The Yankees' acquisition of third baseman Todd Frazier, reliever David Robertson and reliever Tommy Kahnle for reliever Tyler Clippard and three prospects (including two former first-rounders) probably does more to help their bullpen than their lineup -- particularly given Frazier's struggles at the plate this year. The White Sox, meanwhile, appear to be willing to take a chance on those two first-rounders – outfielder Blake Rutherford and pitcher Ian Clarkin -- while their value is low.
Since Frazier's 2014-15 peak, the 31-year-old has underperformed the past two seasons, posting strangely poor results in the White Sox's hitter-friendly home park. Never much of a breaking-ball hitter, Frazier has also failed to do much damage with fastballs in 2017; while he has put the ball in play more often, his .214 BABIP so far this year seems too low to be real. The version of Frazier we've seen this year isn't much of an improvement over Yankees third baseman Chase Headley, either on offense or at third base, so I assume the Yankees believe they're getting the 2016 version of Frazier (or even an earlier model) in the deal.
