After today's trade, Yankees could have two corner outfielders named Aaron next year

The Yankee plan is taking shape: Acquire former super-prospects, and give them new incarnations.

They made two moves today.

1. They freed Jose Pirela - a guy they never coveted, because all he ever did was hit at every level of the minors - for a 20-year-old RH bullpen lug nut whose name I don't remember, but it will surely be filed with the Rumbelows and Goodys of the Scrantonian landscape. Pirela went to San Diego, which is becoming one of our established minor trade partners.

2. They they traded home-grown John Ryan Murphy to Minnesota for switch-hitting OF Aaron Hicks, another former super-prospect (see Dustin Ackley) who is 26 and in a crossroads of his career.

Here's Hicks' profile. Read for yourself.

Eleven home runs? Greg Bird hit 11 (in about half the plate appearances as Hicks) and the Yankiverse wants to enshrine him in Monument Park. Hicks is 6'2", so he'll look good coming off the bus. He was once the 14th player picked in the MLB draft, one of the jewels who was going to lead the Twins out of St. Paul. But his numbers have improved each year. And last season, he hit .307 from the right side - (not so good as a lefty) - which means he could keep us from having to give Chris Young a three-year deal. If he's any good, and if Aaron Judge is any good - we could have the first two-Aaron outfields since Hank and Tommie, back around 1962, with the Milwaukee Braves. Seems like yesterday.

As for Murphy - the only Yankee known with a middle name (usually Presidential assassin material) - I hate to see him go. He's only 24, and he's done everything the Yankees ever asked. He'll be the Twins catcher for years, and don't be surprised when he haunts us, or even turns out to be better than Brian McCann's (especially if McCann keeps trying to drive balls through over-shifts.)

My favorite Murphy moment came in the locker room celebration after the Yankees clinched the Wild Card birth, and somebody asked him what he was thinking about, and he replied, "Drinking." Which summed it up, although I've thought of CC Sabathia a few times and winced. (By the way, Alphonso is right; this crapola about Sabathia's "courage" in going into rehab overlooks the personal responsibility he failed to take, drinking himself into the tank. More on that is coming. And it should be paint-peeling with indignation.) 

One final thought: Looks as though Gary Sanchez - busting fences in Arizona - has hit himself onto the Yankees, rather than hitting himself out of New York. Glad to see it.

Now... let's figure how to get Sanchez more often in the lineup as a DH. Any suggestions, Mr. A-Rod?