Yankees acquire Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino from Athletics
Nearly 24 hours ahead of the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline, the New York Yankees have acquired both Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino from the Oakland Athletics, YES Network‘s Jack Curry first reported Monday afternoon.
Curry also reported that they’re sending JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Cooper Bowman and Luis Medina back to Oakland in the deal. That’s their No. 20, 21, 5 and 10 prospects, respectively, per MLB Pipeline.
The trade was made official by the team shortly after the deal.
Montas was regarded as arguably the top pitcher remaining on the trade market after Luis Castillo got dealt to the Mariners over the weekend.
Montas, who finished sixth in the AL Cy Young voting a year ago, has pitched to a 3.18 ERA and a 3.36 FIP across 104.2 innings with the Athletics this year. The Yankees were rumored as in on Montas after the lockout ended, but presumably weren’t able to align the pieces together to complete a trade.
As MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal predicted in March, the Yankees didn’t have to give up either of their two prized infield prospects in Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza, who’s tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Here’s what Rosenthal said on the R2C2 podcast at the time:
“My expectation is no. I would think you could put a package together without including one of those guys,” Rosenthal told Ryan Ruocco and CC Sabathia on the R2C2 podcast. “I would imagine Oakland is going to be pretty adamant about wanting one of those two kids. They have Elvis Andrus at shortstop, who is at the end of his career. I just don’t know how that would play out.”
“I would expect the Yankees do everything possible to preserve both of them and retain their flexibility going forward,” Rosenthal said. “Maybe both become stars for the Yankees. Maybe one gets traded for an even bigger pitcher than Frankie Montas.”
As I’ve written about previously, with Luis Severino on the injured list, Nestor Cortes and Jordan Montgomery nearing their career-inning marks (in pro-ball) combined with Jameson Taillon’s recent struggles — the Yankees needed a surefire starter. Montas is exactly that, slotting into their No. 2 spot in the rotation.
He features a wipeout splittler/slider with a high-octane four-seamer/sinker that tops out near triple-digits.
He’s also in the 88th percentile in chase-rate (33.2 chase%), 70th in strikeout rate (25.8 K%), 67th in walk rate (66.6 BB%) and 68th in whiff rate (27.8 whiff%), according to Baseball Savant.
Mere hours after acquiring Chicago Cubs rookie Scott Effross, the Yankees continued addressing their need for bullpen arms with Trivino.
He’s struggled this year in Oakland — posting a 6.47 ERA in 39 appearances (32.0 IP), but his xERA (4.29), FIP (3.84) and xFIP (2.92) all suggest he’s gotten unlucky with batted balls. Even though opposing hitters are barreling up his pitches at a near-career rate (9.4 percent; 19th percentile), he’s striking out hitters at a 28.7 percent rate, which is also a career high.
New York’s had a good stock of arms in their farm system, so dealing three of their top-nine farmhands isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Waldichuk would’ve been Rule-5 eligible in December while Medina, on the 40-man, was still in Double-A Somerset. Sears had a cup of coffee in the bigs, and got the job done when needed, sporting a 2.05 ERA in 22.0 innings (seven games, two starts). Bowman was elevated to High-A before the season and has been effective drawing walks (15.1 BB%), but still sports a .217/.343/.355 slash line.
The Yankees could potentially swing for another trade ahead of tomorrow’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. We know general manager Brian Cashman tends to pull a rabbit out of his hat with certain deals (i.e., Anthony Rizzo last season), so it’s worth monitoring. They have the prospect haul to make things interesting for a bigger name.
But they addressed their needs in the outfield (Andrew Benintendi), in the rotation (Montas) and in the bullpen (Trivino, Effross). Now it’s time to see whether they make another impactful move.
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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
