The Giants hadn\u2019t actively shopped Yastrzemski, but as they watched an 0-6 homestand play out prior to the deadline, the small group of front-office decision makers \u2014 Posey, Minasian, vice presidents Jeremy Shelley and Paul Bien \u2014 were unanimous that the organization should be open to trading their impending free-agent veterans. They\u2019d spoken with the Royals about a few players including Yastrzemski in the days prior to the deadline, but nothing was imminent. Neither Posey nor Minasian woke up on July 31 convinced that Yastrzemski would be dealt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start with conversations that are more open-ended,\u201d said Minasian, who checked in with every team except the Los Angeles Dodgers. \u201cIt\u2019s, `Hey, this is what we\u2019re open to, here\u2019s where we\u2019re at.\u2019 You don\u2019t want anything to be misconstrued so that happens on the phone. Then probably two-thirds of the communication from there is texts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royals didn\u2019t text back until there were minutes to spare. Was Yastrzemski still available? Minasian had a name cued up that his pro scouting staff, led by Hadi Raad, had identified as a strong-bodied pitcher who projected to throw harder as he grew into his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s upside,\u201d Posey said of Marte. \u201cZack, Jeremy and I, the rest of the group, felt that where things stood, it was worth taking a shot at this point and seeing what we could have in a couple years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two teams agreed via text to the deal two minutes before the deadline, including the cash that would cover roughly half the roughly $3 million owed to Yastrzemski for the remainder of the season. Minasian cranked out an email to the MLB account set up to handle trade notifications \u2014 a swifter process than what his forerunners endured while praying the paper wouldn\u2019t jam in the fax machine. He hit send. If the email had been time-stamped one second after 6 p.m., the league wouldn\u2019t approve the trade. Minasian sent the email in time, then received confirmation that it had been received.<\/p>\n
The next step was the least pleasant.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuster immediately called Yaz,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cWe\u2019re always sensitive for the player to hear it from us. A lot of deals were going through, which might have bought us a couple minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes earlier, when the deal to send Doval to the Yankees was confirmed, Posey tried calling the right-handed former All-Star closer and wasn\u2019t able to get through. Fortunately, Yastrzemski called back quickly enough to receive notification from Posey instead of reading the news on a screen crawl or social media feed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it wasn\u2019t a call I was looking forward to by any stretch,\u201d said Posey, who played with Yastrzemski in 2019 and on the 2021 NL West championship team that won a franchise-record 107 games. \u201cHe\u2019s a friend of mine. So it\u2019s, `Hey, man, not an easy call I\u2019ve got to make here, but the Royals showed some interest in you. Felt it was the best for the Giants to make the move.\u2019 He got it. I mean, he knows it\u2019s not coming from a place of malicious intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did express my appreciation,\u201d Posey said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not like we went down the memory trail.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1168831300-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Posey and Yastrzemski shared the field together, making the trade phone call a charged moment. (Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there was a whole lot that needed to be said,\u201d Yastrzemski said. \u201cWe\u2019ve known one another for so long and we understood what was going on. I was happy that he was able to call me, that it wasn\u2019t some one-off thing, and I never would have expected them to handle it any differently. They were incredibly professional, matter-of-fact, very respectful, and for that I\u2019m grateful, too. It wasn\u2019t just a transaction without feeling. There was some thought that went into it, and there was genuine care that went into it, and that\u2019s all you can ask as a player and as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it was a huge shock to him,\u201d Flemming said. \u201cHe was trying to have a good attitude about it, and he really did. It wasn\u2019t like he broke down weeping. I think he looked at it as a cool opportunity. Somebody really wanted him and made the move to get him. But I do think he was stunned, and in a weird way, it was good to have somebody with him. He wasn\u2019t alone in a hotel room. We reminisced about his great moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yastrzemski came to the Giants in an unheralded minor league trade with the Baltimore Orioles in 2019, made his major league debut as a 28-year-old and continued the baseball legacy of his Hall of Fame grandfather, Carl, whose 23-year career with the Boston Red Sox is the stuff of legends. The inspiring story was supposed to end there. But Carl\u2019s grandson accomplished far more than a cameo with the Giants.<\/p>\n
Yaz the younger hit five walk-off homers as a Giant \u2014 one more than his grandfather hit for the Red Sox.<\/p>\n
The whirlwind<\/p>\n
Kansas City officials arranged a car to take Yastrzemski from Manhattan to the airport to catch a flight to Toronto, where the Royals were beginning a three-game series the following night. But Yastrzemski was a 90-minute drive down Long Island. So the Shinnecock Four were able to spend a little more time conversing together \u2014 in between rapid-fire phone calls, anyway.<\/p>\n
Royals GM J.J. Picollo called Yastrzemski\u2019s cell phone. Then the Royals travel staff called. Then Giants manager Bob Melvin. Yastrzemski would be on one call and get three more he\u2019d have to return. He talked to his wife, Paige, of course, and his mother, Anne-Marie.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d hang up with one and laugh with us about who he had just talked to, and then make the next call,\u201d Flemming said. \u201cIt was something I\u2019d never witnessed before. It\u2019s your stuff, it\u2019s the lease on your place, it\u2019s the travel documents going to Toronto, which was an extra complication.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, Yastrzemski happened to have his U.S. passport with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God he did,\u201d Giants right-hander Logan Webb said. \u201cI actually have my passport with me, too. But that\u2019s because I haven\u2019t put it away from our Toronto trip two weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the car ride back to Manhattan, Cahill looked up the Royals schedule and let out a laugh: Oh my gosh, do you know where you\u2019re going after Toronto? Boston!<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s poetic that Yastrzemski would be traded away from the only major league home he\u2019s known, and a few days later, return to Fenway<\/a> Park, which has been his family\u2019s baseball home for generations<\/a>. But a Boston trip would mean added stress, too. So much for quietly settling in with his new team.<\/p>\n Mike and his famous grandfather Carl\u2019s Boston roots made his trade an even more unusual situation. (Kathryn Riley \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n The Giants clubhouse staff ensured Yastrzemski\u2019s bats and other equipment would travel with him to Toronto but Rob McDonald, the Giants\u2019 director of team operations, didn\u2019t inundate him with questions. There would be time to pack up his locker in San Francisco and ask what stuff should be sent to Kansas City and what should go to his offseason home in Nashville. There were cars to ship and a rental house in Lafayette to clear out.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the moment when things are moving so quickly, you aren\u2019t always thinking clearly,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI always tell guys, `Catch your breath, take a step back, think about what\u2019s best for you and your family. We\u2019re here to help.’\u201d<\/p>\n When Yastrzemski arrived in Toronto, the second whirlwind began.<\/p>\n \u201cIn each organization, there\u2019s 60-something names of people running around behind the scenes who have a big part in your life, from training staff, to scouts to the people coming through the clubhouse,\u201d said former outfielder Hunter Pence, whom the Philadelphia Phillies traded to the Giants at the deadline in 2012. \u201cYour teammates, you\u2019ll get to know them. But all the other names, you have to get down, too. You\u2019re constantly saying, `Who do I need to ask to get X, Y or Z?’\u201d<\/p>\n Pence was a bachelor living out of a suitcase when he was traded to San Francisco. So there was only so much life to disrupt. He said he empathizes with someone like Yastrzemski, who has a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.<\/p>\n Webb, who became a father last year, rents a house in Lafayette and lamented that two of his neighbors \u2014 the Rogers family and the Yastrzemski family \u2014 will be moving out.<\/p>\n \u201cI just saw Rog in New York and asked him if his family is coming out there,\u201d Webb said. \u201cHe said he didn\u2019t even know yet. I can only imagine how crazy it is to pack up your entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n As businesslike as Posey treated the trade deadline while trading away three former teammates, he acknowledged that he considered the disruption that any deal would make on those involved.<\/p>\n \u201cA big part of this for me is not forgetting the human element of it, good or bad,\u201d Posey said. \u201cUltimately, I\u2019m still going to operate from a place where I\u2019m going to make what I think are the best decisions for the team. And unfortunately, sometimes you know it\u2019s going to throw a wrinkle in people\u2019s personal lives. But it doesn\u2019t mean that you should be callous to it, either. \u201d<\/p>\n The future<\/p>\n Minasian laughed when he recalled the day in the spring of 2019 when then-president Farhan Zaidi walked into the office and made an offhand comment. Hey guys. I think I\u2019m gonna trade for Yastrzemski.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were three of us in there and we were like, `OK \u2026’\u201d Minasian said. \u201cTurned out pretty good, right? That was all Farhan. I can\u2019t take any credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1169369042-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n