Tyler Kepner has some interesting anecdotes about just how close the Yanks came to trading Robbie Cano in the 2004 ARod trade, but the Texas Rangers chose Joaquin Arias instead. The same Arias that was just traded to the Mets for Frenchy Francoeur:
In 2003, the year before the A-Rod trade, Arias hit .266 at low-Class A Battle Creek in the Yankees’ farm system. He was one of five prospects the Yankees offered to Texas as the player to be named in the deal. Arias was 19 at the time, and a more polished defender than Cano, who was 21 and had just hit .277 between Class A Tampa and Class AA Trenton. The Rangers chose Arias.
[...]
“Thank God we never traded him,” Gordon Blakeley, a special assistant to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, told The Times in 2008. “We liked him a lot and we didn’t want to give him away, but he wasn’t a ‘No, don’t trade him for any cost’ guy. If we felt we could get a Beltran or an A-Rod, he could have gone in a deal. We were fortunate.”
Gee, ya think? Whew.
A bit of history I didn’t know. Wow! Thanks, Jason. Kinda balances out some of the bad trades we’ve made. Obviously, without Cano, we wouldn’t be in first place.
A interesting bit of history there. I guess people never appreciate GMs for things they didn’t do.
If I recall correctly, Cano has come close recently to getting shipped out. Remember that two seasons ago he was personae non grata for a lack of hustle. I'm not even sure he was untouchable throughout last season either.
Kind of like the Mariano Rivera for Felix Fermin trade that never happened. Whew is right!
Jason, this is a perfect example of what separates good and bad baseball management. A large part of the separation is pure luck.
Yea….
So….
What does ‘Trading Deadline’ mean again?
“Some of the best deals we make are the ones we don’t make” Marty Flusser