The trade consummated yesterday that saw the Milwaukee Brewers send Christian Yelich to Colorado for prospects Everson Pereira, Brendan Rodgers, Jo Adell, Anthony Volpe and Robert Tyler was one that will be dissected for years to come as these players enter the major leagues. Many around the league tell me that the return Milwaukee was able to get here is about as good as it gets as far as taking risks on future stars. Ironically, the New York Yankees involvement in the discussions is somehow getting the most attention. The Yankees had offered a package involving Estevan Florial, Miguel Andujar, Mike Tauchmann among others which many General Mangers, and most importantly the one in Milwaukee, simply didn’t feel was worthy of the 28 year old Yelich. One General Manager described the process surrounding this trade as a game of keep away, with some teams only being involved to make sure that Yelich didn’t wind up in pinstripes. Obviously this is becoming frustrating to the Yankees front office as they feel they are unfairly treated and have even voiced this to the commissioners office. While it is common for a division rival to get involved in trade talks to block you from acquiring a big time player (you should recall the Red Sox / Yankees and their pursuits of Alex Rodriguez) it is a new phenomenon to see team’s from different leagues having an interest in preventing another’s acquisition. To make matters even worse two of the players at the center of the Rockies’ offer for Yelich were in fact acquired from the Yankees in the Jacoby Ellsury and Marquez trades prior to opening day. While the Yankees certainly have some reason to feel persecuted there isn’t much that they are likely to receive in terms of assistance from the commissioner so they are just going to have to pull themselves up from their boot straps and keep plugging away as they, for reasons unbeknownst to many baseball minds, pursue another big bat.