Let's look back at a 2017 trade between White Sox, Yankees

David Robertson

Whenever veteran players are traded for prospects, we always say we have to wait four or five years until we can fully judge the trade.

Well, more than five years have passed since the White Sox swung a seven-player deal with the New York Yankees on July 19, 2017.

New York received:

• 3B Todd Frazier
• RHP David Robertson
• RHP Tommy Kahnle

White Sox received:

• OF Blake Rutherford
• RHP Tyler Clippard
• OF Tito Polo
• LHP Ian Clarkin 

Ugh. You can see where this is going. It will probably go down as one of Sox GM Rick Hahn's worst deals. This trade has been in the news recently, because Rutherford recently signed a minor-league deal to join the Washington Nationals. Now that he has left the Sox, all the players they acquired in this trade are gone from the organization.

Here's a look at how each player involved in this trade has fared since that day in July:

Frazier. The veteran third baseman played 66 games with the Yankees and hit 11 homers while batting .222. That's similar to the performance he had with the Sox -- good power, but not much average. He eventually signed a two-year contract with the New York Mets and hit a combined 39 homers for them in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Frazier split time between the Texas Rangers and Mets in 2020, batting .236 with four homers in the pandemic-shortened season. He played briefly with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021, but he was done at that point. He was released and retired.

Robertson. The relief pitcher did well for the Yankees, going 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA in 30 games after joining them in 2017. He appeared in 69 games for the 2018 Yankees. He went 8-3 with a 3.23 ERA and five saves. Robertson has bounced around the league since then -- Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, the Cubs, then back to Philadelphia again. He pitched four scoreless innings with one save for the Phillies during the 2022 World Series. This offseason, he signed a free-agent deal with the Mets.

Kahnle. Would you believe it if I told you that Kahnle is still a Yankee? He's on his second stint with the team. He pitched in 129 games for New York from 2017-20. He was 6-3 with a 4.01 ERA over that time, working mostly in middle relief. Elbow surgery sidelined him for all of 2021, but he resurfaced with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022. He pitched 13 games (2.84 ERA), did enough to prove he was healthy and signed a one-year deal to return to the Yankees in 2023.

Clippard. The veteran reliever is the only one of the four players the Sox acquired in the trade to play for the major league club. He pitched in 11 games for the 2017 Sox, recording two saves. After roughly three weeks in a Sox uniform, he was traded to the Houston Astros for cash considerations as part of a waiver deal. He's since bounced around the league -- Toronto, Cleveland, Minnesota, Arizona, Washington. The Nationals let him go last August. At age 37, his career is likely over.

Polo. By 2019, Polo was out of the Sox organization. He was in Double-A Birmingham in 2018, where he batted .245. The last time he was in affiliated ball was 2019, at Triple-A Tacoma in the Seattle organization. Since then, he's been playing for assorted teams in the Mexican League.

Clarkin. The left-hander last pitched in the Sox organization in 2019, at Class-A Winston-Salem. The Sox designated him for assignment and tried to sneak him through waivers, but he got claimed by the Cubs. For the past two years, he's pitched in the Colorado organization. He had a 8.77 ERA last season in 17 games at the Triple-A level.

Rutherford. The left-handed hitting outfielder was a consensus top 50 prospect at the time of this trade, and hey, at least he hung around in the Sox organization through 2022! Unfortunately, he wasn't good enough defensively to cover center field, and he never developed the pull-side power necessary to be a good corner outfielder. Rutherford, who turns 26 this May, simply lacks a carrying tool that will lift him about Quad-A status. In two seasons at Triple-A Charlotte, he batted .260/.298/.416, but he hit only 24 homers despite playing in a notoriously hitter-friendly park. Without question, the Sox have had a need at corner outfield over the past few years, but Rutherford was never good enough to merit a look. That about says it all.

In the final analysis, the Sox accomplished little with this trade other than offloading a bunch of salary. Frazier, Robertson and Kahnle were all assets to varying degrees, and it's unfortunate the Sox didn't get any production from the players they received in this deal.

Former White Sox relievers among Yankees heroes in AL wild card game

David Robertson

Tuesday's American League wild card game was not decided by starting pitchers.

Both Luis Severino of the New York Yankees and Ervin Santana of the Minnesota Twins were terrible.

Severino lasted 29 pitches. He recorded only one out in the top of the first inning and left the mound with his team trailing 3-0 and runners on second and third. Santana wasn't much better for Minnesota, allowing four earned runs over only two innings.

Nope, this one was decided by the bullpens, and New York's relief corps came through with 8.2 innings of one-run ball in an 8-4 Yankees victory.

Didi Gregorius, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge homered for New York, but two of the players who had the biggest say in the outcome of this game were two relievers the Yankees acquired from the White Sox in July -- David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle.

The two right-handers combined for 5.2 innings of scoreless ball and six strikeouts. Robertson entered in an unfamiliar role -- he came on in the third inning with the Yankees leading 4-3. The Twins had the bases loaded with one out. Robertson allowed only one of the inherited runners to score -- when Byron Buxton narrowly beat out a potential inning-ending double play ball.

The former Sox closer then held the Twins at bay until there were two outs in the sixth inning, during which time the Yankees built a 7-4 lead against the Minnesota bullpen.

Kahnle then came in and retired all seven of the Twins hitters he faced to get New York through eight innings with a lead. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth, and the Yankees are in the ALDS to face the Cleveland Indians.

Robertson picked up the win, and the 3.1 innings pitched is a new career high for him. He has been a terrific midseason acquisition for the Yankees. In 30 regular-season games, he pitched 35 innings, struck out 51 batters and went 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA and 0.743 WHIP. He did not allow a run in 15 September innings, and carried over his lights-out pitching into the wild card game.

The July trade with the Sox has paid immediate dividends for the Yankees. If not for Robertson and Kahnle, perhaps their season would be over today.

We can only hope that the prospects the Sox got from New York in that trade -- outfielders Blake Rutherford and Tito Polo and pitcher Ian Clarkin -- can one day come through in the clutch in a future big game on the South Side of Chicago.

White Sox trade Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle to Yankees

David Robertson

The seven-player trade between the White Sox and the New York Yankees was a foregone conclusion by the time it was announced late Tuesday night.

Todd Frazier was seen giving teammates goodbye hugs before the Sox played the Los Angeles Dodgers, and neither David Robertson nor Tommy Kahnle were summoned from the bullpen in the high-leverage relief situations that arose in the Sox's 1-0 loss.

After the game, it was announced that Frazier, Robertson and Kahnle were dealt to the Yankees in exchange for outfielders Blake Rutherford and Tito Polo and pitchers Ian Clarkin and Tyler Clippard.

Here's a summary for each of the players the Sox received:

Rutherford: This is the best prospect in the deal. He was the Yankees' first-round draft pick in 2016, and he's ranked 36th on Baseball America's midseason top-100 prospect rankings. He was hitting .281/.342/.391 at Class-A Charleston with 20 doubles, two home runs and 30 RBIs in 304 at-bats.

Clarkin: The 22-year-old left-hander has been frequently injured since he was drafted out of high school in 2013, but he's managed to stay healthy enough to post a 2.61 ERA over 72.1 innings for Class-A Tampa this season.

Polo: The 22-year-old outfielder has split time between Class-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton this year, and has hit .298/.358/.446. He's also got 25 stolen bases in 31 attempts.

Clippard: The 32-year-old veteran reliever is 1-5 with a 4.95 ERA in 40 appearances with the Yankees this year. He's got an expiring contract, and the Sox will use him to close games in Robertson's absence, on the rare occasion where they actually have a lead going into the ninth inning. Hey, somebody has gotta pitch.

This deal is almost like two trades in one. The way I see it, Robertson and Kahnle were traded for the three prospects. Robertson is owed about $20 million until his contract is up at the end of the 2018 season. The Yankees are taking all that salary on, so he alone wouldn't have been enough to net a top-50 prospect such as Rutherford. Throw Kahnle into the deal, and now the Yankees add two quality pieces to their bullpen, and they are willing to part with a better quality young player.

The other part of the deal is basically Frazier for Clippard. Two underperforming veterans on expiring contracts. Basically, you have each team saying to the other, "Go ahead and take this guy, and maybe he'll do better for you than he did for us."

Clippard takes Robertson's spot on the roster. The leaves two other openings. One is going to relief pitcher Brad Goldberg. The other is going to some young infield prospect named Yoan Moncada. You might have heard of him.