The New York Yankees were able to keep the trade with the Seattle Mariners for newly acquired outfielder Ichiro Suzuki out of the press, something which Yankees general manager Brian Cashman takes pride in (via Sports Radio Interviews).
During an interview with WFAN in New York, Cashman said about the secrecy of the trade:
"That's one thing we pride ourselves on over the last number of years. The only way to get deals done is to fly under the radar cause everybody starts knowing your business and the other teams jump in and either deals fall apart or somebody else trumps your deal or the articles start coming out and judging it for bad or good. You back away from the table, so you have to really keep this stuff out [of the media]. We've had a number of them. David Justice. Mark Teixeira. Andy Pettitte's return. The Michael Pineda deal. The Johnny Damon signing."
Cashman also related how the team gave Ichiro their conditions days before the deal was made. Cashman said the "boxes got checked off", referring to the "worst case scenario" facing Ichiro.
That scenario: "...you are going to play left field and not right field because we have a right fielder and to fit into this team I am not moving teammates around that have been there for us, so he'd have to play left field. He would bat in the back of our lineup in the eight spot. He may well only play against right-handed pitching and not left-handed pitching..."
As we know, Ichiro did agree to the Yankees' terms and is 2-7 at the plate with a double and a stolen base in two games with New York against his old club entering Wednesday's game.
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