Brian Cashman's Deadline Blunders Just Handed the AL to the Astros
By Michael Luciano
New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman has done an excellent job building a contender this season, but that doesn't mean that he's beyond reproach.
Cashman had a lot on his plate this trade deadline, as he needed to improve the Yankees' poor starting rotation in order to tread water in the AL pennant race. Not only did Cashman fail to make a trade to bolster the rotation, but he let arguably his biggest obstacle to a pennant add the biggest name on the market now that Zack Greinke is a Houston Astro.
Zack Greinke gives the #Astros four starting pitchers with an ERA+ over 140 (Verlander, Cole, Miley)
— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) July 31, 2019
No team has had four starters with an ERA+ over 140 since the 1907 Cubs https://t.co/JpTMR7rYaF pic.twitter.com/ZGGQZbYKek
With a four-man playoff rotation of Greinke, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and the surprising Wade Miley, the AL is officially Houston's to lose.
Even if Greinke had New York on his no-trade list, other pitchers were right there for the taking, but the Yankees proved too stingy to act. Due to that wavering, Marcus Stroman is a Met and Trevor Bauer is a Red.
Yankees Twitter: “What could possibly be better than having Corbin, Morton, Cole, or Bauer?”
— Jonathan Lasagna Fan (67-39) (@YankeesRanDoman) July 31, 2019
Brian Cashman: pic.twitter.com/pqgTKaZPDb
Hoarding prospects is one thing, but Cashman's apparent reluctance to jettison even one or two of them in the hopes of building a World Series contender is baffling. In doing so, he's allowed the Astros to leapfrog his Yankees as AL favorites.