Brian Cashman talks Yankees trade deadline acquisitions, Jack Flaherty interest
Brian Cashman talked with reporters before Wednesday’s series finale against the Phillies, and gave the 2024 Yankees a vote of confidence, with a somewhat familiar refrain.
“I like what we had before we made the moves, and I know we've improved since these moves,” Cashman said, via SNY. “That’s all I can say. I think we have a really good team already, and it will get better over the course of time when certain guys come back from the IL.
“I think with the imports too, we’ve made it better, and that’s always the effort.”
Cashman and the Yankees have often pointed to players returning from the IL as de facto trade acquisitions, and this time, it will be the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, Scott Effross, Ian Hamilton, and others playing that role. Still, that didn’t stop the Yankees GM from hunting for some of the bigger names on the market. Despite reports of the Bombers backing out of a trade agreement with the Tigers for Jack Flaherty due to concerns about his medicals, Cashman said it was more a matter of a team like the Dodgers matching up better with Detroit’s asking price.
“I think Jack Flaherty is an exceptional starter, and I had difficulty matching up with the Tigers on Jack Flaherty,” Cashman said. “Unfortunately, you get a lot of different reports going out there. At the end of the day, I would've brought Jack Flaherty in if I could've matched up, and I had difficulty matching up. That was the reason I don’t have him. Simple as that…I tried to import him, and I had trouble matching up on the values.”
The Yankees instead finished with Jazz Chisholm, who has fit in nicely so far to say the least, and relievers Mark Leiter Jr. and Enyel De Los Santos. Some fans wanted to see the Yanks address more of their needs with more splashy acquisitions, like a Tanner Scott or Blake Snell, but Cashman says the front office looked at all available options, while pointing to this deadline as a seller’s market that had sky-high asking prices he had not seen before.
“We were very open-minded entering the deadline, whether it was starting pitching, bullpen, position player,” Cashman said. “We tried to pick on all of those and knock off any and all possibilities…we certainly tried to address all aspects with everything that was available on the marketplace, and this is what we have to show for it.”
