Way to go Seattle: helping the yankees is really smart.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/story?id=1591519

Wednesday, August 6

Yankees trade Benitez to Mariners for Nelson

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ESPN.com news services


SEATTLE -- The tenure of Armando Benitez with the Yankees was short-lived.

The Yankees shipped the hard-throwing reliever to the Mariners on Wednesday for another reliever, Jeff Nelson.

This is the latest attempt by the Yankees to upgrade their bullpen. They had acquired Benitez from the Mets just three weeks ago.

This will be Nelson's second tour of duty with the Yankees. He pitched for them from 1996-200, helping the Yankees win four World Series titles in five years. However, his relationship with manager Joe Torre deteriorated during that span.

Benitez had good numbers in his brief stint with the Yankees (1-1, 1.93 ERA in nine innings), but Torre seemed to have him on a short leash, removing him from games at the first sign of trouble. Benitez had 21 saves with the Mets this season, but has had numerous high-profile meltdowns in his career.



Pathetic, so Gillick trades off Nelson because he criticized the team for not making a move by july 31st. Yet he trades him to a team seattle might have to overcome to reach the postseason, impressive. I know sasaki is out, but seattle will regret this big time.

 

Benitez has the talent, no doubt. However you don't help a playoff rival to get a marginal upgrade at best. Gillick strengthened the Yankees because nelson is used to being a setup man and has pitched in the spotlight before compared to benitez and his meltdowns. Plus now torre can define the 8th and 9th inning roles with a lot more comfort and security.

Remember Stanton, Nelson, Rivera? Hammond is decent, and they now have nelson and rivera. So with the generosity of a rival GM the yankees now have a really good bullpen again, and one their fans and players should have more confidence in come october.

On talent alone, I don't care about the deal as its so close its neligible, but seattle is taking the risk here not NY, and to help a rival team solidify a weakness when the deadline has passed and you aren't getting a substantially better player is really idiotic.

I hate the Yankees, but Cashman deserves credit on this one, as long as Torre and Nelson can coexist, which seeing how this is the Yankees, they should be able to.

 

Yes, that's why Nelson left to go to Seattle as a free agent.

And SLA, the trade deadline without restrictions is July 31st every year.

After July 31st, teams have until August 31st to send guys through waivers to make a trade. Waiver priority is based on record. The worst teams have first crack, if the player clears waivers you can keep him(pull him back). If he is claimed by multiple teams the team with the highest waiver priority gets him.

So basically its a bit shocking no AL contender like Oakland or Chicago blocked this trade, making either club have to work a deal with them or give up the player for nothing.