The Long-Term Ramifications of the Jake Cave Trade

Yes, this trade aged poorly.

Still, Gil pitched 33 MLB innings prior to this year, his age 26 season.

The Yankees traded Cave for a lottery ticket. This lottery ticket paid off (eventually). A lucky trade for the Yankees. 

LaMont Wade pulled a hammy yesterday.  Out 4-6 weeks.

There was a lot of luck involved in this trade for the Yankees.  Gil wasn't highly touted at the time, and has since had TJ surgery.  I'm certain that no one, not even the Yankees predicted he was likely to become a major league starter.  Also, caution. . . there are plenty of pitchers who have come up as rookies and been good, but who never really develop well enough to have a good career.  That said, I would gladly take him off of their hands now.

To answer the original question, Gil was the bigger loss, because starting pitching is always the most valuable thing out there.  Wade would have been a nice (and better) alternative than Cave at the time when Wade was traded away, but based on the hindsight of the time, it was quite a bit less than obvious who should go between Cave and Wade. 

1 hour ago, RpR said:

Jake -Charlie Hustle- Cave sadly was never a great fielder and with each year, his bat, which was pretty darn good year one, went away little by little.

I still loved watch him hustle down he base path even if it on a sure out.

Jake Cave was always the king of holy crap that went a long ways.  He would hit a ball and I'd think "oh that has a chance to get out"  and it would be 453ft or something.  When he hit a ball it stayed hit.

This is a good example of where Aaron has to get out of his own way.  He hasn't quite realized that he is in a position to project his own neurosis on the fanbase.  Nobody cares the Yankees got a pitcher from the Twins that actually has had a few good games in the MLBs.  Except Aaron and a few other MSP sports scribes that is.  Let your fanbase grow up and join the big boys.  The big boy towns aren't worried the least bit about who got away, just cause that one time Big Papi.

It's perfectly encapsulated in this tweet.  Nobody knows Gil was a Twin without Aaron dredging it up and now we get an article.  Just let it go, man.  Like in what circumstances would I care?

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm not going to hammer them for trading after thought prospects for a guy who looked like he might pay off, but their evaluations of their internal players seems off.

It's really weird, this front office just seems to have no faith in their own fringy prospects even though the fringy ones seem to pay off almost as often as the top prospects do. I mean, this really is no different than going with Margot and Vazquez over Keirsey and Camargo. No idea what is happening but if I had to guess, it would be that they spend too much time looking at the warts and not enough time looking at the ceiling.

It felt to me like Falvey couldn't care less about the Smith/Ryan draftee's who hadn't yet established themselves as top prospects. He was pretty quick to ditch them.

18 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

 Let your fanbase grow up and join the big boys.  The big boy towns aren't worried the least bit about who got away, just cause that one time Big Papi.

 

"Big Boy Towns" aren't worried? I have 3 words for that: "Boston - Babe Ruth"

On 5/29/2024 at 2:48 PM, jorgenswest said:

Wade is not a good outfielder even on a corner. He started two games in centerfield for the Giants. Both were in early April of his first season with the team. He did not finish either game in CF. The Giants have played him less in the outfield and more at first base to the point where he has only 5 starts in the outfield this year.

I think Cave was kept because of his defense.

This. Four of Cave's last 5 games he has been put in the game as a defensive replacement. That suggests he's still a better defensive option than some who are starting the games.