Yankee Hotstove

The Weirdness Continues

At the trade deadline in 2006, the Yankees traded for Bobby Abreu AND Corey Lidle, taking on their contracts from the Phillies. In exchange, they sent 2005 No.1 pick for the Yankees, C.J. Henry to th Phillies. This is what I wrote back then.

At least the Phillies are not geting Philip Hughes or Jose Tabata.
I would have thought Eric Duncan was the name that would surface in all of this but either the Phillies didn't want him or the Yankees didn't want to part with him. C.J. Henry's been dissappointing so far, but you have to figure this trade isn't too bad if you consdier that C. J. Henry only came to the Yankees because they let Jon Lieber walk to the Phillies.
I'm a little uncomfortable with this when you consider that the Yankees have already flipped another middle infield minor leaguer Hector Made for Sal Fasano only days ago.

Maybe Made was going to be another Erick Almonte, but it seems if they throw out C.J. Henry to boot, you'd have to start asking what's wrong with these MIF guys and why were they in the organisation to start with. As in, why draft C.J. Henry as a first rounder in the first place?

In other words, I wondered out aloud, what the point of signing C.J. Henry as a No.1 Pick, only to throw him out at the first trade opportunity. It turns out the Yankees really still like C.J. Henry, because now that the Phillies have released him, they've signed him to a minor league contract.

"He came to us," scouting head Damon Oppenheimer, the man who drafted the 21-year-old Henry, who batted .184 for Lakewood (Single-A) this past summer. "He told us he wanted to play for us and asked would we want him back? We made sure he wanted to play baseball and we found out the last month of the season he was fitted for contacts and hit .300."

Henry, who had a basketball offer from Kansas out of high school, was drafted as a shortstop and moved to the outfield.
"He will play the outfield in the [Single A] Florida State League," said Oppenheimer, who wasn't sure where in Tampa's outfield the speedy Henry would play.

Though Henry hasn't hit in three minor league seasons, Oppenheimer said he believes the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder will benefit from being around people he knows.
"People have a feeling for him," Oppenheimer said. "We all have a stake in this one. He means more to us than if he was with another team as a released player."

How the hell did the Phillies let him go? They must've disliked intensely what they saw in him, and were so discouraged, they didn't even bother trying to trade him.

As under-the-radar signings go, it's still very strange. Maybe C.J. Henry will turn into a useful major leaguer. It is clear that the Abreu+Lidle to Yankees trade was a total disaster for the Phillies. Lidle died in a plane crash, Bobby's option got picked up, and now C.J. Henry is back in the Yankee system. Go figure.