YANKS WHIFF AT DEADLINE!
Cashman fails to bolster the Bomber rotation while Astros land Greinke
The Yankees rallied to beat the Diamondbacks and Zack Greinke, but the Astros may have picked up their first postseason win Wednesday afternoon. After a month of talking about wanting to reinforce his pitching, Brian Cashman came up empty at Wednesday’s 4 p.m. MLB trade deadline. The Astros, who the Yankees seem to be on a collision course with this postseason, made the deal to bring Greinke into their already formidable rotation.
That was the biggest move at the deadline that could affect the Yankees down the road. The Red Sox also did not make a move and the Rays made minor moves. Cashman described this deadline, the first without the August waiver-wire trades as a safety net, as never
really developing for the Yankees.
“We navigated all of that but we still came away with the best play was, we did nothing, and we did nothing for a good reason, because we felt that everything that was in front of me was really not obtainable, because of the associated costs and that’s with the understanding that as a buyer you have to step up and overpay,” the Yankees GM explained. “But these were prices that were making things way out of reach and way out of line, so that’s why we’re here today talking about the decision to do what we did, which was stand pat and fall back on that current roster of guys that we have over there and obviously wait for some of the people we have on the disabled list to come back.”
Greinke was the most notable pitcher moved on Wednesday. Sunday, the Mets acquired Marcus Stroman, who was not available for a flip according to a Mets source, and the Reds traded to get Trevor Bauer from Cleveland. The Braves got right-handed reliever Shane Greene from the Tigers Wednesday.
Also among the pitchers the Yankees looked into were Mets right-handers Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard, and Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner.
But Cashman said they never got close to making a deal. He made a point of saying several times that pitchers who were talked about as being on the market were not really available.
“As I said there were a lot of players that were allegedly available that really weren’t, as we’ve seen, because they weren’t moved,” Cashman said. “We had the conversations regardless and knocked on the doors.”
Cashman said he spoke to Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen “quite a lot.” The teams have not made a majorleague trade since 2004 when the Mets traded Mike
Stanton to Yankees for Felix Heredia.
Cashman said after coming up empty he still did not regret his decision to pass on Patrick Corbin this past winter and Dallas Keuchel last month. He suggested the money that would have gone to Crobin would have prevented them from signing the likes of DJ LeMahieu and Adam Ottavino.
Instead of bringing in arms, Cashman is banking on the return of ace Luis Severino and set-up man Dellin Betances. Neither has thrown a pitch this season because of shoulder and then lat injuries and are still weeks away from being able to return.
And ultimately he thinks this is a team that can win a World Series.
“So again, you fall back and look at the roster and we feel like this is a damn good roster. I think we can compete we feel with anybody in the game,” Cashman said. “because of how it shaped out, we’re going to basically look to hopefully add from our injured list, which we have some pretty good star-studded guys sitting there waiting in the wings and hopefully their rehabs finally finish off properly and they can join this club and reinforce us and make us the best we can possibly be.”
Zack Britton shrugged off the Astros move and the Yankees lack of one. “Greinke’s going to better any team, and their rotation got even better today but I remember being in Baltimore playing the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS. We had to face Scherzer, Verlander and David Price — three consecutive AL Cy Young winners — and we swept them,” Britton said. “So we can do it. We’re capable of that. This is a lot better team.”
That will ultimately be determined in October.