The Yankees are acquiring Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino from the Athletics, per YES Network’s Jack Curry. In return, the Athletics will receive pitchers JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina, as well as second baseman Cooper Bowman, also from Curry.
Along with Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle, Montas has been viewed as one of the best starting pitchers available at the trade deadline. The Yankees had been linked to Castillo, but he was traded to the Mariners in recent days. The Yanks obviously turned their attention to Montas in order to satisfy their desire to boost their rotation.
Montas has been a solid member of Oakland’s rotation for years, first establishing himself in 2018. Despite a down year in 2020, Montas still has a career 3.73 ERA with a 24.8% strikeouts, a 7.8% walk rate, and a 43.5% ground ball rate. Just looking at what he’s done since the start of the 2021 season, he’s been at an even better level, posting a 3.30 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate, 7.1 walk rate % and a drop rate of 44%. He’s been worth 6.1 wins above replacement in that time, according to FanGraphs.
Despite being a solid performer, Montas has seemed like an inevitable trade candidate for quite some time now. As the 2021 season ended and the offseason began, it was widely reported that the A’s were planning a massive selloff of any player earning a significant salary and/or approaching free agency. Montas was frequently mentioned among trade candidates, along with Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. Those last four names all moved on between the close of this winter and the start of the season, but Montas stayed. He’s making just over $5 million this season, making him the cheapest of that group, but he only has one more season of club control left. Since the A’s likely won’t be back in contention in that time, it made sense to make him available to other clubs.
The Yankees have been incredibly healthy in terms of their rotation this year, with their front five of Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino all healthy through the first three months of the season. As such, the rotation as a whole has logged 567 innings, third most in the majors, while posting a 3.37 ERA that is third in the league. However, Severino landed in IL a couple of weeks ago with shoulder strain. While she has been out, Domingo German has made two starts, but has an ERA of 8.22 in those. When Montas reports to the team, he will likely return to the German in the minors or a long relief role. If Severino can get back on the mound while everyone else is still healthy, the Yanks might have to make a tough decision to fit everyone into the mix, but that would be a good problem for the future.
More to come.