The trade: The New York Yankees acquire 3B Josh Donaldson, IF Isiah Kiner-Falefa and C Ben Rortvedt from the Minnesota Twins for C Gary Sanchez and IF Gio Urshela.
Maybe Sunday's late-night trade between the Yankees and Twins isn't going to knock March Madness brackets and the return of Tom Brady from the front of the sports fan's mind, but it was a stunner and a headliner in its own right. And it was a bit of a head scratcher. Not in a "What the heck are these teams doing?" kind of way, but more in a "Whoa, there's a lot going on there" kind of way.
There are a lot of moving parts to this deal, and we will launch into sorting it out with the understanding that some of the context of this trade is probably yet to be revealed. However it shakes out, we can at least start with this: It's a good old-fashioned baseball trade, with two teams trying to improve themselves for the season to come and both moving quality veterans in a deal that has numerous ramifications for the rosters of both teams.
Let's try to reason this thing out.