The three-team trade is not rare. All the principles being pleased by the results, now that is rare.
It is difficult to get one team to be fully satisfied with a two-club trade. So just start multiplying out the likelihood that three organizations will feel content with the outcome of a mega-deal.
This is why the three-team extravaganza that featured Curtis Granderson going to the Yankees stands out as unique at this moment. Three clubs. Three smiles.
“Shocking” said Josh Byrnes, who was Arizona’s general manager at the time. “Any trade you usually have one team with short-term objectives, one team with long-term objectives, and that is why it can work. The third team adds another dynamic. You feel one way on the day of the trade and then how do you feel later? All three teams got what they were hoping to out of this deal, which is extremely rare.”
The Yankees received Granderson, who entered yesterday second in the majors in homers with 16.
Detroit got the salary relief of moving Granderson and Edwin Jackson ($10.1 million between them in 2010, $25.5 million overall for Granderson) while adding four players who are staples of their current roster: center fielder Austin Jackson, main lefty reliever Daniel Schlereth, and two starters, Max Scherzer and Phil Coke (currently on the DL with a foot injury).
Arizona received Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson, who they spun at the July trade deadline for Daniel Hudson and David Holmberg. Kennedy and Hudson are now the Nos. 1-2 starters for the Diamondbacks.
All three teams began yesterday either in first or second place, each being assisted significantly by this trade; consider, for example, that the four starters — Hudson, Kennedy, Coke and Scherzer — each has an ERA of 4.13 or lower.
Yet, the deal almost was not consummated.
The birth of the idea was on the day of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series. All the prep scouting work for the Series was complete and Yankees GM Brian Cashman finally had time to belatedly begin offseason preparation. He called five GMs. One was Detroit’s Dave Dombrowski, who revealed Granderson was available.
That intrigued Cashman. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were both free agents; so the potential to lose significant lefty heft was there. Granderson had hit 30 homers in 2009, but just 10 in cavernous Comerica Park. The short right-field porch at the Stadium better fit Granderson’s pull approach.
The two executives talked further at the GM Meetings, but found themselves stalled. To move Granderson, it was understood a young center fielder had to be part of the trade, and, as Dombrowski recalled, “The Yankees were key for us to get a center fielder because after all our homework, we had Jackson as the best option.”
But Detroit also said it had to get a power pitcher to consummate a swap. For example, Detroit asked Boston for Jacoby Ellsbury and either Daniel Bard or Clay Buchholz; which kept the Red Sox from getting too serious.
Dombrowski wanted either Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes, and Cashman would not relent on either.
“We talked and talked and talked and did not get anywhere. Then Josh Byrnes came along and created the concept of the three-way. Josh had the pieces that would work for Detroit, as long as we put Kennedy in the deal to Arizona.”
Byrnes had the power arm in Scherzer. He also had just seen Kennedy in the Arizona Fall League and was very impressed. Byrnes imagined that if he could team Kennedy and Edwin Jackson with his holdover aces, Dan Haren and Brandon Webb, he would have a powerful rotation.
Still, there was not a deal. Within the Yankees hierarchy, there were strong champions of Jackson and Kennedy who did not want to give up on the youngsters. Also, Cashman’s trading history with Dombrowski when he was the Marlins or Tigers GM was poor, at best. Cashman had done one three-way deal with Dombrowski that netted the Yankees Jeff Weaver, he had failed to get good prospects for Mike Lowell or Gary Sheffield, and the Ivan Rodriguez-Kyle Farnsworth deal was mutually unhelpful to both sides.
Meanwhile, Tigers officials were invested in strong internal debate if the best way to maximize return was in individual deals for Granderson and Jackson. There were moments when the Tigers were on the brink of dealing Jackson separately. Byrnes eventually called both Dombrowski and Cashman to let them know that he no longer was tied into the deal and was exploring his options.
It was not until the three men were in one room at the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis that this deal was finalized; the last big moment occurring when Dombrowski stopped asking for Yankees lefty relief prospect Mike Dunn, as well.
The Yankees decided to part with Austin Jackson because they were a win-now team. In their view, Jackson still needed time to develop and would never offer significant power; Kennedy lacked the overpowering stuff to win in the AL East; and Coke was a fly ball pitcher who would project better at Comerica than the Stadium.
“We miss every single one of those guys,” Cashman said. “Does Granderson make us better? Yes. But we knew at the moment we traded them, those three guys were major leaguers. Period.”
The perception of the deal has changed over time. For example, it is possible to make the case now that Kennedy was the best of the graduating class that included Chamberlain and Hughes. A year ago yesterday, Granderson was a struggling player coming off the DL and Austin Jackson was on the way to finishing second for AL Rookie of the Year; now Jackson is struggling and Granderson is an MVP candidate. Byrnes was fired before Jackson was translated into Hudson.
“A few years from now when we either have to pay Granderson free-agent dollars or lose him, and the other players in the deal are still cost effective, will cause the picture to change yet again,” a Yankees official said. But the snapshot today is the rare one: A three-way trade that is working for all three teams.
joel.sherman@nypost.com