Ricky Ledee to Aaron Judge Trade Tree

 

Don't call it a comeback.... but we're back for the first time in what feels like forever with possibly a new set of content for all the Yankees fans reading today. How in the world did Ricky Ledee, I'll give you all a minute to Google the former Yankees left fielder in the dynasty years, lead the Yankees to their captain, Aaron Judge? That's what we are here to discuss with you all today.

The New York Yankees selected outfielder Ricky Ledee in the 16th round of the 1990 MLB Draft. While with the Yankees, Ledee spent parts of the 19998  - 2000 seasons in the Bronx winning two World Series rings with the club. After 62 games with the club in 2000, the Yankees needed an outfield upgrade for the postseason, which led New York to trade Ledee to the Cleveland Indians (Guardians) along with Jake Westbrook and Zach Day for popular star David Justice. 

Justice would stay with the Yankees for the 2000 season, winning a World Series against the New York Mets, as well as the 2001 season, seeing the team fall to the Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games, before being traded to the New York Mets prior to the 2002 season. Justice was traded in a rare cross-town trade with the Mets for third baseman Robin Ventura. 

Ventura was an All Star with the Yankees in 2002, falling short of the ultimate crown of World Series champions, before being flipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers halfway through the 2003 season. On July 31, 2003 the Yankees shipped Ventura off to the Dodgers for RHP Scott Proctor and outfield prospect Bubba Crosby. 

Proctor quickly became one of Joe Torre's favorite and most relied upon reliever during his stint with the Yankees, pitching in a league high 83 games in 2006. Proctor would throw in an identical 83 games during the 2007 season, but only 52 of those innings came with the Yankees, interrupted by another midseason trade back to the Los Angeles Dodgers. For what it's worth, New York didn't do much with Bubba Crosby after the trade aside from using him as our "starting center fielder" in the negotiations with then-Boston Red Sox free agent center fielder Johnny Damon. 

Another July 31 trade for New York saw the addition of infielder Wilson Betemit to bolster their bench, while the Dodgers added back Proctor to strengthen their bullpen. Betemit would spend two seasons in the Bronx, including the final year of the old Yankee Stadium in 2008, before the Yankees, who missed the playoffs for the first time since the 1994 strike-shortened season, went out and aggressively began adding to the team. Betemit was traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 2009 season, along with Jeff Marquez (draftyed and developed by the Yankees) and Jhonny Nunez (who was acquired in a separate trade involving Alberto Gonzalez from the Yankees side) for outfielder Nick Swisher and reliever Kanekoa Texeira. 

The Yankees would go on to win the World Series in 2009, behind Swisher and their flury of new additions, and were back on top of the baseball world. The team could not repeat their successes in 2010, nor in 2011 or 2012 before Swisher left the Yankees via free agency. Swisher would sign with the Cleveland Indians (Guardians) prior to the 2013 season, thus giving New York a compensation pick between the first and second rounds of the 2013 MLB First year Player's Draft. 

With the 32nd pick overall, the New York Yankees selected Aaron James Judge and the rest, as they say, is history. Judge has had a 62 home run season, breaking the American League single-season home run record, along with a 58 home run season in 2024, but the World Series trophy has eluded Judge since breaking through with the team in 2016. 

Imagine a world where the New York Yankees didn't have Aaron Judge playing in their outfield in the Bronx, kind of hard to picture right? Well that would have certainly been a reality had the Yankees not drafted Ledee way back in 1990. A lot of chips had to fall a certain way to lead the team to where they are today and I, for one, am happy with the progression. Judge will presumably spend his entire year with the Yankees as their captain of the squad and we all, as fans, have the likes of Ledee, Ventura, Proctor, Betemit and Swisher, to name a few, to thank for it.

Brian Cashman's Trade History on July 31st

Brian Cashman has been the General Manager of the New York Yankees since the 1998 season so you would think that he has made his fair share of last-minute July 31st trade deadline trades. Right? Well, not really. While he hasn't made an absolute ton of trades on this day he has made a few notable ones and some trades that ended up being big in the grand scheme of things. Let's showcase those here as we wait for the Yankees and Rays game here in a couple of hours.

July 31, 2003 traded Brandon Claussen and Charlie Manning to the Cincinnati Reds for Aaron Boone

Hello 2003 ALCS against the Boston Red Sox.

July 31, 2003 traded Robin Ventura to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Scott Proctor and Bubba Crosby

Joe Torre thanks you for Proctor and Cashman used Crosby to kind of get Johnny Damon to sign. Well that and a blank check. 2009 World Series regardless.

July 31, 2006 traded Shawn Chacon to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Craig Wilson

For a long time Chacon was my favorite Yankees pitcher. Don't know why I just like the way the guy threw the ball and got guys out. Rooting for the underdog maybe?

July 31, 2007 traded Scott Proctor to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Wilson Betemit

Joe Torre cried a bit inside...

July 31, 2008 traded Alberto Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for Jhonny Nunez

Who and who?

July 31, 2009 traded Chase Weems to the Cincinnati Reds for Jerry Hairston

See above from the 2009 World Series. That's Jerry Hairston Jr.

July 31, 2010 traded Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes to the Houston Astros for Lance Berkman

DUMB move here but you take the good with the bad I guess with Cashman.

July 31, 2010 traded Matt Cusick and Andrew Shive to the Cleveland Indians for Kerry Wood

This guy was amazing for us in a small sample size.

July 31, 2012 traded Chad Qualls to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Casey McGehee

Minor. Yet Effective.

July 31, 2014 traded Kelly Johnson to the Boston Red Sox for Stephen Drew

Stephen Drew Sucks!

July 31, 2014 traded Peter O’Brien to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Martin Prado

Good, for a while.

You know how many trades Brian Cashman has made on August 1st during his tenure as a Yankees GM? None. Zilch. Nada. Hopefully that changes tomorrow.

Remembering Yankees of the Past: Scott Proctor

I was going through some emails that we receive from our awesome readers, hat tip to Betty for the idea for this article, and I opened an article about Scott Proctor. Proctor was one of the many arms that then Yankees manager Joe Torre “ruined” out of his bullpen. Remember, towards the latter part of his tenure with the club the Yankees were not winning World Series Championships annually like they did in the latter part of the 90’s and into the 2000’s and George Steinbrenner was livid. Steinbrenner was writing the biggest checks at the time and demanded greatness and in his mind that greatness started with the manager. Torre was managing every game for his job and stuck to using the relievers and players he trusted, one of those arms was Proctor. With that said we remember the Yankees reliever who threw in 80+ games multiple times in his career, the reliever that loved to hit Kevin Youkilis in a Red Sox uniform and the reliever that battled alcoholism for much of his ride along the way. Remembering Yankees of the Past, this is Scott Proctor.

Scott Christopher Proctor was traded to the New York Yankees along with Bubba Crosby for Robin Ventura on July 31, 2003 and New York immediately stashed their new weapon in Triple-A. Proctor was a closer for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers and was seen throwing 100 MPH or higher there which caught the eyes of the Yankees brass and manager Joe Torre. Proctor ended up making his MLB debut on April 20, 2004 against the Chicago White Sox as a mop up man. Proctor pitches 2.1 innings of relief and allowed two earned runs. Proctor’s results that season were not ideal but he quickly became a trusted weapon for the Yankees and even more quickly became a mainstay inside the Yankees bullpen.

Proctor pitched in just 26 games in 2005 before becoming the everyday guy we all remember in 2006 under Torre. Proctor led the league in 2006 with 83 appearances and often pitched for more than one inning or on consecutive days. Proctor joined Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth as the Yankees bridge to Mariano Rivera. Proctor crossed the 80 appearance threshold again in 2007 leading GM Brian Cashman to confront Torre and Proctor about his overuse. To make a long story short Torre would ask Proctor if he was okay to pitch and Proctor would always say yes. Cashman wanted Proctor to be more open and honest with Torre before it was too late for his right arm, but it already was.

Proctor’s career took a turn for the worse after 2007 and it landed him off the Yankees and with the Atlanta Braves before the 2009 season. Proctor stayed with Atlanta through most of the 2011 season before the Yankees brought Proctor back on a new minor league deal. On August 13, 2011 the Yankees re-signed him and sent him back to Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders before calling him up on September 1^st. Proctor pitched sparingly for the Yankees in 2011 before electing free agency and before he ended his tenure with the Yankees.

Proctor’s tenure with the Yankees was a roller coaster ride of sorts to say the least. Proctor caught some heat specifically with the Yankees after being accused of intentionally throwing at batters with the intention for retaliation, ask Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox. On June 1, 2007 Proctor plunked Youkilis in the shoulder after two Yankees batters had been hit. Youkilis was the fifth batter to be hit in the game and Proctor was ejected after both benches cleared and Youkilis had to be held back by then Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. Proctor protested that he did not intentionally hit Youkilis but was still suspended by the league after the incident for one-game. In other instance Proctor threw behind Seattle Mariners infielder Yuniesky Betancourt after his teammate Josh Phelps was hit by a pitch. Phelps was only hit after the Mariners catcher Kenji Johima was hit so Proctor incited another rally that had seemingly already been handled by the unwritten rules of the game. Another retaliation pitch and another suspension for Proctor.

When the Yankees and Scott Proctor knew he had a problem was on June 30, 2007 when he was seen lighting fire to his equipment on the field. Proctor has taken the loss in each of the last two Yankees games and was visibly upset after pitching poorly against the Oakland Athletics. It was then that Yankees closer Mariano Rivera too him under his wing and Proctor realized he had an alcohol problem. Proctor revealed in 2009 that he was a recovering alcoholic and credited Mariano with urging him to straighten his life out. Proctor began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and seemingly turned his life around, although it was too late to save his career.

When all was said and done Proctor pitched for the Yankees, Dodgers, Braves and the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization but he definitely made his name for himself and his mark with New York. Today we remember you Scott, hope you’re well.