I decided to take a look back at the Yankees World Series championship teams of the past 50 years and see who were the prominent players (i.e., starters or key reserves) who the Yanks didn’t bring back the following year.  I couldn’t remember a more important position player than Hideki Matsui – and, as of this writing, Johnny Damon as well – who wasn’t with the team the following year.

That’s because there isn’t one.  And unless Damon does an about face, there will be two in 2010.  You could say three if you include Melky Cabrera, but as he was the centerpiece in a trade for Javier Vazquez, it’s not like the Yankees gave up on Cabrera (much in the same way they traded David Wells for Roger Clemens after the 1998 title and Moose Skowron for Stan Williams after 1962).

Now, that hasn’t always translated to returns to the World Series, although only once in the last half-century (1979) has a Yankees team coming off a World Series win failed to advance to the postseason.

Here are the top players the Yankees didn’t bring back from a championship squad, since 1960:

• 2009 – Matsui (FA, to Angels); Damon (current FA); Cabrera (traded, to Braves for Vazquez)
• 2000 – David Cone (FA, to Red Sox); Jason Grimsley (released); Jeff Nelson (FA, to Mariners)
• 1999 – Chili Davis (released); Chad Curtis (traded, to Rangers for Brandon Knight and Sam Marsonek)
• 1998 – Tim Raines (released); Wells (trade, to Blue Jays for Clemens)
• 1996 – Jim Leyritz (traded, to Angels for two minor leaguers); Jimmy Key (FA, to Orioles); John Wetteland (FA, to Rangers)
• 1978 – Sparky Lyle (traded, to Rangers for Dave Righetti and Juan Beniquez as part of 10-player deal)
• 1977 – Mike Torrez (FA, to Red Sox)
• 1962 – Skowron (traded, to Dodgers for Williams)
• 1961 – none

There are two ways to look at this. One, anyone the Yankees “gave up” on in this period was basically done.  Key had one more good year with the Orioles, Wetteland went on to pitch decently for four years with Texas and Torrez won 32 games the next two years for Boston and pitched in the bigs through 1984, though with less success.

The natural tendency is to want to keep as much of a team together as possible, with the reasoning that one year shouldn’t make that much difference in players’ abilities, and the formula and combination have proven to be a winner. In the pre-free agent days, prominent players would rarely move, and unless they were at the very end of careers, players on champions almost always returned.

Since free agency, though, there have been more opportunities for player movement. The Yankees have elected to keep their champions as intact as possible, with no major offensive pieces, and only a few important pitchers, not retained.  And the results have mostly been good – the encores have mostly produced World Series participants or winners.

But more than ever, teams are put together one year at a time, with an eye to a bigger picture but with general managers preferring to get rid of a guy one year early rather than one year too late.  If Damon, as seems likely, signs elsewhere, it will mean that the two most prominent players to leave a Yankee champion will have come in the same off-season.

While on paper, even without Matsui and potentially Damon, the 2010 Yankees look as strong, it will be in two key areas a different team.  More different than any Yankees champion before.

Tags: David Wells, free agency, Hideki Matsui, Javier Vazquez, Johnny Damon, Moose Skowron, Roger Clemens, trades, World Series, Yankees