Long-range roster management will help Yankees decide their trade chips

Hayden WesneskiAs the MLB season enters June, each team’s strengths and weaknesses come into focus and trade rumors begin to pick up steam. For every player that a team is looking to add to the major league roster, there will be various packages of prospects heading back the other way.

When the Yankees do business, many of those prospects are players who will need to be protected in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft, or may be running out of minor league option years with no clear place waiting for them in the major leagues. In July 2021, when it seemed like the Yankees were about to make a move on the market, we used these factors to help determine who they might choose to deal. Sure enough,…