“Everything we ever try to do is to try to improve the club – all moves are made, whatever the time of year, with the intention of helping. We feel we’ve added impact, and it came at prices, but we’re on the clock. We certainly pursued a lot of different avenues and we feel good about what we were able to pull down.”
Those are the words of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, speaking just after Tuesday’s 6 p.m. MLB Trade Deadline about the five-player haul the Yankees got in Andrew Benintendi, Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino, Scott Effross, minor-league RHP Clayton Beeter, and, just before the deadline, Harrison Bader.
Of course, it indeed came with a cost, as the Yankees sent eight prospects to Kansas City, Oakland, and Chicago for the first four and finally jettisoned Joey Gallo to the Dodgers for Beeter – but the surprise move was adding Bader, who is currently on the IL with plantar fasciitis, at the expense of Montgomery, who was one of the Yankees’ most consistent starters this year and in recent years.
“St. Louis needs starting pitching, and Bader is one of the elite defensive center fielders in the game. He provides a lot of lanes for our manager when he’s healthy,” Cashman said of the deal. “We certainly did a deep dive into his medicals, and there’s a lot of optimism we’ll be able to unpack that present in September and deploy him as a choice.”
Cashman described Bader as a “60-to-70 defender and runner that can impact our team in many ways” – invoking the 20 to 80 scouting scale used in baseball, with 80 being an elite skill grade – and when it comes to the cost, well, Monty was the cost of doing business with a team that also acquired another LHP in Jose Quintana earlier in the day.
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“(Bader) is a really talented kid, local kid, and it’s hard to get your hands on someone of that caliber – and it takes something to get something,” Cashman explained. “Unfortunately, it cost us one of our homegrown players that we’ve relied on a lot, too. Sorry to see Monty go, he’s a really good pitcher and a really good person, and he’s one of our own so it makes it more difficult, but it’s a tough world that I live in and the tough world that this business operates in.”
In effect, the trades swapped out Montgomery, who had a 3.69 ERA this season, for Montas, adding an extra year of team control (Montgomery will be arbitration-eligible for the last time this winter) – and even with Luis Severino still out and three depth starters (JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Hayden Wesneski) and another 40-man pitcher in Luis Medina gone via trade, the GM is confident in his rotation.
“My job is always to worry, but I believe in the guys we have,” Cashman said. We added a big impact in Montas, who is pushing towards a top end of the rotation-caliber pitcher, so were excited about him, and that reinforces us in our rotation. Over time well get Sevy back, and I like our pitching clearly. Top to bottom, there’s a lot of quality there, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out the rest of the way.”
With all the moves, Cashman noted that Clarke Schmidt, who was optioned to Triple-A Monday, will get stretched back out as a starter and is the top depth option for now.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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