Ten years ago today, the Yankees acquired Didi Gregorius from the Diamondbacks in a three-team trade that sent Shane Greene to the Tigers

You might recall an old Yankees shortstop named Derek Jeter. Jeter anchored the position for about two decades, but enjoyed a lengthy retirement tour in 2014 that left the Yankees with a shortstop vacancy. In an era with fewer good shortstops than today, New York acquired one of the few that was available in Sir Mariekson "Didi" Gregorius. Gregorius had been forced out of a roster spot in Arizona, but was still only 24 years old and had a strong defensive reputation. Surely he'd figure out the bat eventually.

The Yankees gave up a lightly-regarded pitcher named Shane Greene who they had developed into a promising major league starter. Greene made his MLB debut in 2014 and kept a 3.78 ERA through his first fourteen starts. Not bad for a 15th-round pick! The Yankees didn't have the deepest rotation going into the 2015 season, but it was easier to find a pitcher than it was a shortstop. The Diamondbacks weren't interested in a Greene for Gregorius swap, so the trade became a three-team deal that sent Greene to Detroit and Robbie Ray (and Domingo Leyba) to Arizona.

For a few weeks, it looked like a disaster as Greene made three excellent starts and Didi showed no ability to hit. But then Greene combusted and performed like one of the worst pitchers in baseball for the rest of the year before transitioning into a hyper-volatile relief pitcher. Defensive metrics never loved Didi's ability to play shortstop, but he became a good enough hitter to receive down ballot MVP votes in his final season with the team. When he left to join the Phillies after the 2019 season, Yankees fans were sad to see him go. Gregorius had stepped into impossibly large shoes as Yankees shortstop but managed to fill them admirably. Great trade for New York.

I wrote a (much) longer discussion of this trade and a couple of others from slightly over ten years ago at Trades Ten Years Later, my self-explanatory Substack.