Over the weekend we all got a bit of an education on the August
31st waiver wire trade deadline and how it all works. The Oakland
Athletics placed first baseman and soon-to-be free agent Yonder Alonso on the
waiver wire and the Seattle Mariners claimed him. The Athletics could have
pulled Alonso back and placed him on waivers again, they could have simply
dumped Alonso on Seattle and his remaining salary or the two teams could have
worked out a trade. The A’s and Mariners did the latter as Seattle agreed to
send minor league outfielder Boog Powell to Oakland for Alonso. Could the
Yankees have made a similar deal with Oakland, and should they have?
When I say “should the Yankees have made a similar deal” I
want to be clear in saying that I mean as a part of the Sonny Gray deal or in a
separate deal before the July 31st trade deadline. I fully
understand that the Seattle Mariners had a chance to claim Alonso before the
Yankees did and I fully understand how the whole August waiver wire trade
deadline works. Just to clarify and just to be clear since this is all
hypothetical anyway.
When I run these posts looking at if the Yankees could have conceivably
pulled off a similar trade it all comes down to who the other team gave up,
this time Boog Powell formerly of the Mariners. If the name Boog Powell is
familiar to you it may be because he was suspended 50 games for amphetamine use
by Major League Baseball back in 2014 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays
organization. John Sickels has since called Powell a “prototype reserve
outfielder” on Minor League Ball before Powell was suspended for 80 games for a
second failed drug/PED test in 2016. Before the 2017 season Powell was listed
as a “C” grade prospect and was not one of the Mariners Top 20 prospects in
their farm system, again according to Minor League Ball.
So who would the equivalent be to Powell in the Yankees
organization? Think Jake Cave or Billy McKinney, and even then that may leave
the Yankees paying too much. Powell hit .194 in 23 games with the Mariners big
league club this season in three different stints while he has also hit .340 in
58 games in Triple-A with Tacoma.
At the time of the trade Alonso, 30-years old, was hitting
.266 with 17 doubles, 22 home runs and 49 RBI along with his .527 slugging
percentage which is second best among qualifying American League first baseman.
So should the Yankees have made this trade? Absolutely. Chase Headley is hot
right now but we know it likely won’t last if history is any indicator of the
future. Meanwhile Alonso has been consistent throughout much of his career and
is a free agent at the end of the season. I was not involved in the negotiations
obviously but this one seems like a no-brainer to me. Oh well. Maybe next time.
