Why Yankees’ trade for Orioles’ Zach Britton is steal and more

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman acquired left-handed reliever Zach Britton in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 (7/24/18). Britton joins Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and David Robertson in the Yankees’ stacked bullpen.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Whenever Brian Cashman talks to reporters about the Yankees‘ first in-season trade with the Baltimore Orioles since July 1989, the GM probably will paint a picture that he gave up a ton Tuesday night adding two-time All-Star reliever Zach Britton into his club’s already-great bullpen.

Don’t buy it.

9 things to know about Yankees’ new reliever Zach Britton

First off, whether this week-before-the-trade-deadline deal turns out to a rental or not, the Yankees’ chances of getting to and winning the 2018 World Series went up with this trade. 

Scouts that I talk to really like the present-day Britton, who isn’t what he was two, three and four years ago but still is one of the best lefty relievers in the game. And he might get back to being what he was because his 2018 big-league season is just six weeks old due to offseason Achilles surgery.

And from what I hear, Yankees fans do not have to worry about the three minor-league pitchers headed Baltimore’s way developing into the next Palmer, Cuellar and McNally, who were like the 1998 Pettitte, Cone and Wells pitching for the great late-’60s and early-’70s Orioles ballclubs.

Scouts that I chat with regularly love, love, love the Yankees’ farm system, yet they are not crazy about any of the young arms that Baltimore is getting:

Double-A righty Dillon Tate, Triple-A lefty Josh Rogers and Triple-A righty reliever Cody Carroll.

Tate once was very highly touted – he was drafted fourth overall pick by Texas in 2015 – but the Rangers gave up on him in 13 months when packaging him to the Yankees for rental DH Carlos Beltran.

And now two Julys later, Tate is on the move again. He’s having a solid Double-A season and was ranked as the Yankees’ ninth-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, but I’ve repeatedly been told for two years that there’s a better shot that the 24-year-old someday will be a middle reliever in the big leagues instead of a frontline starter.

The Yankees have and kept many better starting pitcher prospects in their very rich farm system, the likes of Justin Sheffield and Jonathan Loaisiga in Triple-A, Domingo Acevedo and Trevor Stephan in Double-A, Albert Abreu, Luis Medina, Freicer Perez, Clarke Schmidt, Matt Sauer, Deivi Garcia, Glenn Otto and Nolan Martinez, among others, in the low minors.

All of those pitching prospects remain with the Yankees to keep and develop … or to use as trade chips to get what they need most for a long playoff run, another ace. We’ll find out by next Tuesday if Cashman can top Tuesday’s trade by dealing for, say, Madison Bumgarner.

Getting Britton is a big deal though for two reasons.

Here’s the obvious: The Yankees had their lowest bullpen ERA before this trade and now it has another proven star joining three vets with a combined 10 All-Star Game selections – closer Aroldis Chapman (5), Dellin Betances (4) and David Robertson (1) – plus young star Chad Green, rising star Jonathan Holder and jack-of-all-trades vet Adam Warren. No team now or ever had a bullpen this talented.

Also – and perhaps more importantly – this Yankees’ trade kept Britton off the Red Sox and Astros, and both AL superpowers really wanted him.

The Red Sox, who are up five games on the Yanks in the AL East, wanted Britton to be closer Craig Kimbel’s setup man. The Astros wanted (and badly needed) Britton to be their closer with Ken Giles having earned a recent demotion to Triple-A.

Britton, who is making $12 million this year, can become a free agent after the season, and he may well walk and get big money from the Astros. But maybe he’ll fall in love with being part of a great bullpen, maybe the Yankees give him closer money to stay and maybe he becomes a 2016 Andrew Miller for them.

Time will tell.

Meantime, this trade looks to be a steal for the Yankees, as well as a win-win-win because the Yankees’ gain is a loss for the Astros and Red Sox.

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.