Two years ago, when the Red Sox traded two of their top prospects -- Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech -- for Chris Sale, the Yankees were in the bidding for the star left-hander as well. But general manager Brian Cashman felt the White Sox' asking price was too high and stepped aside, clearing the way for Sale to head to Boston.
Sale has gone 29-12 in two years with the Sox and helped them to a World Series championship this year, though his contributions in the second half ot the season and the playoffs were limited due to a shoulder injury. But Cashman is having no second thoughts about saying no to the White Sox.
"Thank God I didn’t do that, actually," Cashman told reporters at the general managers' meetings, as reported by the New York Post, "because you’d be missing some serious components of our major league club right now that are under control. We wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if I did anything like that with the White Sox back then."
One of the players the White Sox wanted was Luis Severino, who has emerged as the ace of the Yankee staff. Cashman didn't identify who else he would have to surrender, except to say that they would have had to give up at least one of the team's core position players.
“In this case, you’d be losing starting position players that you have that are young and controllable as well as a pitcher (Severino) who was a Cy Young Award candidate (in 2018) in his own right,” Cashman said. “We just weren’t in the position back then.
"No regrets on that. Good, sound business decisions then.”
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