At this year’s Major League Baseball trade deadline, the New York Yankees made two trades, sending Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians and Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs.  Fans of the Yankees have watched their two trade pieces dominate throughout the playoffs.  Now, Miller and Chapman are facing off in the World Series for their respective teams.
The Yankees also made room with the release of Alex Rodriguez and retirement of first baseman Mark Teixeira.  The roster moves allowed New York to create space in the lineup and begin the youth movement in The Bronx.
Combining the aforementioned trades plus three more, the Yankees acquired 14 prospects in total.  This includes the No. 1 and No. 2 on Baseball America’s Top 10 New York Yankees prospects for 2017.  Josh Norris, who ranked the team’s prospects, named Gleyber Torres, who was acquired as part of the Chapman deal with Chicago, as No. 1 and Clint Frazier, the outfield prospect of the Miller trade with Cleveland, as No. 2.
The rest (No. 3-10) of Baseball America’s Yankees Top 10 goes like this: Blake Rutherford (OF), Jorge Mateo (SS), James Kaprielian (RHP), Aaron Judge (OF), Justus Sheffield (LHP), Chance Adams (RHP), Dustin Fowler (OF), and Domingo Acevedo (RHP).
Earlier this week on World Series Media Day, Cubs skipper Joe Maddon discussed the Chapman trade, speaking highly of Torres.
“I’ve seen Gleyber.  Gleyber’s a good baseball player, man,” he stated.  “That kid’s going to be really good.  You have to give up something to get something.  But also, our guys felt if we got Aroldis this year, we’d have a chance to be sitting here and answering this question, and they were right.”
In 2016 between the Cubs and Yankees farm, he hit .270 with a .775 OPS. Â He added 29 doubles, five triples, 11 home-runs, 66 RBI and 21 stolen bases.
In his article, Norris praised Torres’ pitch recognition skills, specifically his ability to “sort through breaking pitches in order to get to the fastball he desires.” Â He wrote, “Early in the season, Torres tried too hard to hit for power and got pull happy, but he showed the ability to adjust and got back to an all-fields approach. Â Evaluators believe Torres has the ability to hit for plus average and plus power, and this season showed pop to both corners.”
Torres is proving just that in the Arizona Fall League. Â He kicked off his AFL season with an opposite field home-run at Scottsdale Stadium. Â The 19-year-old is batting .306 with a 1.016 OPS. Â Through 10 games, he hit three home-runs and seven RBI and was named Player of the Week on October 25.
Frazier, the No. 2 prospect as named by BA, hit .263 with a .782 OPS in Double-A and Triple-A teams with the Indians and Yankees.  He ended the year with 27 doubles, five triples, 16 home-runs, 55 RBI and 13 stolen bases.
This morning, fans voted the Yankees farm system the Best Farm System for the 2016 MiLBYs.
