How Sox's Deal for Gagne Helps Yanks

At the trade deadline, the Red Sox picked up Eric Gagne, while the Yankees shucked Scott Proctor in exchange for Wilson Betemit. As ever, when it comes to these ancient rivals, the question for many observers will be, who won? Who did more to help their team win the division? Those are the wrong questions to ask, and focusing on them only obscures the truth: Both trades help the Yankees.

With the Boston's lead in the American League East at eight games as of Monday, the division race is almost certainly a foregone conclusion. Even if the Red Sox were a game under .500 the rest of the way, going 28–29, they would finish with a record of 92–70. For the Yankees to top that, they'd have to go 37–20, the equivalent of a 105-win pace over a full season. The Yankees are playing well enough that they might keep up that pace, but there is little reason to think that the Red Sox are going to cooperate and play dead.

What this means is that the Yankees are in the wild card business, the Red Sox are on their victory lap, and the two aren't in any kind of direct competition except when they're playing head-to-head, something that happens just six more times this season. The Yankees can worry about what should be a deadly back end of the bullpen for Boston with Gagne, Hideki Okajima, and Jon Papelbon when and if they make the postseason and have to play them.

Until then, Theo Epstein and pals have given the Yankees a huge break. The Yankees are competing with the Indians for the wild card, and the Tigers could be in the mix should the Indians pass them for the AL Central lead. Even if they don't, the Yankees have eight games remaining with the Tigers and three with the Indians, which is to say that the Yankees will be spending 20% of their remaining time in 2007 playing exactly who they need to be playing. Both of those teams, particularly the Tigers, have had problems in the bullpen. When the Red Sox stepped up to the plate on Gagne, they prevented the Yankees' real rivals from getting an upgrade they desperately needed.

The Indians have pieced together a bullpen that is at least functional in the middle innings, with Rafael Betancourt and Rafael Perez pitching fairly well, but the rest of the unit is shaky. Closer Joe Borowski is no one's idea of an ace, though he's shown good control and has kept the ball in the park — opposing hitters are averaging .293 against him. Gagne would have given the Indians a solid finisher, pushing Borowski back into earlier innings, where his ability to hold batters to singles would be more valuable in sustaining big leads and more of an asset than in the ninth, where the high batting average against him makes him vulnerable to fumbling small ones.

The Tigers have been scrambling to nail down the late innings ever since Joel Zumaya hit the disabled list in early May with a dislocated tendon in his right middle finger. Like Borowski, Todd Jones excels at keeping the ball inside the fences, with just one home run allowed in 44.1 innings this year, but has been so hittable that his 4.67 ERA doesn't do him justice. No longer a strikeout pitcher at 39 years old, Jones lets batters put the ball into play.

For either of these clubs, acquiring Gagne would have been a season-altering event. After 105 games, the two teams are one game apart. In broad terms, they are equals. The reasons for their record may differ, but neither is the superior of the other. Had either team improved their bullpen, the stalemate might have been broken. For the Yankees, who need both teams to be weak, that would have been disastrous.

In giving up Scott Proctor, the Yankees risk worsening their own bullpen problems. Until recently, Proctor had been one of the more reliable options that Joe Torre has had to work with over the last couple of years. It might have been just the past two weeks that made the Yankees fear that they would miss a chance to sell high on him. Proctor has been subjected to one of the heaviest workloads in baseball over the last season and a half. It seemed that he was one of those rare pitchers who could, pardon the expression, shoulder the burden, but in his last six innings, he has allowed 12 hits and an astonishing four home runs. The Yankees not only risked getting nothing for Proctor if they held on, but might have had to watch him destroy the season if he did. With alternatives ranging from Chris Britton to Joba Chamberlain to Edwar Ramirez, the Yankees had the depth to play it safe.

As for Betemit, it's uncertain how much of an asset he will prove to be in the short term. A switchhitting third baseman and shortstop, Betemit is too weak from the right side of the plate to help the Yankees with their problem with lefties (their record in games started by southpaws is 11–17). He has also never played first base in the big leagues, the position where the Yankees need the most help.

Betemit hits well enough from the left side that he could improve the team's production at first given a platoon partner, but Andy Phillips is an odd duck of a righthanded hitter who struggles against lefties. It's also not Torre's style to embrace newcomers. Nor is it likely that he will choose Betemit over Miguel Cairo for the occasional infield spot start.

What the 25-year-old Betemit really represents is prophylactic medication, an inoculation of third base potential in case Alex Rodriguez leaves in the offseason — which is to say that whatever Betemit might do for the Yankees now, Torre's stubbornness, sentimentality, and lack of imagination probably won't allow him to do it. He's here for next year, when Torre or whoever is managing the Yankees might have no choice but to let him try.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of "Forging Genius," a biography of Casey Stengel.