Team USA Roster Shows Yankees What Could've Been

The 2016 deadline will be remembered for the Yankees trading Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for the top prospect, Gleyber Torres, before Chapman returned to New York that winter. Some may forget that, while Torres was a tremendous haul for a rental reliever — something we may never see again — it was actually Schwarber who the Yankees wanted.

Give credit to the Yankees for recognizing Schwarber's potential. They saw it as much as the Cubs did.

In the end, the Cubs opted to part with Torres, but Schwarber turned out to be the superior player. It's not to say that Torres was chump change, but Schwarber has become one of the more prolific power hitters of this generation. Back then, it wasn't so clear. He was the 49th-ranked prospect in 2015 according to Pipeline and was coming off a stellar rookie year. You can't ever predict a player posting 40 and 50 homers with the ease that Schwarber has had in his career.

What do the Yankees look like if the Cubs decided to send the injured Schwarber instead? Do they even go after Giancarlo Stanton a few years later? If they do, the defensive alignment may have been rough since Stanton is a full-time DH at this point. Still, when you have guys who can hit between 80 and 100 home runs between them, it's hard to complain about some errant moments in the outfield.

Then, of course, there's the Bryce Harper of it all. Harper is all but swooning over Judge in their WBC photos together, and just like Schwarber, both could have been teammates together.

Outside of Juan Soto, there may not have been a more perfect fit for the team between Harper's left-handed pop, which would have made him a generational short porch slayer, and being paired up with Judge for the next decade. Brian Cashman may have said that the outfield was stacked between Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Aaron Hicks, but, if you were to give that entire organization truth serum, Harper's potential asking price is likely why they so blatantly balked on bringing him into the fold when he was available.

Finally Playing Together

If life were the Marvel Universe, there's a timeline where it's Judge, Schwarber, and Harper in the middle of the Yankees lineup for years. It's hard to say where that leaves the Philadelphia Phillies, but that trio in the Bronx could have been epic.

They may have had more of a puncher's chance in 2017 with Schwarber, who has always been a stellar bat in the postseason. Then they may even get further than they did in the 2019 ALCS with those three in the middle of the lineup.

Since there's no way to look into a crystal ball to see what could have been, fans will just have to watch the World Baseball Classic to see the ultimate What-If to play out. You don't even need a Disney+ subscription for it.

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