The trade: The Yankees acquire RHP Scott Effross from the Cubs for RHP Hayden Wesneski.
Get your bullpen scorecards ready and sharpen those pencils, because the relief arms are going to be flying around everywhere over the next 24 hours.
The Yankees got a jump in that hectic section of the trade market Monday, acquiring righty Scott Effross from the Cubs for righty pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski. From the headline standpoint, this deal might not generate the large font, but it could have plenty of impact on New York's quest to end its title drought this October.
Let's grade it.
From a value-for-value standpoint -- the actuarial perspective -- this is a good trade for both Chicago and New York. The Yankees land a reliever in Effross, 28, who won't become a free agent until 2028 and has his rookie eligibility intact through this season. This isn't a trade for a half season of a bullpen arm; it's a trade for a long-term contributor.
Giving up Hayden Wesneski, 24, is not nothing. Kiley McDaniel rated him outside of his top 18 players in his organizational rankings before the season, but he was one of McDaniel's breakout picks and Baseball America had Wesneski as New York's fourth-ranked prospect in its midseason rankings. We'll get more into his specific outlook in the Cubs' part of this, but Baseball America recently wrote about the looming 40-man roster crunch the Yankees were facing this offseason. Wesneski was very much a part of that.
