It's possible there's never been a New York Yankees trade deadline with more strongly polarized sides before the action kicked off. There were those who've watched seven weeks of sub-Rockies Yankees baseball and decided they weren't worth investing in — including a few different reporters who hinted the team might even sell a few veterans. There were others, like Brian Cashman, who insisted the Yankees would be all in on a market that didn't seem to have many blockbuster possibilities, on the surface.
Three weeks before the deadline (and before the Yankees' slump worsened in Toronto), Cashman told the media, "We’re going to go to town.