“So Frankie is going to have surgery, scheduled for the 21st, and hopefully a few days after that he’ll come join us. Best case is he would be back late in the season, but we’re really going to know a lot after the 21st when they know specifically what they have to do in there.”
That was the unfortunate news that Aaron Boone opened his first press conference of spring 2023 with, noting Wednesday that Frankie Montas is headed for arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder next week that, best case, seems to have him out most of the year.
And so, what was expected to be an amazing trade deadline for the Yankees last August has gotten even worse, as now two of the three pitchers they acquired ahead of that deadline will miss most or all of 2023, Montas with the shoulder and Scott Effross due to Tommy John surgery.
Add in Andrew Benintendi missing September and October after breaking his hamate bone, and the deadline was a major bust for the Yankees on the stat sheet.
But, when it comes to Montas, are the Yankees right to wonder if they were sold a bad bill of goods?
“I mean, yeah, because he had shoulder issues when he got to us,” Boone said Wednesday, “but I think with all these pitchers, you can look and you’re going to have similar things – especially with shoulders, that’s why they don’t rush into surgeries. Sometimes these things lay dormant, but for him, it was a nagging thing that didn’t allow him to get over the hump.”
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Montas had, apparently, been shut down and restarted multiple times this winter, but what the team termed shoulder inflammation last month never let him get going in full. It was bad enough that Montas consulted with shoulder specialist Dr. Neal ElAttrache, and as Boone also said Wednesday, “it got to the point where they’re going to go in there and see” what the issue is that hasn’t shown up on tests.
Brian Cashman is close with Billy Beane, who was still Oakland’s top baseball operations executive when the trade was made last July, so it’s unlikely anything was withheld or the Yankees were “fleeced” somehow – but it seems the Yankees knew what they were getting into?
“We knew when we traded for him that he had missed time with a shoulder, that’s the nature of a pitcher though,” Boone said. “They’re able to get back on the mound, and pitchers can sometimes go their entire career with issues that show up on a scan. Obviously having dealt with a shoulder situation that has manifested to a surgery, yeah, there’s some level to that.”
Masahiro Tanaka is an example of Boone’s quote, as he still hasn’t needed Tommy John surgery now nearly nine years since he partially tore his UCL as an MLB rookie, but that’s the exception perhaps that proves the rule.
Unfortunately, unless the Yankees can find a situation like the Braves and Diamondbacks did years ago when Bronson Arroyo’s dead contract was salary dumped, the rule is going to cost them $7.5 million for a pitcher who may never suit up in pinstripes this year.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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