The trading of Stephen Tarpley is a good sign, the type the Astros cannot steal

Yesterday, the Death Star traded LH Stephen Tarpley to the Miami Jeets for a minor-league 3B named James Nelson and clam dip money. Surely, they gave up more than they received. So be it. They had no leverage.

Last week, Tarpley was ditched from the Yankiverse - a roster cut to make room for the signing of Brett Gardner. Thus, Cooperstown Cashman had one Five-Day Deodorant Pad to trade Tarpley for something, anything. That he found a trade partner speaks to the depth of the Yankee roster, a good omen for 2020.

As you know, I'm not one to gush. Nothing positive ever comes from optimism. It's better to assume that Tarpley will win the Cy Young Award someday, making this a dark moment in Yankee history. But the fact is, when you've got a deadline to your head, any deal is better than no deal. And the Yankees now have found trading partners for all three of their roster casualties - Chance Adams, Nelson Cortes Jr. and Tarpley. Not only that, but the kid they couldn't protect - RH pitcher Rony Garcia - was the first player selected, by Detroit, in the December Rule 5 draft. By all indications, our 40-man brims with of talent. 

(Note: When the Yankees banished Greg Bird in November, he became a free agent. He still is, with the Giants and Orioles rumored to be interested. Here is a recent update on Bird, Cortes and a bunch of former Yankees playing winter ball.)  

That the Yankees can can a player and still get something in a deal is a good omen. This winter has brought a bunch, and I'm not even mentioning Adele's weight loss.

1. The sign-stealing debacles for Houston and Boston, our greatest rivals. (And yes, the Mets are suffering slowly.) Could we have picked out more delicious villains to suffer? Lately, it's like the last reel of The Godfather, where all the bad guys get blown away. Who's running this show, Mario Puzo?

2. The signing of Gerrit Cole, and the delirious unveiling of that sign declaring him a Yankee fan forever. Seriously, not since Jason Giambi invoked the memory of his dad - he took number 25 to signify the two numbers that equal "7," his father's favorite Yankee - has the otherwise cynical fan base seen such emotions swirl around a free agent. Cole's love for the Yankees is on a special boyhood plane; it's the kind of love a moose has for his flying squirrel. What a wonderful event!

3. The changeover among the training staff. Okay, this one smacks of scapegoating, but why kid ourselves? After last season, changes had to be made. Three players - Luis Severino, Dellin Betances and Giancarlo Stanton - kept injuring themselves during rehab. (And we're not even counting Jacoby Ellsbury.) That's unacceptable. Change had to come.

4. Wait. Did somebody say Jacoby Ellsbury? We dumped him. Finally. Nothing against the guy personally: It sucks to be injured. But we finally came to grips with the fact that he's not coming back, not for us anyway. I'm not sure how to view the front office attempts to cut his pay. That could haunt us someday, if players come to believe the Yankees don't honor contracts. But Ellsbury is gone. A weight is lifted. 

5. CC Sabathia is staying. He'll advise Cashman, and he might join the YES broadcast crew. Supposedly, he's not a fan of Michael Kay. (Who is?) My guess is they'll do just fine, and that CC will become one of the most popular play-by-play voices through eternity. (A prediction: John and Suzyn will retire after the Yankees win one more championship. That will leave two openings in the radio network, and Sabathia will become the new Suzyn.)

6. Cashman has signed a bunch of lug nuts - two catchers, two outfielders, a utility man and a few arms - to minor league contracts. It's obvious what he's doing. He's searching for another Voit, another Urshela, another Tauchman, another Maybin. Good for him. If we learned anything from 2019, it's that there is a vast underground reservoir of talent in Triple A. This is an area the Yankees can financially exploit, and I believe Cashman intends to do just that. I say, go for it.

7. We haven't done anything disastrous - yet. Listen: We all feared a snap trade of J.A. Happ/Miguel Andujar/Clint Frazier for Vidal Nino III, and it still can happen. But it hasn't. The closer we get to spring, the more likely the Yankees will get their own exclusive chances to assess Andujar's glove, Frazier's bat and Happ's aging fastball. Who knows? We might like what we see, and avoid doing something terrible. No news is good news.

Good signs, the kind the Astros can't steal.