It has happened. The New York Yankees have acquired the White Sox's Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle in exchange for 2016 first-round draft pick Blake Rutherford, Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo, and Tyler Clipart. This trade has major ramifications both in the present and the future.

The past few seasons have seen GM Brian Cashman stockpile talent in the minors so that the Yanks no longer had to rely on high-priced free agents to field a competitive team. A farm system that was among the worst in baseball as recently as four years ago opened the 2017 season ranked second by Baseball America.

The fruits of Cashman's vision began to pay off when all-star reliever Dellin Betances made his presence known in 2014, (his first full season). Since then, players such as Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, Clint Frazier, Greg Bird, and Aaron Judge, have come up and made a big time impact on the Bombers.

The issue

Now, here comes the conundrum: Cashman has stressed that young talent is essential to rebuilding -- sorry it's retooling, evidently you can't rebuild in New York -- and to lowering the payroll as he and Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner feel that in order to win a World Series, you don't have to have a payroll of $200 million.

However, Cashman just traded away two highly-coveted prospects (Rutherford and Clarkin) for what amounts to a rental (Todd Frazier) and an expensive reliever (Robertson) that Brian decided to not re-sign when he was a free agent after the 2014 season.

So which is it? Are the Yankees building through their farm system for a brighter tomorrow or are they going back to what got them in their current circumstance by trading away young controllable talent for high-priced veterans? While the Yanks definitely needed to upgrade their bullpen and the corner infield spots, it is fair to wonder if they overpaid or not.

The argument

On one side, the Bombers are going for it this year by taking advantage of their young talent blossoming early and contending before expected. The additions of Robertson and Kahnle to a bullpen that already consists of Aroldis Chapman, Betances, Chad Green, and Adam Warren has the makings of a super bullpen, at least on paper -- and the loss of Clippard is addition by subtraction.

On the other hand, trading away young promising prospects for what amounts to a one-year shot in the dark is what led the Yanks down the road of paying aging stars for past performance, and they are only just getting themselves out of that dark abyss.

Rutherford and Clarkin were not projected to get called up to the majors for at least a couple more years -- the early estimations were sometime in 2018 -- and they were no help for the current pennant stretch. In that sense, Frazier -- if he can rediscover his home run stroke -- Robertson, (in his second go around with the team), and Kahnle can do for the Bombers what the prospects could not, and that is to make a push for the World Series.

What happens if those expectations aren't met? Who knows, but it should be an enjoyable couple of months. Sit tight, Yankees fans, and get ready to rumble.