Yankees acquire Frazier, Robertson, Kahnle

The New York Yankees acquired third baseman Todd Frazier and relievers David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from the Chicago White Sox last night in exchange for minor leaguers Blake Rutherford, Ian Clarkin and Tito Polo.

Frazier is a rental for the Yanks, who can plug him into their hole at third base for the rest of the season. Robertson is under contract for 2018 at $13 million, and Kahnle has three years of team control after this year.

The Yankees looking to bolster their pen highlights the mercurial nature of relievers, as they appeared to be in great shape with Dellin Betances and the re-signed Aroldis Chapman. Chapman has been mortal this year, however, putting up a 3.57 ERA (albeit with a 1.64 FIP) this year and generating fewer swings and misses, while Betances has logged just 30.1 IP with a 2.97 ERA.

Rutherford is the prize of the deal for Chicago, the Yankees’ first round pick in 2016 who is having a nice season in low-A. From the Rangers’ perspective, this complicates their Wild Card chances, as the Yankees are one of the teams they are chasing, and this makes them probably a couple of wins better going forward.

Of course, if the Ranger offense doesn’t start scoring some runs soon, what the other teams in the Wild Card race are doing may not matter...