For Brian Cashman, the results thus far from his latest trade with the St. Louis Cardinals have been as expected.
Shortly before the trade deadline passed the Yankees made a bit of a head-turning move, trading starter Jordan Montgomery for center fielder Harrison Bader. WIth a little squinting, the logic of the move is obvious. Aaron Hicks hasn’t offered enough this season, and Bader, with his defense in particular, gives the Yankees an upgrade at the position. With Montgomery ticketed for the Yankee bullpen later this season anyways, it was a strength-for-strength trade.
The problem is that Bader's foot was hurt at the time and to this day remains hurt. The Yankees as a whole have cratered and their bullpen is a mess thanks to health and ineffectiveness – which is happening as Montgomery spins gems in St. Louis. Whether it was the length he could provide as a starter or quality relief innings out of the bullpen, the Yankees could have used Montgomery right now.
But the Yankees knew this was a possibility, so Cashman told “The Show” podcast that he has no regrets.
“(It has felt) as expected,” Cashman said. “I feel like we made some tough decisions, I made some tough decisions and some tough recommendations. And so going into it, listen, we traded a quality starter in Jordan Montgomery. Homegrown player that obviously was doing well for us, and knowing that you’ve got to give to get and we were looking to satisfy an area of need, but by doing so we’d have to wait on it.
“So, we’re in that space where ultimately Jordan Montgomery is taking the ball every five days, contributing to his team, which is no surprise, and we’re waiting on Harrison Bader, obviously, to get healthy and join our band of merry men and be a choice for our manager Aaron Boone as we move forward.”
At the time of the trade things were trending downward for the Yankees, but it was still clear that they could make moves with October in mind, not August or September.
Now things are a little more dire, and the Yankees long-term play is hurting them in the short-term.
“Ultimately, we’re in the space that we knew we would be in when we made that decision, when I made that decision, and so we’ll have to stay tuned to see how it plays out,” Cashman said. “We had to give up something to acquire – I think we’re basically plus-defensive everywhere except for center field.
“Now we’re in a position that if we can unpack that present – which we expect we can, we just have to wait on it for a period of time – and when we do, Aaron Boone will have a legitimate choice and weapon out in center field that hopefully will serve us well. Those are hard to get, and that’s why the cost was so extreme, and that was it. Simple as that.
“So I guess stay tuned and let’s wait and see how it plays out, but there are no regrets because this is the space we knew we’d be in. ... You've got to rob Peter to pay Paul sometimes.”
Bader is expected back around early September.
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