For the Yankees to win at the trading deadline, they need another team to panic. In Aroldis Chapman, they have precisely the kind of player to make rival executives lose all sense of reason.
It has happened before, and with a closer nowhere near the caliber of Chapman, who conveniently hit 105 miles an hour on the radar gun against Baltimore on Monday.
“We’re all very lucky to be witnessing the guy that throws the fastest pitch in the world,” the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Rodriguez surely remembers a deal that paid off gloriously for a team that traded its closer on July 31.