Hindsight is 20/20, but some trade proposals are more absurd than others. About 10 years ago, the Atlanta Braves looked to make a trade with the New York Yankees. It would have involved an exchange involving a lot of players.

At the time, the Braves were on the decline, and the Yankees are trying to retool after their aging core began to retire. Based on what ESPN’s Jeff Passan put out there, it would have been a move that the Braves wouldn’t have just won, but fleeced the Yankees on.

“Safe to say Yankees are happy they didn’t say yes,” Passan said in a tweet back in 2023.

In this scenario, the Braves would have sent outfielder Jason Heyward, shortstop Andrelton Simmons, outfielder B.J. Upton, infielder Chris Johnson and right-hander David Carpenter to the Yankees. To be fair, there were some names heading to the Bronx. Heyward and Simmons would have been the highlights.

However, it’s what the Braves would have received that could have been earth-shattering. In return, the Yankees would have sent outfielder Aaron Judge, right-hander Luis Severino, catcher Gary Sanchez, lefties Manny Bañuelos and Ian Clarkin to the Braves.

I’m old and got it backward. The deal actually would’ve sent Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Manny Bañuelos and Ian Clarkin to Atlanta for Jason Heyward, Andrelton Simmons, B.J. Upton, Chris Johnson and David Carpenter. Safe to say Yankees are happy they didn’t say yes.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 5, 2023

Those first three names are the highlights, obviously. There would have been maybe two or three years where the Yankees would have been in the driver’s seat for this trade. After that, everything goes in favor of the Braves.

Judge is a three-time MVP with 368 career home runs. Sanchez was a solid hitter the first few seasons he was in the majors. Severino was an all-star for a few seasons and was a Cy Young Finalist. Their arrivals would have lined up with the Braves turning on the jets in 2018. Perhaps they’re ready a year sooner in 2017.

By the present day, based on our timeline, Judge is the only truly still at his peak. Even if the Braves ultimately moved on from everyone else, this still makes for a fun what-if. Imagine him with the 2023 Braves offense. He ceratinly would have made a difference the last two seasons when the offense was in trouble.

That being said, it’s worth taking a second to step back and hang on a second. Sure, this trade didn’t work out. However, one team has a World Series since this trade fell through, and the other is the Yankees. There is also a whole can of worms we can open if we want to really look at alternate hisotry.

It might best to look at how things played out and say that it worked out in the end. Most teams that miss on these trades don’t get as lucky.

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