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Yankees, Cardinals Swap Jordan Montgomery For Harrison Bader

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The Cardinals are acquiring lefty Jordan Montgomery from the Yankees, tweet Ken Rosenthal and Lindsey Adler of The Athletic.  Montgomery will be traded for Harrison Bader, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network.  The trade, which has been officially announced by both teams, also includes a player to be named later or cash considerations going to the Yankees, conditional on Bader’s playing time as it pertains to the plantar fasciitis that sidelines him at present.

Montgomery, 29, is a big addition to the Cardinals’ rotation.  The lefty, a fourth-round draft pick of the Yankees out of the University of South Carolina in 2014, finished sixth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting with a fine 2017 debut, but saw his career derailed by Tommy John surgery the following season.  Since 2021, he’s settled in as a dependable member of the Yankees’ rotation, posting a 3.77 ERA in 272 innings across 51 starts.  While Montgomery’s strikeout rate has been down this year, so too has his walk rate, and he’s continued to keep his ERA south of 4.00.

Montgomery is earning a reasonable $6MM this year, and he’s due a raise through arbitration in 2023 before becoming eligible for free agency.  He was not necessarily thought to be available, but the Yankees just added Frankie Montas to the front of their rotation in a trade with the A’s.  Montgomery fits in well with the Cardinals’ pitch-to-contact rotation, which currently features Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Dakota Hudson, rookie Andre Pallante, and recent addition Jose Quintana.  Steven Matz, signed as a free agent in November, is out with a knee injury that could require surgery.  Former ace Jack Flaherty won’t be eligible to return from a shoulder strain until late August.  Looking ahead to 2023, Adam Wainwright may retire and Quintana could depart as a free agent, but everyone else remains under team control.

At present, the Cardinals sit three games back in the NL Central and are one game back from a wild card spot.  In addition to Quintana and Montgomery, the Cardinals also added Chris Stratton to their bullpen via trade.  The club reportedly expressed interest in many available starters before landing Montgomery, including Frankie Montas, Jake Odorizzi, Tyler Mahle, and Carlos Rodon.  Bader hit the IL for plantar fasciitis in his right foot in late June, with Dylan Carlson starting in center field in his absence.  Bader is currently in a walking boot for the injury.  Evidently, the Cardinals felt Carlson can handle the gig for at least the remainder of the season.  The Cardinals had been involved on Juan Soto, but reportedly hadn’t been willing to pair Carlson with their top prospects.

Bader, 28, is a native of Bronxville, New York, about 11 miles away from Yankee Stadium.  He’s served as the Cardinals’ primary center fielder since 2018, when he finished sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.  Known for his defense, Bader picked up his first Gold Glove last year and finished second in the Fielding Bible awards voting.  Bader’s wRC+ sits at 93 this year, but he was at 111 over 526 plate appearances from 2020-21.  Bader, one of the speedier center fielders in the game, was limited to 103 games in 2021 due to a forearm strain and a rib fracture.

The Yankees have deployed the oft-injured Aaron Hicks as well as MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge in equal proportions in center field thus far this year.  Once Bader and Giancarlo Stanton are healthy, Hicks figures to see his playing time reduced.  The Yankees also recently added a new left fielder via trade, picking up Andrew Benintendi from the Royals.

Like Montgomery, Bader is under control through 2023.  However, due to a two-year extension signed in April, Bader’s salary was locked in at $4.7MM for both the 2022 and ’23 seasons, plus performance bonuses.  The Yankees will trim several million dollars off next year’s payroll compared to what Montgomery is projected to earn.

In parting with Montgomery, the Yankees have weakened their rotation for the remainder of the 2021 season, seemingly locking Domingo German into the fifth spot until Luis Severino is able to return.  With a 12-game lead in the AL East, that difference hardly matters.  Montgomery’s loss could be felt in the playoffs, especially if Severino isn’t able to build back up to a starting role, but evidently the Yankees feel the eventual defensive upgrade in center field is a net win.  The decision has, at least, elicited some “head-scratching” within the Yankees’ organization, according to Erik Boland of Newsday.

Mets To Acquire Mychal Givens

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The Mets have agreed to acquire right-handed reliever Mychal Givens from the Cubs, SNY’s Andy Martino tweets. Righty Saul Gonzalez is going back to the Cubs, the teams announced upon confirming the deal.

Givens, 32, pitched well for the Cubs this year with a 2.66 ERA, 29.7 K%, 11.0 BB%, and 41.4% groundball rate in 40 2/3 innings.  The Cubs signed the longtime Orioles veteran as a free agent to a $5MM deal in March.

The Cubs spent a total of $12.75MM on Givens, David Robertson, Chris Martin, and Daniel Norris.  Norris was released in late July, but otherwise the Cubs’ investment (of which they’ve only paid out two-thirds) has netted them the aforementioned Saul Gonzalez as well as pitching prospect Ben Brown from the Phillies in the Robertson deal plus utility man Zach McKinstry from the Dodgers for Martin.  The Cubs also added Hayden Wesneski from the Yankees for Scott Effross, a 15th round draft pick of theirs in 2015.  The Cubs’ trade deadline is perhaps more notable for who they did not trade, with Willson Contreras and Ian Happ staying put.

For the Mets, Givens joins a bullpen headed by Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, Drew Smith, and Seth Lugo, with rookie Colin Holderman having been sent to Pittsburgh in the Daniel Vogelbach deal.  Smith hit the IL last week with a lat strain, while veteran Trevor May will rejoin the Mets tomorrow after missing three months due to a stress reaction in his right humerus.  The Mets also have Tylor Megill on the mend, who stands a good chance of working out of the bullpen when he’s able to return from a shoulder injury.  Givens is reunited with manager Buck Showalter, under whom he pitched for the first four years of his career, as well as former Orioles teammate Tommy Hunter.

Mets GM Billy Eppler opted for a modest trade deadline after an active offseason, with his team sitting 3.5 games ahead of the Braves in the NL East.  The Mets acquired a new DH platoon of Vogelbach and Darin Ruf, also adding utility outfielder Tyler Naquin and reliever Phillip Diehl.  The biggest addition may be ace Jacob deGrom, currently making his season debut at Nationals Park against a depleted Nationals lineup.  The rival Braves went notably bigger in their bullpen augmentation, adding the pricey Raisel Iglesias in a deal with the Angels.

The pitching prospect the Cubs netted in this trade, Gonzalez, is a 22-year-old righty born in Puerto Rico.  The Mets drafted him in the 23rd round back in 2018, and he spent the season working out of the bullpen of the organization’s A-ball affiliate.  It’s been a successful 25 2/3 innings for Gonzalez, who sports a 26.7 K% and 6.7 BB%.

Pirates Acquire Jeremy Beasley

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The Pirates have acquired right-hander Jeremy Beasley from the Blue Jays just prior to the trade deadline, with Toronto getting cash considerations in return.  Beasley has been assigned to Pittsburgh’s Triple-A squad.

The 26-year-old Beasley has a 5.84 ERA over 24 2/3 innings in the majors, appearing in parts of the 2020-22 seasons with the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays.  While Beasley cut back on the control problems that hampered him in 2021, home runs have plagued the righty during his brief career — Beasley has allowed seven homers over his 24 2/3 IP as a big leaguer.

In the minors, Beasley has had a lot more success, including a 3.39 ERA over 327 innings at the Triple-A level.  Since the Jays landed him from the D’Backs in another cash considerations deal in April 2012, Beasley’s strikeout rates have shot upwards, topping the 30% threshold in both of his seasons with Triple-A Buffalo.  His problems keeping the ball in the park have still continued throughout an otherwise strong 2022 season with Buffalo, but clearly the Pirates must feel they can perhaps correct Beasley’s home-run tendencies.

From the Jays’ perspective, Beasley was something of an extra depth arm for the bullpen, and this trade opens up a 40-man roster spot for Toronto’s newer additions.  The Jays landed Whit Merrifield, Mitch White, Zach Pop, and Anthony Bass in today’s trade action, reinforcing the bullpen and adding a former All-Star in Merrifield to the position-player mix.

Phillies Acquire Noah Syndergaard

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The Phillies have announced that they have acquired Noah Syndergaard from the Angels. Outfielders Mickey Moniak and Jadiel Sanchez will head to Los Angeles in return.

With the Phillies in the thick of a playoff race and the Angels well out of it, they make good trade partners. In fact, this is the second deal of the day between the Angels and Phillies, after they already swapped Brandon Marsh for Logan O’Hoppe.

Syndergaard, 29, was an excellent pitcher for the Mets from 2015 to 2019, with a 3.31 ERA in that time along with a 49.1% ground ball rate, 26.4% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate. Unfortunately, Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2020 and almost all of his 2021, with “Thor” returning to pitch just two innings late in the season.

Despite almost no action for two years, the Mets extended an $18.4MM qualifying offer to Syndergaard, which he turned down. The Angels decided to bet on his previous track record and signed him to a one-year, $21MM deal, also surrendering a draft pick in the process.

Syndergaard is having a quality season for the Halos, though not quite up to his previous standard. Through 15 starts and 80 innings on the year, he has a 3.83 ERA, 44.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate but much-diminished 18.9% strikeout rate. His velocity isn’t quite as strong as before and that strikeout dip is significant, but he’s still filling up the strike zone and keeping runs off the board.

For the Phillies, their rotation has been without Zach Eflin for the past month or so due to a knee injury, and he was transferred to the 60-day injured list earlier today. Syndergaard will take his spot in the rotation next to Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Kyle Gibson and Ranger Suarez.

For the Angels, Moniak essentially becomes a replacement for Marsh, who was dealt to the Phillies earlier today. The first overall pick of the 2016 draft, he hasn’t quite lived up to his prospect hype thus far. In 162 career games over the past three seasons, he’s slashed just .129/.214/.172. However, he can still be optioned for the remainder of this season and another season as well, meaning the Angels can give him plenty of time in Triple-A to try to get back on track. He also had less than a year of MLB service time coming into this season, meaning they can keep him on the team for years to come.

As for Sanchez, 21, the switch-hitting outfielder was selected by the Phillies in the 12th round of the 2019 draft. He landed the #19 spot on Baseball America’s list of top Philly prospects at their most recent update, with BA noting his excellent exit velocity in the minors. In 38 A-ball games this year, he’s hitting .236/.286/.429, wRC+ of 101.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Phillies were close to a deal for Syndergaard. Jayson Stark, also of The Athletic, was first on the return (Twitter links).

Cardinals Acquire Austin Allen From A’s

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The Cardinals have acquired minor league backstop Austin Allen from the A’s, the team announced. Minor league pitcher Carlos Guarate is back to Oakland in return.

St. Louis designated Austin Romine for assignment yesterday, en route to trading the veteran to the Reds prior to today’s deadline.  With Yadier Molina being activated off the injured list for tonight’s game, the Cards will replenish their catching depth chart by adding Allen to the minor league ranks.  Andrew Knizner remains as Molina’s backup on the big league roster.

Allen was born in St. Louis, so the 28-year-old will now suit up for his hometown organization.  Originally a fourth-round pick for the Padres in the 2015 draft, Allen made his big league debut in 2019, and was then traded to the Athletics as part of the Jurickson Profar swap during the 2019-20 offseason.

Though he has been a part of the last four MLB seasons, Allen hasn’t received much playing time in the Show, with only 57 career games played and 127 plate appearances.  Allen has hit .195/.252/.288 against big league pitching, but he has mashed at the minor league level, including a .313/.362/.594 slash line in 680 PA at the Triple-A level.

Guarate is a 21-year-old right-hander with four years of pro experience, and he has a 4.18 ERA over 75 1/3 innings (starting 12 of 19 games) at A-ball this year.  This was Guarate’s first season with the Cardinals, as he was a selected in the minor league Rule 5 Draft this past winter, with St. Louis selecting him away from the Padres.

Reds Acquire Austin Romine From Cardinals

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The Reds have acquired catcher Austin Romine from the Cardinals for cash, per a team announcement.  Romine had been designated for assignment but didn’t last long on the DFA wire, quickly getting snapped up by the Reds.

Cincinnati will be Romine’s third different organization of the 2022 season, after he first signed a minor league deal with the Angels in March.  He was released in June but caught on with St. Louis on another minors deal a couple of weeks later, when the Cardinals were in need of some extra catching depth when Molina first went on the IL.  Overall, Romine has played in 14 total Major League games with his two teams this season.

Romine now joins another team trying to make do in the wake of a notable injury, as Tyler Stephenson could miss the rest of the 2022 campaign after undergoing surgery for a fractured collarbone.  With Aramis Garcia also on the IL, rookies Michael Papierski and Mark Kolozsvary comprise the Reds’ current catching corps, and thus an 11-year veteran like Romine brings some needed experience to the roster.

Blue Jays Acquire Mitch White From Dodgers

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The Blue Jays and Dodgers have agreed to a trade sending righty Mitch White from Los Angeles to Toronto in exchange for minor league pitchers, tweets FanSided’s Robert Murray. The teams have since announced the trade, with White and minor league infielder Alex De Jesus headed to Toronto in exchange for minor league righty Nick Frasso and minor league lefty Moises Brito.

White, 27, has been an up-and-down member of the Dodgers’ staff for the past couple seasons, generally pitching well when with the big league club but never getting a consistent, long-term spot in the rotation or in the bullpen. He’s logged 38 games, 14 of them starts, from 2020-22 and recorded a sturdy 3.58 ERA with a 22% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and a 42.8% ground-ball rate in 105 2/3 innings.

A second-round pick back in 2016, White had a hiccup in his first run at the Triple-A level in 2019 but has generally fared well both there (six earned runs in 43 2/3 innings) and in the Majors over the past two seasons. White is in his final minor league option season, so he’ll need to stick on the Jays’ roster in 2023 and beyond. He’ll presumably be a back-of-the-rotation candidate, though he could also emerge in a role held by fellow Dodger-turned-Blue-Jay Ross Stripling, serving as a long man and spot starter. (Stripling, of course, has since moved into the Toronto rotation.)

The 20-year-old De Jesus, meanwhile, ranked 18th among Dodger farmhands on Baseball America’s midseason update, drawing praise for his plus arm, above-average power and a potentially average hit tool. De Jesus has split the 2022 season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, hitting at a combined .272/.386/.447 clip with 11 homers, 20 doubles and three triples. He’s sporting an unsightly 28.6% strikeout rate but also an encouraging 14.9% walk rate.

Frasso, a fourth-rounder in 2020, was the Jays’ No. 13 prospect on Baseball America’s summer rankings. He boasts an outstanding 0.74 ERA with a 41.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate in 36 2/3 innings split across two Class-A levels. The former Loyola Marymount right-hander has primarily faced younger competition thus far, so he’s not yet tested against more advanced hitters, but it’s an impressive stat line nevertheless. Frasso had Tommy John surgery in 2021 and has thusly had his workloads limited in his return effort, but the 6’5″ righty has reached triple digits with his heater and gives the Dodgers a power arm to dream on.

There’s little in the way of public info on Brito, a 20-year-old righty who’s just 12 games into his first professional season. He’s slightly older than his average competition in the Dominican Summer League, but his 1.86 ERA and gaudy 32-to-1 K/BB ratio through 29 innings of work stand out.

Twins Acquire Michael Fulmer From Tigers

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The Twins announced they’ve acquired reliever Michael Fulmer from the Tigers. Pitching prospect Sawyer Gipson-Long is headed back to Detroit.

Fulmer is one of the better rental relievers available on the summer market. The 29-year-old has worked to a 3.20 ERA across 39 1/3 innings, his second straight season with strong run prevention. Fulmer’s 23.1% strikeout rate and 11.5% swinging strike percentage are more solid than great, but he’s consistently done an excellent job keeping the ball in the yard.

Minnesota can’t count on Fulmer sustaining this season’s 2.2% HR/FB rate, but he also did well to avoid hard contact last year. He’s induced plenty of infield fly balls over the past couple seasons, and he’s held opposite-handed hitters to a woeful .190/.256/.298 line on the season. That’s no doubt appealing to a Minnesota club that only has Jovani Moran as a left-handed bullpen option with Caleb Thielbar on the injured list.

Fulmer is an impending free agent, so he’s a pure stretch run play with the Twins a game ahead of the Guardians in the AL Central. He’s not as impactful an addition as this morning’s pickup of All-Star closer Jorge López from Baltimore, but he becomes a much-needed extra boost to a relief corps that has been the club’s Achilles heel. Fulmer is making $4.95MM, around $1.8MM of which is still to be paid out.

Detroit picks up a 6’4″ right-hander in the deal. Gipson-Long was a sixth-round pick out of Mercer in 2019. He’s split the year between High-A Cedar Rapids and Double-A Wichita, thriving at the former destination while struggling at the latter. Overall, he owns a 4.23 ERA across 87 1/3 innings with a decent 24.2% strikeout rate and a minuscule 5.3% walk percentage.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported the Twins were acquiring Fulmer. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported that Detroit would receive Gipson-Long in return.

Mariners Acquire Curt Casali, Matthew Boyd From Giants

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The Mariners added a backup catcher and strengthened their pitching depth just prior to Tuesday’s deadline, acquiring catcher Curt Casali and lefty Matthew Boyd from the Giants in exchange for minor league righty Michael Stryffeler and catcher Andy Thomas. The Casali and Boyd were initially reported separately but were announced by the teams as part of the same swap. Seattle announced that left-hander Tommy Milone has been released to make room on the 40-man roster for Casali. Boyd is on the 60-day injured list and does not yet require a roster spot.

Casali adds some depth behind Seattle starter Cal Raleigh. The 33-year-old backstop has had a nice showing in limited playing time with the Giants this season. Through 102 plate appearances, Casali is hitting .231/.325/.370, connecting on four homers and a trio of doubles. That’s a nice blend of power and patience from a depth catcher, even when paired with Casali’s typically lofty level of swing-and-miss. He’s also plenty familiar with newly acquired ace Luis Castillo from the pair’s days together in Cincinnati.

Seattle’s No. 2 backstop Luis Torrens has underwhelmed this year, hitting .208/.262/.225 in 42 games. Torrens can’t be optioned to the minor leagues, so Casali’s addition could conceivably squeeze him off the 40-man roster entirely. Raleigh will continue to play most days amidst a breakout season, and the M’s may not want to carry three backstops on the active roster. Casali is currently on the injured list after suffering an oblique strain last month, but he’s on a rehab assignment and should be reinstated to the majors shortly. Casali is making $2.6MM this season, around $928K of which has still to be paid. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end.

Boyd, 31, inked a one-year, $5.2MM deal with the Giants after a mostly solid four-year run with the Tigers. A brutal showing in 2020 skewed his numbers in his final few seasons with Detroit, but Boyd often flashed quality bat-missing ability and typically posted low walk rates throughout his time in the Detroit rotation. He twice looked as though he may be among the more appealing arms available at a trade deadline — first in 2019 when he was sitting on a 3.95 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 114 innings and again in 2021 when he’d posted a similar ERA and reduced home-run rate (albeit with a diminished strikeout rate).

The Tigers held onto Boyd both times, however, declining to move him in ’19 because they (justifiably) set a huge asking price given Boyd’s three-plus remaining seasons of club control. The 2020 season brought little opportunity to move Boyd, thanks to the aforementioned struggles (6.71 ERA in 12 starts), and by the time last year’s deadline rolled around, Boyd’s season was in jeopardy due to that forearm issue.

It’s unlikely that Boyd will be able to return and build up to a starter’s workload this season — but the Mariners, particularly after landing Castillo, don’t really need Boyd to step into the rotation anyhow. He could, however, provide them with an experienced left-hander to plug into the bullpen. Seattle hasn’t had much luck with its left-handed bullpen arms this season, so taking what’s surely a low-cost flier on Boyd is a sensible enough peripheral move at this stage of deadline season.

Stryffeler is a 26-year-old reliever who’s spent the 2022 campaign in Double-A. A right-hander, he owns an excellent 2.27 ERA through 35 2/3 frames. Stryffeler has fanned an elite 37.7% of batters faced but walked an elevated 12.6% of opponents. The Lake Erie college product will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter if he’s not added to San Francisco’s 40-man roster.

Thomas, meanwhile, was the Mariners’ fifth-round draft pick just last summer. He’s had a nice start to the season in High-A, where he’s posted a strong .264/.400/.444 with nine homers, a dozen doubles and a huge 16.2% walk rate. Thomas was a senior sign out of Baylor University, it should be noted, so he’s already 23 and is playing against notably younger competition. Time will tell how he fares against more advanced opponents, but the early results are promising. From a defensive perspective, he’s caught a roughly average 27% of attempted base thieves, but Baseball America questioned his overall receiving skills at the time of the draft.

Milone, 35, had been in his second stint with the Mariners. The journeyman southpaw has carved out a 12-year big league career, at times enjoying solid runs as a starter (2012-15, in particular) and as a reliever. The past several seasons have been a struggle for the soft-tosser, however, as evidenced by a 6.33 ERA in 69 2/3 frames. Milone was on the 15-day injured list due to a cervical sprain, but if he’s healthy in the season’s final couple months, he could latch on as a depth arm with another club.

In 944 1/3 innings at the big league level, Milone has a 4.60 ERA with a below-average 17.5% strikeout rate but an excellent 5.6% walk rate.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Casali was headed to Seattle in exchange for Stryffeler (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that Boyd was going to Seattle as well.

Orioles Acquire Brett Phillips

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4:40pm: The Rays announced that Phillips was traded to the Orioles in exchange for cash.

4:28pm: The Orioles are acquiring outfielder Brett Phillips from the Rays, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Tampa Bay designated Phillips for assignment yesterday after acquiring Jose Siri from the Astros. He was reported to have interest from multiple clubs earlier this morning.

Phillips, 28, is an all-world defender with prolific strikeout issues that have weighed down an otherwise enviable blend of power and speed. He’s hitting just .147/.225/.250 this season and carries a tepid career .190/.276/.350 batting line in 883 plate appearances. That said, Phillips has a more passable .212/.296/.407 slash against right-handed pitching, has swatted 28 home runs and has gone 36-for-41 in the rough equivalent of one and a third full season’s worth of plate appearances at the MLB level. He can also be controlled for another two seasons via arbitration.

It’s unlikely the O’s have an everyday role in mind for Phillips — barring a more stunning trade of an established outfielder such as Cedric Mullins or Austin Hays. But there’s good value to Phillips’ blend of speed, defense and power coming off the bench.

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