Interesting perspective you have on the deals the Yanks made. I think most of the “winner” opinions focus on exactly what you said about how they really didn’t give up much of anything and got some talent back. I hadn’t really thought about the possibility that finding ABs for Kearns and Berkman might hurt the Yankees.

Personally, my reaction to their deals was pretty much a shrug. I’ll believe Wood is good again when I actually see it (though he wouldn’t have to be REAL good to be an improvement over what the Yankees have had in the set up roles lately, I guess). As for Kearns and Berkman, the way I look at it is that the Yankees can only play 9 nonpitchers at a time, anyway. It gives them depth in the event of injury and maybe better bats off the bench than most teams have. That could be important as they fight the Rays for the AL East, but in the playoffs (where it would matter, hopefully, to the Twins), I think those additions are probably going to be marginal difference makers, at best.

Of course, you also can’t totally discount the possibility that at least part of the motivation the Yankees had for picking up these guys was to keep them from being acquired by the Rays (Berkman) and Red Sox (Wood). Buster Olney reported those teams finished “second” in the bidding for those players. If they turn around and send them elsewhere in a waiver deal before the end of the season, we’ll know this was a bigger factor than we might otherwise think.

The addition of Wood was decent, as you can never have enough potential relievers and Wood is someone a different pitching coach can attempt to tweak.

All in all, the only thing the Yanks did well was get stuff without giving too much (anything) up. That being said, I think the Twins may have overpaid for a piece they needed, but they got what they needed for a part they didn’t ultimately need. I call that a win, since it is unlikely they could have landed a blue chip front-line pitcher for Ramos. I didn’t dislike the move.

WIN TWINS! (This week anyway…