Pineda, McCann others would draw interest too.

— Mike Axisa (@mikeaxisa) July 31, 2016

The best thing though is that the Yankees now have options, and leverage. They could trade some or all of those guys — Beltran especially should be on the move, as he might be the best outfielder left on the trade market — but they don’t necessarily have to. Or, if they do, they now have the luxury of acquiring players who are further from the majors to make sure the farm system doesn’t evaporate like it had in the past few years.

The Yankees entered the week with three of the best relief pitchers of the past few years, and a decent farm system. They still have one of those great relief pitchers, but now they have a great farm system that will be ready to graduate its top prospects in the very near future. The Mets are watching the throne right now, but the Yankees will be ready to lift off again very soon.