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Time can change the view of a trades, so here’ what was said back in 2018 at the time of the deal. What Did People Say at the Time of the Trade? Lynn had only made 20 starts for the Twins at the time of the deal and he was excited to be heading to a contender. "As a fan of the game growing up, it's exciting for me as a young kid seeing them in their heyday winning a lot of World Series championships," Lynn said at the time. "You look at their team now, they're going for it. I'm excited for that opportunity and that challenge. It's going to be a different experience. I'm just going to go in there and try to do everything I can to help wherever that may be." Baseball Prospectus discussed Austin’s prospect status before he finally broke into the big leagues. “the Yankees have mostly used Austin as an up-and-down fill-in when their better plans at first base or designated hitter have gone awry. He’s continued to put up big numbers for the International League in his Triple-A stints, and he’s consistently hit for power if not average when in the bigs.” At the time, Tom wrote at Twins Daily and gave the Twins an A-grade for this trade. Lynn had been lackluster during his Twins tenure and Tom was surprised Lynn had this kind of trade value. He wrote, “Honestly, if this was Lynn for Luis Rijo straight up, I would have been impressed. Rijo has an insane 8.36 K:BB ratio in 125 ⅓ innings over his minor league career. He also tops out at 93 mph, so it’s not like it’s all just smoke and mirrors.” Lynn’s New York Tenure Lynn was joining a Yankees pitching staff that already had five starters in front of him. Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Sonny Gray and JA Happ were ahead of Lynn in the rotation. Even with that depth, nine of Lynn’s 11 appearances with New York came as a starter. He posted a 4.14 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP in 54 1/3 innings. He posted a 102 ERA+ and struck out 61 while only walking 14. It was an improvement over his time with the Twins. In the playoffs, Lynn made two relief appearances in the ALDS and things didn’t go as well. He allowed three runs in 2 1/3 innings with a 2.14 WHIP and as many walks (2) as strikeouts (2). New York fell to Boston in four games and Lynn signed a free agent deal with Texas that winter. Minnesota’s Return Austin played 37 games for the Twins over the next two seasons and hit .236/.298/.488 with nine home runs and five doubles. He struck out in nearly 32% of his plate appearances and the Twins dealt him to the San Francisco Giants for outfielder Malique Ziegler. Since joining the Twins, Ziegler played in 18 games at High-A where he posted a .442 OPS and dealt with some injuries. He turned 24-years old in September and a lost 2020 season hurt his chances to get closer to the big leagues. Luis Rijo is a little more intriguing even though the Twins have left him unprotected in each of the last two Rule 5 Drafts. His last appearances came at Low-A back 2019, so that’s likely one of the biggest reasons a team hasn’t claimed him. In that season, he posted a 2.86 ERA with 99 strikeouts over 107 innings. All those appearances were as a starter, but the bullpen might be an intriguing option moving forward, especially since his fastball already sits in the mid-90s. Who Won the Trade? Another part of the trade was the fact Minnesota had to eat $4.5 million of Lynn’s contract. This likely allowed the Twins to get any kind of value back in this trade. While Austin didn’t exactly pan out, Rijo still has potential to be a viable pitcher at the big-league level and he might have a better chance to contribute if he can make a successful transition to the bullpen. It was lucky the Twins could get anything for Lynn after the way his career started with the team. Looking back, what do you think about the trade? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. If you missed any of the previous posts in this series: -Brian Dozier Trade -Ryan Pressly Trade -Eduardo Escobar Trade MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

Mike Axisa did a great year-end writeup for River Ave Blues on Sabathia in which he highlighted three key ingredients that contributed to the new and improved CC: 1) His new knee brace; 2) His new cutter, and; 3) His sobriety. Here’s with how Sabathia explained his success to Newsday’s Anthony Rieber in August. “I have more choices. I can use my changeup, I can throw the backdoor slider, my cutter, obviously. I’m more well-equipped with what I have now.” Sabathia and Hughes are two different people and very different pitchers, but I think Twins fans can look to CC’s turnaround as a source of optimism. It sounds like Hughes is finally healthy and he’s working hard on evolving his pitching repertoire. Back in January, Nick Nelson was already warning people not to sleep on Hughes. Considering the amount of work Hughes has been able to get in this spring. I wasn’t ready to hop aboard the comeback train quite yet at that point, but after seeing the amount of work Hughes has been able to log this spring, I’m starting to come around. Yes, even despite some pretty ugly numbers, I’m encouraged about what we’ve seen from Hughes. He has a 6.55 ERA and has given up seven home runs in 22 official innings this spring, but he’s put in a ton of work on his breaking and offspeed pitches. Mike Berardino sent out a Tweet during Hughes’ most recent outing on Monday saying that of his final 24 pitches, Hughes threw just five fastballs. A few months ago I would have confidently bet against Hughes even being ready for the season. Yet here we are, just a few days from the opener, and one could argue he actually appears to be the starter most ready to go out and give the Twins 100 pitches. That’s remarkable considering what he’s been through since June. It’s easy to forget all of Hughes’ most recent injuries don’t have anything directly to do with his pitching arm. His 2016 season ended when a batted ball fractured his leg. He underwent surgery to remove a rib in order to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. That should help solve his issues with nerves and blood vessels that resulted in numbness in his pitching hand. But it’s not like there was anything wrong structurally with Hughes’ elbow or shoulder. Now before people try to have me committed, I’d just like to temper enthusiasm. Even after a successful reinvention, Sabathia is never going to get back to being a perennial Cy Young contender. The Phil Hughes of 2014 is gone, and he’s probably never coming back. Over the past two seasons Hughes has a 4.83 ERA and opposing hitters have teed off on him to the tune of a .296/.320/.502 line. He needs to improve, but coming off a season in which Twins starters posted a league-worst 5.39 ERA, the bar in which we measure Hughes’ success doesn’t need to be set at his 2014 levels. Sabathia’s turnaround was the result of him basically abandoning his four seamer and instead leaning on the cutter. Hughes already features a cutter, but he’s trying to develop his changeup this spring in the hopes that added wrinkle can be the magic ingredient that keeps hitters off balance. This much is for sure: even if he’s 100 percent healthy Hughes cannot continue to pitch the way he has the past two seasons and expect better results. I think we can conclude that his average fastball velocity probably isn’t getting back to over 93 mph like it was in 2014. The good news is he and Neil Allen appear to be well aware of that fact. Here’s what Allen told Mike Berardino earlier this month: “It’s hard for a veteran guy who’s been doing things one way for as many years as he has to change. But we’ve got to make him change.” To Hughes’ credit, he appears to be buying into the evolution. The results haven’t always pretty, but as he explained to La Velle E. Neal III after a recent rocky outing, spring training is the perfect time to tinker. “Obviously I’ve had my struggles the last couple of years and I’m not satisfied with just hoping things will get better because of surgery or something like that. I’m actively trying to become a better pitcher all around. There’s not a better time than spring training to start working on stuff and incorporate different things and get a feel for new pitches you are trying to work on.” Even if he gets off to a rough start, I’m hoping Hughes remains committed to reinventing himself. The Twins have him under contract for another $13.2 million over each of the next two seasons. It may not be this year, but sometime over the life of that contract the Twins are going to look to Hughes to be a contributing member of a winning rotation. I anticipate there to be some rough patches, but it makes all the sense in the world for the Twins to give Hughes every opportunity to solve the riddle of what he needs to do to reinvent himself. It may seem like a long shot, but if CC Sabathia can reignite his career, why not Phil Hughes?