Yankees: trading losers?

MIAMI -- Less than 24 hours before baseball's non-waiver trade period was to expire Saturday, the whole thing appeared to be shaping up as the biggest midsummer bust since "Catwoman."
We were supposed to see Randy Johnson in a new color of pinstripes, Kris Benson in a dome and so many relievers changing teams that bullpen phones were being outfitted with call forwarding. But what we got through midday Friday was ... nothing.
Then the New York Mets feebly stuck their toes into the pool, acquiring Pittsburgh's Benson and Tampa Bay right-hander Victor Zambrano in separate moves.
And soon the trades started backing up like planes over O'Hare, just as Trader Jack said they would.
"Once the first big trade goes down, you'll see a flurry of them," said Marlins manager Jack McKeon, who earned his nickname during his days as a swashbuckling dealmaker for the San Diego Padres two decades ago.
So, after weeks of posturing, it took just 24 hours to redraw baseball's landscape.
Hours before the Mets deals went through, the Marlins and Dodgers agreed on a trade that sent right-hander Brad Penny and first baseman Hee Seop Choi to Los Angeles for All-Star catcher Paul Lo Duca and former Marlin Juan Encarnacion, though the deal wasn't announced until after Friday night's game.
Flurry of trades
But that was just the start, and like the aftershocks of an earthquake, trade tremors continued to be felt right up to the end.
In the final four hours before the deadline, the Yankees sent Jose Contreras to the White Sox for Esteban Loaiza; the Marlins finally got rid of disgruntled outfielder Abraham Nunez, sending him to Kansas City for reliever Rudy Seanez; the Red Sox dealt shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs; Boston landed Montreal shortstop Orlando Cabrera and Minnesota first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz; the Expos got Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez; and the Dodgers received Steve Finley and Brent Mayne from Arizona.
But before the smoke had cleared, it was easy to identify the big winner in all this: Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest, who also acquired San Diego pitcher Ismael Valdez on Saturday.
A year after igniting the Marlins' playoff run by stealing Ugueth Urbina from the Yankees and Mets, Beinfest addressed his team's most glaring deficiencies in one deal that could initiate another postseason run.
Despite working with a limited payroll, Beinfest has emerged as one of baseball's most creative and dynamic executives over the past 12 months, one reason the Marlins are Baseball America's reigning organization of the year. (Though if the Marlins don't make the playoffs, then fail to re-sign Lo Duca and free agent Carl Pavano, Friday's deal could come back to haunt them.)
Big losers
The big losers also were easy to identify.
The Yankees, despite all their money, power and influence, couldn't pry Johnson -- the prize of the trading season -- away from the Diamondbacks and had to settle for Loaiza, an unsatisfying consolation prize.
The Yankees are used to getting what they want, and it's doubly rich for them if they can do so at the expense of the Red Sox (see Alex Rodriguez).
So when Boston joined the Yankees among Johnson's possible suitors, the Big Unit appeared to be on his way to the Big Apple.
But the Diamondbacks turned their nose up at the prospects New York offered, and by the time the Yankees refocused, their crosstown rivals had scooped up Benson and Zambrano, the Dodgers had Penny, and the Yankees had nothing.
It's not too late for the Yankees to do something else, but it will become more complicated with the passing of the non-waiver deadline.
Before a trade can be completed now, though, players must pass through waivers, meaning other teams have two days in which to claim them.
In the hours leading up to last year's non-waiver deadline, six trades went down, yet there were several important deals made after that, such as the Marlins' acquisition of Jeff Conine and the Cubs' additions of Randall Simon and Tony Womack.
XKevin Baxter is a sports columnist for The Miami Herald.