The New York Yankees were heavily in the mix for star starting pitcher Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline, but reportedly backed out of a trade due to medical concerns. The Los Angeles Dodgers swooped in and got him for a seemingly small package deal. Now, the Yankees starting rotation is beginning to falter, and at the worst time.
Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman have struggled over the past month
Nestor Cortes was rough Thursday night against the Los Angeles Angeles. He allowed six earned runs on nine hits and struck out just two batters in 4.2 innings. Over his last five starts, the lefty is pitching to a putrid 9.26 ERA, and his season ERA has ballooned to 4.42.
Cortes isn’t the only Yankees pitcher who is laboring, as Marcus Stroman has also had a rough go over the past month or so. Since June 22, he has recorded just one quality start and is pitching to a 6.82 ERA. He also has allowed eight home runs in his last 31.2 innings pitched and his WHIP is 1.67 in that same span.
Yankees manager tried to shake up the rotation by moving Stroman’s next scheduled start to Sunday so he could work on his pitching mechanics, which is what gave Cortes the Thursday start. The Yankees are probably wishing they were more aggressive in pursuing a starting pitcher like Flaherty at the deadline.
Jack Flaherty was phenomenal in his first start as a Dodger
Flaherty was phenomenal in his first start with the Dodgers, tossing six scoreless frames, allowing just five hits, and striking out seven. It has been a great season for the veteran right-hander who spent the first four months of the season with the Detroit Tigers, as he has a 2.80 ERA across 19 starts and has struck out 140 batters in 112.2 innings. Though not qualified after missing a start with a back injury, his 0.96 WHIP would rank fourth in MLB.
The Yankees likely got flashbacks of an unlucky 2022 deadline
It is not exactly unreasonable to express concerns over a player’s medical records, especially after the Yankees dealt with horrible injury luck from their 2022 trade deadline acquisitions, most notably Frankie Montas missing most of the 2023 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder and Andrew Benintendi being unavailable for the 2022 playoffs after a undergoing broken hamate bone. However, he would have immediately become the Yankees’ No. 2 starter behind Gerrit Cole and provide a ton of insurance to a faltering rotation. Instead, they will simply need to hope that the struggling guys turn it around before the postseason.
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They are lucky that their division rival, the Baltimore Orioles, had an underwhelming deadline of their own. Their rotation is battered with injuries, and they were heavily in the mix for both White Sox flamethrower Garrett Crochet and Tigers star Tarik Skubal, but they walked away with neither of them and instead acquired Zach Eflin from the Rays and Trevor Rogers from the Marlins. Both guys struggled in their first starts as an Oriole but bounced back in their second starts, but Orioles fans would likely agree that acquiring those two was a fallback option as opposed to going all in.
Despite Flaherty only being a rental, it may have been worth it
The Yankees are not guaranteed to be able to re-sign Juan Soto in the offseason, and they have the third-best record in MLB entering play Friday despite playing horrific baseball for almost two months. Even though Flaherty would have likely just been a rental, one could argue that it would have been worth the price given that the American League is wide open in terms of favorites and that this is the best chance that New York has at winning a title in quite some time.
The Yankees and their fans can dwell on the fact that they passed up on acquiring a frontline starting pitcher, but it is useless to do so at this point. The deadline has already passed, and clearly the organization was committed to the guys they currently have rostered and believe that they will turn things around and be positive contributors down the stretch run.
