NEW YORK _ If the Yankees win the World Series this season, they will do it in a way that no team has done it since 1998.
No eventual World Series winning team since the 1998 Yankees has passed on the chance to make a trade in July, as this year's Yankees did before Wednesday's trade deadline.
General manager Brian Cashman chose to stand pat with his _ as he put it _ "damn good roster" instead of adding the starting pitching help the Yankees would seem to need to make it through three rounds in October. Or anything else.
Unlike in previous seasons, Cashman will not have the opportunity to make a nonwaiver trade in August. July 31 deadline was a hard deadline; no major leaguers can be traded for the rest of the season.
The 20 World Series winning teams between 1999-2018 all added at least one piece at or near the July trade deadline, and most continued their dealing into August.
In 2000, for example, Cashman traded for pitcher Denny Neagle, outfielder/DH Glenallen Hill and infielder Luis Sojo in July and August.
Neagle was pretty much a bust in the regular season (7-7) and is best known for being removed by Joe Torre with two outs in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the Subway Series. Torre, who did not want the lefthander to face Mike Piazza in a one-run game, brought in a fading David Cone, who got the Mets slugger to pop out to end the inning. It was the only batter Cone (a July 28 acquisition for the Yankees in 1995) would face in the series.
Hill helped the Yankees down the stretch, batting .333 with 16 homers in 40 games. He went 1-for-17 in the postseason.
Sojo earned a place in Yankees lore by grounding the tiebreaking single to center off Al Leiter in the deciding Game 5 of the Subway Series.
Cashman nearly stood pat with his most recent championship team in 2009. The only pre-deadline deal he made was for utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr., whose main contribution was scoring the winning run in the 13th inning of Game 2 of the ALCS against the Angels. Cashman's only deadline deal in 1999 was one that brought Jim Leyritz back. Leyritz had minimal impact, but he did hit a pinch hit home run in Game 4 of the Yankees' World Series sweep of the Braves.
The Yankees are well-acquainted with the most impactful deadline-deal by an eventual World Series winning club in recent years. That would be the Astros' waiver trade for Justin Verlander on Aug. 31, 2017.
Verlander went 5-0 with a 1.66 ERA in the regular season and was the MVP of Houston's seven-game win over the Yankees in the ALCS. After winning two games against the Red Sox in the first round, Verlander went 2-0 with an 0.56 ERA against the Yankees to send the Astros to the World Series.
This trade deadline, the Astros made the most shocking move when they picked up former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke from Arizona. If they meet in the playoffs, the Yankees will have to face Verlander, Greinke and Gerrit Cole. Not easy.
In 2018, the Yankees were eliminated in the American League Division Series by the Red Sox, who made a mostly unnoticed deadline deal for Nathan Eovaldi. The former Yankee became an important arm in the postseason for the Red Sox, going 2-1 with a 1.61 ERA.
The Yankees were also involved in a game-changing deadline trade in 2016 when they were rebuilding and sent Aroldis Chapman to the eventual World Series champion Cubs. Chapman saved 16 games in the regular season and four more in the postseason to go along with two victories. Chapman was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series after he blew the save.
Some other notable deadline trades made by recent World Series winners:
The 2015 Royals picked up pitcher Johnny Cueto, who threw a complete-game win against the Mets in Game 2 of the World Series, and Ben Zobrist, who hit .303 in the postseason.
The 2014 Giants added Jake Peavy, who had been 1-9 with the Red Sox. Peavy went 6-4, 2.17 in the regular season and added one win in the postseason.
The 2013 Red Sox added Peavy, who went 4-1 down the stretch and made a start in each round of the postseason.
The 2012 Giants added Marco Scutaro, who hit .362 in the regular season and was the NLCS MVP after hitting .500.
The 2011 Cardinals made an eight-player trade with Toronto in which they added pitchers Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson and Marc Rzepczynski, who combined for four postseason victories.
The 2008 Phillies added pitchers Joe Blanton and Scott Eyre, who combined to go 7-0 in the regular season. Blanton added two more wins in the postseason. The Phillies also traded for 40-year-old Matt Stairs, who hit a tiebreaking home run in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Dodgers.
The 2005 White Sox only made one key addition: infielder Geoff Blum, who was a non-factor until he hit the go-ahead home run in the 14th inning of Game 3 of the World Series. Blum is immortalized in a sculpture commemorating the pivotal moments of that World Series at the White Sox ballpark.
The 2004 Red Sox traded away franchise icon Nomar Garciaparra and got back Orlando Cabrera, who hit .379 vs. the Yankees in the ALCS. They also added first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz in that rare four-team trade.
The 2003 Marlins added reliever Uegeth Urbina, who went 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA and six saves in the regular season and saved four games in the postseason, including two vs. the Yankees in the World Series. Florida also picked up Jeff Conine, who hit .458 in the NLCS and .333 in the World Series to cement his franchise icon status.
The rest of the World Series winning teams from the 2000s made deadline deals that didn't add much to their titles. But at least they added someone.
This year, the Yankees decided to take their chances with the roster they have. The last World Series-winning team to do that and have it work? As mentioned, it was the 1998 Yankees, who won 114 games in the regular season and went 11-2 in the postseason under their first-year general manager.
Guy named Brian Cashman.
