SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When the Yankees’ Brian Cashman arrived here for Major League Baseball’s general manager meetings, it was not to pick up a World Series ring or a handsome playoff bonus.

But he could have made an argument for them.

“He had a huge impact on the postseason in his own way,” Jed Hoyer, the general manager of the Chicago Cubs, said with a smile.

Cashman was merely an observer of this year’s World Series, just as he has been every season since the last appearance by the Yankees in 2009. But this time Cashman’s fingerprints were all over it — thanks to his decision in late July to trade his two difference-making relievers, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman, to the Cleveland Indians and the Cubs.

Both became indispensable in their new teams’ title chases — Miller as a dominating tool that Indians Manager Terry Francona used early, late and liberally, and Chapman providing some ballast to a wobbly Cubs bullpen.