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Keidel: Boy, Were The Anti-Yankees Rebuild Movement People Wrong

By Jason Keidel
» More Columns

Every season, some forlorn franchise becomes carrion around the trade deadline, its bones picked by the first-place vultures looking to fill the small cracks in their rosters.

That sorry team dumps its remaining stars, subsequent salaries, and takes its lumps from the public and pundits. Then it prays, and waits for that "told you so" moment a year or two down the road.

But the Yankees had never been among that sad lot because, well, they're the Yankees. Rebuild is not in their corporate charter. They simply outspend their peers and feast on the poor.

But that's all gone now. Their wallet no longer casts a haunting shadow over the sport. And, frankly, they haven't been great since the Joe Torre dynasty finally fizzled out over a decade ago. In fact, 2009 was the exception that proved the rule, as it's their lone World Series title since they bagged Jose Contreras and assumed Larry Lucchino's infamous sobriquet, "the Evil Empire."

There's been a slow drip on their soul ever since. And over the last few years, as the last remnants of the real empire faded and the Core Four melted into memory, the team never got its mojo back.

And, honestly, this year seemed to be the punctuation mark on a sad chapter in their history, extending the sense that the Yankees, as we've come to love and loathe them, were through. In fact, they were no longer loathed, which is the greatest insult of all, because it meant they were no longer worth loathing.

But that all just changed by, ironically, doing the exact opposite of what made them so hated.

The Yankees have pushed all the right buttons since they backed their trade truck into the dock, unloaded three All-Stars, and got swaths of young talent in return.

Those of us who asserted that the Yankees were not allowed to rebuild, were clearly wrong. In fact, the youth movement has gone so well so quickly it's not a rebuild at all. While most teams dump stars and salary with one eye on next year, the Yankees actually got better and now have both hands firmly gripped on this year's playoff wheel.

MOREKeidel: Yanks Are Supposed To Contend, Not Be MLB's Rebuilders-In-Chief

And while the players they got for Carlos Beltran, Arolids Chapman, and Andrew Miller have yet to make their marks on the Big Apple, there are myriad peripheral benefits to their arrival.

For instance, Gary Sanchez, who morphed into Roy Hobbs the moment he was called up to the majors, would not have made his cinematic entrance had the Yanks been bulls at the deadline.

"We're winning because of the moves we made," Brian Cashman recently told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times. "Gary Sanchez wouldn't have gotten up here if we don't make the moves that we made. Gary went off and did his stuff. He's had the biggest impact of them all, but there was no way to get Gary up unless we made trades."

Sanchez, of course, has returned from orbit, and is back among humans. Only the most jaded fans expected him to bat .400 and average a home run every five plate appearances. But he has given fans more hope in a month than the collective unit has in several years.

MOREKeidel: Gary Sanchez's Most Impressive Feat? Quickly Restoring Optimism In Yankees Fan Base

If the Yankees are thriving now -- their last two games notwithstanding -- imagine their impact next year, when Sanchez should be joined by an amalgam of fresh blue-chip prospects.

No doubt training camp 2017 will be among the most exciting since the 1990s, when the media and the masses get a peek at Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield, and Dillon Tate, the most notable prospects acquired in the deals for Chapman, Miller, and Beltran.

Also consider that young promising players like Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge will be a year older, with at least 100 big-league at-bats under their belts.

All of it makes the Bronx Bombers the team of the future. What many of us didn't expect, is for the future to begin so soon.

Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel

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