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Todd Frazier during the White Sox’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night. Credit Jon Durr/Getty Images

MINNEAPOLIS — David Robertson is returning to the Bronx. And he’s bringing a former Toms River, N.J., Little League star with him.

The Yankees completed a multiplayer trade with the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, acquiring Robertson, their former closer; third baseman Todd Frazier, a New Jersey native and two-time National League All-Star; and the right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle, a former Yankees minor-leaguer.

The price was steep, as the Yankees gave up reliever Tyler Clippard and three prospects: left-handed pitcher Ian Clarkin and outfielders Blake Rutherford and Tito Polo.

Rutherford was the club’s first-round draft pick in 2016. It was not clear whether any of the new players would be in uniform for the Yankees’ game against the Minnesota Twins here Wednesday afternoon.

“Those are all guys that can come in here and help us accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish,” said outfielder Brett Gardner, who said he had exchanged texts with Robertson after the game.

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The deal comes one year after General Manager Brian Cashman unloaded Carlos Beltran, Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and Ivan Nova at the trade deadline in an effort to rebuild quickly during a disappointing season. This deal, with the Yankees three games behind Boston in the American League East and challenging for at least a wild-card berth, signals a more typical Yankees approach.

“It should tell them, hey, we’re in this,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said of the trade’s message for his players. “We need to continue to play and play hard and play better than what we’ve done. But it should be a pick-me-up in there in a sense, like, hey, there’s a lot of people who believe in this club.”

Adding Robertson, who succeeded Mariano Rivera as the Yankees’ closer in 2014, should help shore up a Yankee bullpen that already has 18 blown saves, more than all last season and the most in the majors. Robertson (4-2, 2.70 E.R.A., 13 saves) has been especially effective since June 6, allowing only two earned runs on nine hits in 13 innings, with 19 strikeouts.

But Kahnle, from Latham, N.Y., has been even better than Robertson, striking out 60 over 36 innings while compiling a 1-3 record and a 2.50 E.R.A. Kahnle, Kenley Jansen of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox are the only pitchers in the majors with at least 60 strikeouts and fewer than 10 walks. The Yankees lost Kahnle to Colorado in the 2013 Rule V draft; the Rockies dealt him to Chicago two years later.

“Guys’ roles might change a little bit in a sense,” Girardi said. “But those are two power arms with strikeout stuff, and it’s just adding to what we’ve got.”

Those moves also address the club’s concerns about their current closer, Chapman, who spent more a month on the disabled list this season with shoulder inflammation, his first significant arm injury in six years. The Yankees’ pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, noted that Chapman’s command had been off this season, the first since his return to the Yankees on a five-year, $86 million free agent deal.

Frazier was seen hugging his White Sox teammates in the dugout late in their game against the Dodgers in Chicago on Tuesday in expectation that he would be departing shortly.

In 1998, after Frazier’s Toms River team won the Little League World Series, Frazier stood next to a young Derek Jeter when the Yankees honored the team at Yankee Stadium. A first-round pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2007, Frazier played five seasons there before being traded to the White Sox in December 2015.

He hit a career-high 40 homers last year but has not matched that production this season, batting .207 with 16 homers and 44 RBI. Frazier is primarily a third baseman but could play first for the Yankees, who expect to be without Greg Bird until September at the earliest after his foot operation on Tuesday. Frazier has 94 career appearances at first but only four this year. If Frazier sticks at third, Chase Headley could move across the diamond to first.

“That’s something we need to sort through,” Girardi said.

Headley said he heard “whispers in the dugout” in the ninth inning about the trade. But Clippard, who warmed up in the eighth, said he knew nothing about it until Girardi called him into his office after the game.

“I love these guys, I love this organization, we’re playing well, and we’re in the thick of things,” said Clippard, 1-5 with a 4.95 E.R.A. in 40 appearances in relief. “To leave is gut-wrenching for me. There’s nothing as players we can really do about it, so we’ve got to move forward.”

Correction: July 19, 2017

An earlier version of this article misidentified the division that includes the Yankees and the Red Sox. It is the American League East, not Central.

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