Chase Utley, Could the Yankees Have Done It?

I think it's always interesting to watch sites like MLB Trade Rumors around the July and August months of the Major League season. It's always interesting to see who your team is going to acquire, who your rival is going to trade, who is going to clear waivers and when a big trade is pulled off for a player your team was interested in I think it's interesting to see if your team could have pulled off a similar trade. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired a player the Yankees were said to be scouting and interested in on Wednesday night when the team sent prospects in exchange for Chase Utley and cash considerations. Could the Yankees have pulled this trade off?

This trade screams Brian Cashman special to me, a salary dump for an aging veteran and contract that will expire at the end of the season. The Dodgers acquired Utley and roughly $3.7 million in cash in exchange for minor league players Darnell Sweeney and John Richy. Richy, 23 years old, was the team's 3rd round pick in the 2014 MLB First Year Players Draft and was the team's 29th best prospect while Sweeney was ranked as the team's 13th best prospect.

Richy projects to be a back-end of the rotation starter while Sweeney looks to be a fringe prospect that has experience in the middle infield and in center field. The Yankees could have traded away one of Jake Cave or Ben Gamel, both of who need to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft in 2016, and one of many starting pitchers that no one would blink an eye at to acquire Utley. The real question is not whether the team could have acquired him or not, they absolutely could have, but it is whether he would have added that much to the team.

Utley was batting .217/.284/.333 at the time of the trade including an effective month of August where he slashed .484/.485/.742 in 31 plate appearances. Utley seems to be past the ankle injury that will keep his vesting option for the 2016 season from triggering and Utley seems like he, or anyone, would be an upgrade over Stephen Drew right now. It's hard to say whether he can keep up his batting line for the remainder of the season or whether he will fall back under the Mendoza Line but all in all this still looks like a good non-trade for the Yankees. Drew is superior on the defensive side and has much more power than Utley, 15 home runs for Drew vs. just five for Utley, making him the better option for the team... unfortunately.