Carl Pavano 2.0: Trade among Cashman’s worst in 25 years
TAMPA — The Frankie Montas trade is a disaster for the Yankees. Montas is Carl Pavano 2.0 — he has hardly pitched due to injury and when he did, it was terrible. Plus, Montas was part of a slew of maneuvers the last three years that hit at organizational pitching depth.
Thus, the greatest detriment to the Yankees within the majors’ toughest top-to-bottom division is not Josh Donaldson at third base or Aaron Hicks in left field. It revolves around the time bomb if they need quantity and quality from their rotation depth.
Montas is scheduled for shoulder surgery next Tuesday and manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday that the righty will miss most, if not all of this season. Nestor Cortes (hamstring strain) had to abandon playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, though Boone said he expects Cortes to be ready for the regular season. Gerrit Cole is a horse (MLB leader in starts since 2017), but Luis Severino has made just 22 regularseason starts the past four years, and until 2021-22, newcomer Caros Rodon had been a medical mess.
Domingo German is an asset as a sixth starter, but every time he gets a chance, the Yankees want to do better. Clarke Schmidt echoes Chad Green: The Yankees are going to insist he is a starter until they relent and make him a full-time reliever. Still, the problem is what comes next.
Since the 2019 season ended, the Yankees have lost Garrett Whit- lock in the Rule 5 draft; have traded Roansy Contreras and Glenn Otto; and have dealt starters
Jordan Montgomery, Hayden Wesneski, T.J. Sikkema, Beck Way, Luis
Medina, JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk at the 2022 deadline for Harrison Bader, Scott Effross, Andrew Benintendi, Lou Trivino and Montas.
Contreras (Pittsburgh) and Montgomery (St. Louis) are rotation locks, and the others either will begin the year in rotations or will have a chance as the season progresses. Meanwhile, only Bader and Trivino are still standing for the 2023 Yankees. Effross (Tommy John surgery) and Montas are injured, while Benintendi left in free agency for the White Sox.
“We have a strong frontline and then obviously the next wave isn’t as strong as it has been in the past,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “We need what we currently have to stay active and over the course of time, some alternative depth options might present themselves.”
When asked who now would fill rotation spots after German and Schmidt, Boone said: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t want to leave anyone out of that mix. But we do feel like we have a number of guys capable of stepping up in that way.”
If there were obvious candidates, Boone would have mentioned them by name. The only other Yankee in camp on a major or minor league deal who traditionally started in the majors last year (so, not including openers) was Luis Gil, who is expected to miss this season after Tommy John surgery.
The Yankees have become excellent at run prevention — both by refining pitchers’ repertoires and putting a strong defense behind them. No one at this time last year envisioned Cortes as an All-Star or Sears as useful depth. So maybe Matt Krook or Randy Vasquez will surprise; or maybe Deivi Garcia (remember him?) will make the one-time comparisons to Pedro Martinez less laughable.
Cashman said he will be open for business through the Aug. 1 trade deadline. It is hard to imagine the Yankees doing business with Trevor Bauer or Matt Harvey, who is scheduled to pitch for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. The Yankees did check in on Michael Wacha before he signed with San Diego, but they were doing so prior to knowing Montas’ definitive need for surgery. Would a still lingering starter such as Dylan Bundy take a non-roster invite to camp?
Could the Yankees use Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Gleyber Torres or both to land starting pitching depth? Those two would become more available if the Yankees believe Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe are major league ready now. The Yankees talked regularly with the Reds at the deadline last year about Luis Castillo, with Cincinnati interested in Peraza and Volpe.
But once the Mariners put touted infielders Edwin Arroyo and Noelvi Marte into a package, the Yankees were probably outclassed in Cincinnati’s mind. Castillo had missed time earlier last season due to shoulder problems, yet pitched great for Seattle. The Yankees pivoted to Montas, a free agent after the season who also missed time with shoulder problems and, as we know now, never really was healthy for the Yankees, making his acquisition among the worst trades in Cashman’s 25 years as GM.
“We haven’t gotten access to the pitcher that we know what he is capable of when he is right,” Cashman said. “Clearly it hasn’t worked out at all. You know we didn’t really get anything out of it. I’m not looking for a headline of I regret the trade and then they run Montas down. This is part of doing business when you’re dealing with pitchers and there’s no guarantees and he came over with a clean bill of health. And obviously he wasn’t healthy, so the trade goes into a bad category. We gave up assets and we didn’t get anything for it. That’s also part of the business. I’ve traded players that have gone on and gotten hurt elsewhere and I’ve acquired players who [have gotten hurt]. You just don’t want to be a part of it, but it happens.”