Curtis Granderson

Curtis Granderson hit 115 home runs for the New York Yankees in barely four seasons, popularized a nickname that still gets chanted from the bleachers ("The Grandyman Can"), and turned a trade nobody outside the Bronx got excited about into one of the better outfield swaps of the New Stadium era. He wasn't a Hall of Famer in pinstripes. He was something almost as valuable to a fan base -- a guy who worked his tail off, fixed a broken swing in one winter, and gave the Yankees a freakin' 41-homer season that came out of absolutely nowhere.

The Trade Nobody Circled on a Calendar

The Yankees got Granderson on December 8, 2009, in a three-team, seven-player deal with Detroit and Arizona. New York sent Detroit lefty reliever Phil Coke and a well-regarded prospect named Austin Jackson (yeah, that Austin Jackson trade still stings a little). Detroit flipped Edwin Jackson to Arizona and picked up Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth in return. The Diamondbacks got Ian Kennedy, who'd go on to win 21 games for them in 2011. Everybody in this trade did fine, honestly, which is rare for a three-team swap this big.

The pitch for Granderson was simple: a lefty stroke built for the short porch in right field, coming off his first All-Star nod in Detroit. (Nobody projected 41 homers off that pitch. Nobody.)

A Rough Welcome, Then a Total Rebuild

2010 was fine. Just fine. Granderson hit .247 with 24 homers and 67 RBI in 136 games -- the kind of season that gets you a shrug, not a parade. He had a habit of pulling off the ball and getting eaten alive by inside pitches, and Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long spent that whole first year quietly diagnosing the problem.

Then came the offseason overhaul. Long and Granderson spent the winter reworking his load, keeping his front shoulder closed, and teaching him to drive the ball to all fields instead of just yanking everything foul or into a glove. It's one of the most underrated coaching jobs in recent Yankees history, and I will die on that hill.

The payoff arrived immediately. Granderson hit 41 home runs in 2011, drove in a league-leading 119 runs, scored 136 times (also tops in the majors), stole 25 bases, and finished fourth in AL MVP voting. He won his first Silver Slugger and made his second career All-Star team. The full breakdown of that season -- and it deserves a full breakdown -- lives over in the 2011 breakout story.

Back-to-Back 40-Homer Seasons

Granderson didn't fade after his monster year, either. 2012 brought 43 home runs and 106 RBI -- the most homers by a Yankees outfielder since Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961 -- making him just the fifth Yankee to post back-to-back 40-homer seasons, joining Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Jason Giambi. He also set a franchise strikeout record (195) doing it, because nothing with Granderson came without a trade-off. Third and final All-Star selection, same year.

Then 2013 happened, and it was almost cruel. Granderson took a pitch off his right forearm in his very first spring training at-bat and fractured it. He came back in May, played 11 games, and got hit again -- this time breaking his left pinky. He finished with just 61 games, seven homers, and a .229 average, the worst luck any Yankee took to close out a good run in the Bronx. The Mets scooped him up that December on a four-year, $60 million deal, and just like that, the Grandyman was gone.

The Legacy

Four seasons. 513 games. 115 homers. A batting title he never had (his career average with the Yankees was a modest .245), but a peak nobody saw coming and a personality the Stadium genuinely missed once he left. Cano and Jeter were the stars of that early-2010s lineup. Granderson, for one incandescent summer, was its engine.