With the Kansas City Royals giving up the ship last week and declaring Carlos Beltran, Mike Sweeney, et al available (and the Mariners will soon do the same with Freddy Garcia) it will be interesting to see where Epstein falls in line. Certainly he understands that the Yankees will be gunning for Beltran, Garcia, or both. One thing Epstein won't do is give up the future. And getting Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon back is like completing a major trade anyway, right?
"I used to hate to hear that when I was a fan," Epstein said. "In some ways it's appropriate to say that, but if we can get all of our players healthy, that's a real gift. I know you can't always presume that, but we certainly feel we're going to be healthier than we have been."
Here's his philosophy this trade season:
"If we have a trade that we think will help us this year, but if the price is too much in terms of prospects, we'll work to make the price right, and if we can't, we just won't do the deal. We're not going to blow up the farm system. Will we trade a piece here or there? Yes, maybe we'll trade a guy the other team likes more than we do, but we're not going to move the guys that we really, really like.
"It's hard to get there when you trade three out of your best five prospects every year. It's just not something we're going to do. We'll pursue every opportunity to try to get to a point where the talent we're getting back is worth the talent given up. We take very seriously even the loss of one prospect.
"We've studied the history of deadline deals. The ones that actually help you win are the ones where you actually acquire an impact player. Trading prospects we really like that have a bright future and are really going to help us for a spare part or two probably isn't the way to go. At the same time, I think the 25th player is a very important player."
It's not that Epstein thinks he'll eventually have a completely home-grown team. He wants the farm system to be fruitful, much like Gorman's was when he was able to deal Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling for Mike Boddicker or Jeff Bagwell (oops!) for Larry Andersen. Or when Dan Duquette was able to give up Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. for Pedro Martinez.
