As was reported yesterday here at Hot Foot by Rob Harding, the Yankees acquired OF Xavier Nady and LHP Damaso Marte from the Pirates in exchange for four prospects, headlined by OF Jose Tabata.

Newsday said the move filled two of the Yankees’ three immediate needs to address for the trade deadline: a right-handed outfielder and a left-handed reliever. The other need is a starting pitcher, and there continues to be buzz about Seattle’s Jarrod Washburn, said Buster Olney on the trade reaction video on ESPN.com.

The immediate reaction from fans and commentators, myself included, is that the Yankees fleeced another team, considering the Pirates dealt away two of their big trading chips and didn’t get back headliners like Ian Kennedy or Austin Jackson.

But this trade needs perspective. Sure, to the Pirates, losing Nady and Marte is a key loss to the team’s 2008 season, but that’s because it’s the Pirates. Notice how Nady is one of the big hitters in the Pirates lineup, whereas in the Yankees mighty order, Nady fits somewhere toward the bottom. On other, more successful teams, Nady and Marte aren’t as valued. It doesn’t make sense to think the Yankees value these guys as much as the Pirates.

It was obvious to teams all around baseball that the Pirates were using this trade deadline to sell high on a few players. Over his career, Marte has mostly posted end-of-year numbers around a 3.50 ERA, which earns him the description of a “good reliever.” In a market with closers talked of like Huston Street and George Sherrill, the Pirates can’t expect Marte to be valued as the No. 1 reliever on the market. Is this fair? Absolutely not, especially since Marte may be having a better season than both Street and Sherrill, but it pays to have the flashy title of “closer.”

Cost and contract length also have to play a factor. Through arbitration, Street and Sherrill are playing for less than Marte this season, and they can be maintained for longer than Marte. For the Yankees, Marte is actually a rental, with only a half year on his contract left. There’s a $6 million option for 2009, which is a mildly expensive price for a non-closer. Obviously, the Yankees can handle it, but it may have dissuaded other suitors. $6 million is more than LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth are making in 2008.

As for Nady, a knowledgable GM cannot be naive enough to simply use tunnel-vision and only focus on the 29-year-old Nady of 2008, assuming this is what the future for the player holds. He does have a .330 batting average, specifically a .335 batting average against righties, which is gold to a Yankees team with a right-handed outfielder as an imperative need. He’s still batting .313 against lefties, too, and curiously enough, his OBP is actually way higher against lefties (.434 vs lefties and .368 vs righties). Nady’s 2008 has been sparkling.

However, as a 29-year-old, his 2008 provides career highs across the board. This is a guy who has never finished a year with a batting average above .300 or even an OBP above .350. He notched his first year with at least 20 HRs in 2007 (with a modest 20) and has never even come close to racking up 100 RBIs until this season. It would be surprising if Nady continues his torrid pace for more career years. And like Marte, Nady isn’t locked up by any means, approaching the end of his arbitration years.

So the value of Marte and Nady was skewed by their prominence among the Pirates organization and their early asking prices for the players. Even so, the Pirates still got a decent haul. Baseball America ranked Tabata as the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect for 2008, and Ross Ohlendorf as the Yankees’ No. 9 prospect. Tabata may be struggling, but he’s still very young and has upside.

At Bucs Dugout, Charlie, who ultimately approved the deal, had this to say on Tabata and George Kontos:

Tabata has had a rough year at AA, but he’s still 19 for another month. He has hit well in the past and has all kinds of time to make himself into a good big-league outfielder. Kontos looks like a bona fide starting pitching prospect, with a good fastball, a passable change, an excellent slider and a pitcher’s build. He turned 23 last month.

If Tabata and Kontos come the Pirates’ way, they’d immediately become the second and third-best prospects in the system, behind Andrew McCutchen. Pedro Alvarez, if/when he signs, would obviously bump them down a notch, too.

EDIT: At the time of writing, I wasn’t aware that the deal had changed, and it is even possible that the deal actually changed while I was writing this morning. MLB.com reports that it is now RHP Jeff Karstens and RHP Daniel McCutchen to the Pirates instead of Kontos and Phil Coke. The original points stand.