If you are having a case of déjà bat with Alfonso Soriano, it is understandable.
You have seen a version of this movie before. Actually, Soriano represents the sixth time in 19 years the Yankees obtained an established slugger in midseason who had at least the following season left on his contract. In each case, this served as a form of midseason free agency — because dumping as much of the future salary obligation as possible was essential for the dealing team.
And each previous time — Ruben Sierra, Cecil Fielder, David Justice, Raul Mondesi and Bobby Abreu — the obtained player helped the Yankees surge to the playoffs before, in most cases, becoming problematic the following year.
Soriano was fueling a playoff surge. His nine homers since his July 26 Yankees reunion were tied for the major league lead with Miguel Cabrera, Chris Davis and Paul Goldschmidt. That means Soriano could be in the discussion for the best of this type of trade during the wild-card era.
In order of success here are the stories of the five others. Note that Soriano hardly represents the first time a Yankees general manager did not want to make a deal for the big bat (as Brian Cashman did not want to do with Soriano). Also, check out how many times Soriano was a coincidental side player:
1. FIELDER
You could pick Fielder or Justice — both were essential to winning titles. But Big Daddy’s 1996 acquisition helped trigger a dynasty.
The Yankees led the AL East, but were doing it with a power deficiency that beset the 2013 club. And that made George Steinbrenner uneasy. He would say, “We are not winning in Yankee style. These are not the Bronx Bombers.”
So a few days after then-GM Bob Watson repeated “he doesn’t fit” five times about Darryl Strawberry, Steinbrenner gave himself a July 4 birthday present by signing Strawberry anyway.
But what worried Watson more was — again, like this year’s club — those Yankees’ susceptibility to lefty pitching. Watson talked to Oakland about Mark McGwire. But en route to a then-franchise record 109 losses, Detroit was looking to rebuild by moving Fielder, who was making $7.2 million in 1996 and due the same in ’97. Former Yankees executive David Sussman once told me the myth about those Yankees was they were flush with money because of their MSG deal. But much of the MSG money was distributed to the club’s partners, and the Yankees did not yet have staggering attendance or a new stadium.
So the morning after obtaining Fielder, when informed the Yankees had indeed made the trade, chief financial officer Barry Pincus, worried about the lack of cash flow, told Sussman, “Are you [bleeping] crazy? How can we afford this? The only way we can afford this is if Fielder eats the other players on our team.”
Fielder added right-handed might and was particularly huge in the postseason. The following season he was disenchanted from spring training on, thinking the Yankees would not extend his contract and between that and injury had a miserable final season in The Bronx.
2. JUSTICE
In 2000, the Yankees made a conditional deal with the Tigers for Juan Gonzalez, who used his no-trade rights to nix the move. Steinbrenner was obsessed with getting Sammy Sosa, two summers removed from his duel with McGwire. But the Cubs wanted a five-prospect package and were particularly fond of a Triple-A shortstop named Alfonso Soriano.
The Yankees didn’t want to give up so many youngsters, and Sosa was demanding a $100 million contract extension as the Yankees were bracing for long-term negotiations with two prime-aged stars nearing free agency: Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
Still, on June 29, the Yankees were
51/2 games out in the AL East and were 10th in the AL in scoring. So after balking at the Indians’ request for Soriano, they dealt Ricky Ledee, Jake Westbrook and Zach Day to Cleveland for Justice, who was making $7 million annually from 2000-02. The Indians wanted to create more playing time for young sluggers Russell Branyan and Richie Sexson.
Justice hit .305 with 20 homers for the Yankees and was the ALCS MVP, notably sending the Bombers to the Subway Series against the Mets with his three-run blast in the seventh inning of Game 6 off the Mariners’ Arthur Rhodes.
The next season, though, Justice’s offensive game collapsed. He was traded after the 2001 campaign to the Mets for Robin Ventura.
3. ABREU
At the trade deadline of 2006, Soriano, due to be a free agent after the campaign, was expected to be the big outfield bat dealt. But the Nationals never heard an offer they liked. Instead, Soriano wound up — all those years after the non-Sosa trade — signing with the Cubs on an eight-year contract, which the Yankees will now be paying part of through its conclusion next year.
Abreu turned out to be the big outfield bat traded. Cashman negotiated with the Phillies for two months, and, despite injuries to Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield, refused early demands for his best prospect, Phil Hughes. Cashman sensed Phillies GM Pat Gillick was desperate to get out of Abreu’s contract, which had $22 million left through 2007 plus a $16 million option for 2008. With the Mets dominating the NL East in 2006 and looking as if they would for years, Gillick wanted to try to change Philadelphia’s culture — Abreu was perceived as a low-motor player.
In the end, Gillick took four non-prospects and paid Abreu $1.5 million to waive his no-trade clause. Abreu moved Bernie Williams to the bench and helped energize the Yankees offense. In the deal, the Yankees also obtained Cory Lidle, who died shortly after the season when his plane crashed into a Manhattan building.
Abreu was a productive Yankee through 2008, but the Phillies did remake the team without him, winning the World Series in ’08 and losing to the Yanks in ’09 — their first season after Abreu.
4. SIERRA
Sierra had two important functions as a Yankee, helping boost the offense after his July 28, 1995 acquisition to bring the first playoff berth in 14 years and having enough money left on his pact in 1996 to counteract some of Fielder’s dollars when traded to Detroit.
5. MONDESI
In 2002, the Yankees were eyeing outfielders, including Randy Winn, whom they envisioned batting leadoff so Soriano could be dropped into an RBI spot.
Paul O’Neill had retired, Rondell White was hurt, and the right-field platoon of Shane Spencer and John Vander Wal was unproductive. On June 29, in a blowout loss to the Mets, Enrique Wilson played his only career game in right — brutally. That moved Steinbrenner, pretty much without Cashman’s knowledge, to trade for Mondesi. The Blue Jays wanted to part with Mondesi so badly they took a non-prospect (Scott Wiggins) and agreed to pay $6 million of Mondesi’s $13 million for 2003.
In 2003, Mondesi left during a game in which he was removed for a pinch-hitter and missed a team flight to the West Coast, motivating the Yankees to deal him to Arizona. A month earlier, the Yankees had re-acquired Sierra, who would play some right field down the stretch.
The Yankees lost in the 2003 World Series, in part because Soriano hit .227. That offseason, after Aaron Boone injured his knee, the Yankees dealt Soriano to Texas for Alex Rodriguez.
joel.sherman@nypost.com