Minnesota Twins: Trade history of the New Front Office Leaders
By Nate Palmer
Indians acquire Andrew Miller from Yankees for RHP Ben Heller, CF Clint Frazier, RHP J.P. Fevereisen, and LHP Justus Sheffield (2016)
This is the trade that can be identified as an acquisition that helped catapult the Indians into the World Series. Bringing in Andrew Miller from the Yankees may have seemed like an unnecessary move with Cody Allen already in place as a quality closer. What we saw was how Miller was valuable for his manager as a very good bridge to Allen, and made the Indians bullpen very tough to produce against.
The Yankees were able to bring in quite the haul for Miller to help stock their farm system. Headlining this trade was a pair of Top 100 prospects who were considered two of the top three in the Indians farm system at the time of the trade. Those prospects were CF Clint Frazier and LHP Justus Sheffield. We never know how prospects will turn out, but for a relief pitcher this is a huge haul.
One of the key things to point out here is that the Indians made an “all-in” move for a player that was more than a rental. Not only did the team ride him through the playoffs in 2016, but Miller should be an important piece to the Indians bullpen through the 2018 season.