ARLINGTON, Texas — The Yankees have been the shadow team in this postseason — as in they are not participating, yet are receiving relentless criticism about players they let go or perhaps should have obtained who have been participating in the playoffs.
And this postseason has indeed underscored a run of personnel bumbling that had the Yankees home for October.
But in reality you can play this game with many teams even if you are just looking at the personnel on the rosters of the 2023 World Series participants, Arizona and Texas.
Because you could argue the shadow team here is:
1. The Rays: They rightfully have a reputation as shrewd operators when it comes to trades. But you might want to consider that they broke up their Lowe monopoly by keeping Brandon and Josh, but trading first baseman Nathaniel to the Rangers for three position prospects yet to distinguish themselves.
There is still a wait-and-see aspect for Tampa Bay. But in three Rangers seasons, Nathaniel Lowe has proven to be a durable 121 OPS-plus performer.
Tampa Bay also was one of three teams (also Baltimore and Oakland) that traded Jonah Heim for a not considerable return only to see him become one of the best commodities in the sport — a switch-hitting catcher with offensive chops and defensive excellence. The worst minor deal actually was by the A’s, who basically included Heim to Texas as a piece to facilitate a mutual salary dump of Elvis Andrus to Oakland and Khris Davis to the Rangers.
Want to dig deeper? The Rays also hardly maximized Nathan Eovaldi, trading him at the 2018 deadline for Jalen Beeks, with Eovaldi heading to Boston and initiating his reputation as a postseason stalwart, which has continued this season with the Rangers; he will start the World Series opener on Friday.
Tampa Bay also got the worst of combining Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth to San Diego for Hunter Renfroe and Xavier Edwards — the fourth trade of Pham’s career sent him from the Mets to the Diamondbacks at this past deadline (the first time Pham was traded it was by the Cardinals, which will be pertinent in two paragraphs).
And the Rays also released Merrill Kelly in December 2014. He then spent four seasons in Korea before returning to become a durable, high-end starter for the Diamondbacks.
2. The Cardinals: The ALCS MVP was Adolis Garcia, a title that in 2020 went to Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena (yep, the Rays are mainly excellent traders). The commonality for the Cuban righty-hitting outfielders includes being given up on by the Cardinals.
The Rangers purchased Garcia’s contract in December 2019. To be fair, before the 2021 season, Texas designated Garcia for assignment, so the other 29 teams had a chance to obtain him. But since the Rangers put him back on the roster, he has steadily improved into a star.
Wait, it gets worse for the Cardinals, who after posting their worst winning percentage (.438) since 1993 are desperate to add high-end starters yet in one December 2017 trade to obtain Marcel Ozuna from Miami dealt 2022 NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara and Arizona Game 1 starter Zac Gallen.
We also still have to learn whether Tekoah Roby, Thomas Saggese and John King are a better deadline return for Jordan Montgomery than the Yankees’ deal the previous year for Harrison Bader.
It should be pointed out that in August the Diamondbacks released catcher Carson Kelly, a key part of their failed December 2018 trade of Paul Goldschmidt, who among other items, won an NL MVP for the Cardinals.
3. The Blue Jays: The Diamondbacks could move on from Kelly, who they thought would be their catcher of the future, because last offseason they obtained their catcher of the future in Gabriel Moreno — a precocious, two-way impact player. Arizona also received a strong season from Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Toronto (with Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk) was trading from its catching depth while the Diamondbacks (with Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, etc.) were dealing from its lefty-hitting outfielder depth in sending Daulton Varsho to the Blue Jays, where he fielded great, but did not hit well.
4. The Orioles: Besides being the first to trade Heim — to the Rays for Steve Pearce — Baltimore was the first of three teams (also Atlanta and Cincinnati) to waive Christian Walker, who was claimed by Arizona in March 2017 and has evolved into among the majors’ best two-way first basemen.
5. The Yankees: Well, it is hard to ignore them. Yes, because Montgomery has a 1.95 ERA in six postseason outings since Brian Cashman indicated he was dealt for Bader, in part, because the Yanks did not envision the lefty as one of their four playoff starters. But the Rangers’ roster also has reminders of arguably the two worst trades of the Cashman administration.
At the 2021 trade deadline, the Yankees acquired Joey Gallo for four prospects, including Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith. Neither has played much in the postseason, but both (notably Duran) were essential in helping the Rangers weather two IL stints by star shortstop Corey Seager.
The Yankees tried to obtain Isiah Kiner-Falefa from the Rangers after the 2022 lockout, but could not find a match. So, instead, Texas sent him and Ronny Henriquez to Minnesota for Mitch Garver, who has turned into a valuable Rangers bat. The Twins then spun Kiner-Falefa to the Yankees, but only with New York agreeing to take on the odorous two years at $50 million owed Josh Donaldson. That the Twins took on Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela and lost Garver was secondary, they just wanted out of Donaldson and the trade with Texas was the domino that made that happen.