{"id":35146,"date":"2025-03-22T07:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T07:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=35146"},"modified":"2025-03-22T07:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T07:40:13","slug":"trade-pitch-sees-yankees-grab-25-million-lefty-as-gerrit-cole-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=35146","title":{"rendered":"Trade Pitch Sees Yankees Grab $25 Million Lefty as Gerrit Cole Replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-trade-pitch-Jordan-Montgomery-Gerrit-Cole.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-trade-pitch-Jordan-Montgomery-Gerrit-Cole.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-trade-pitch-Jordan-Montgomery-Gerrit-Cole.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Yankees-trade-pitch-Jordan-Montgomery-Gerrit-Cole.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Gerrit Cole\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-dom-ready-time=\"427\" data-img-load-time=\"1078\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Gerrit Cole<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The New York Yankees starting rotation entered Spring Training as potentially one of the strongest in the American League, and with Opening Day less than one week away, it now looks like one of the weakest. Cy Young Award-winning ace Gerrit Cole is gone for the season\u00a0thanks to Tommy John surgery. Last year\u2019s Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, the Yankees projected No. 3 starter, is expected to be out for at least three months with a high-grade lat strain. Yankees general manager Broad Cashman said he hopes to see Gil\u00a0back on the mound \u201csometime in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifth starter Clarke Schmidt has struggled with back and shoulder issues, and is now predicted to start the season on the injured list, according to\u00a0a Friday report in the\u00a0<em>New York Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves the defending American League champions with a rotation headed by Max Fried, the\u00a0Yankees major free agent acquisition\u00a0of the offseason, followed by 32-year-old\u00a0two-time All-Star Carlos Rod\u00f3n, Marcus Stroman, 38-year-old Carlos Carrasco \u2014 who\u00a0posted a bloated 5.64 ERA\u00a0for the Cleveland Guardians last season \u2014 and\u00a0rookie Will Warren who allowed 26 earned runs in 22 2\/3 innings in 2024.<\/p>\n<h2>Rotation Help Could Come in Form of a Former Yankee<\/h2>\n<p>The Yankees pitching staff, it appears, needs help. And they could find it in the form of their own 2014, fourth-round draft pick Jordan Montgomery \u2014 who was the Arizona Diamondbacks\u2019\u00a0prized free agent signing\u00a0in the 2023-2024 offseason. But Montgomery has been a major disappointment for Arizona \u2014 so much so that the team\u2019s owner\u00a0has publicly called him out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you\u2019re talking to the guy that should be blamed,\u201d said Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick\u00a0in a radio interview toward the end of last season. \u201cLooking back in hindsight, a horrible decision. To have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It\u2019s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint, and I\u2019m the perpetrator of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harsh words. But words borne out by Montgomery\u2019s numbers from 2024. For their $25 million, the Diamondbacks received a bloated\u00a06.23 ERA in just 117 innings\u00a0over 25 games. It should not be surprising, then, that\u00a0according to John Gambadoro\u00a0of the sports talk radio station 98.7 in Phoenix, several teams have already expressed interest in taking the 32-year-old Montgomery off of Arizona\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n<h2>Montgomery Due $22.5 Million Paycheck for 2025<\/h2>\n<p>A trade would likely require the Diamondbacks to cover a significant percentage of Montgomery\u2019s salary which after he chose to exercise his player option for 2025\u00a0is set at $22.5 million. For the favor of relieving them of what Kendrick called \u201cour biggest mistake,\u201d the Yankees could offer a lower-level pitching prospect. One candidate\u00a0would be Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz\u00a0a 21-year-old righty acquired by the Yankees when they sent catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez to the Red Sox this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Yankees director of\u00a0pitching Sam Briend told\u00a0<em>NJ Advanced Media<\/em> that Rodriguez-Cruz is \u201celectric.\u201d But the young pitcher is still assigned to Single-A Hudson Valley and is presumably a few years away from the Major Leagues.<\/p>\n<p>But if Montgomery can recapture his form of 2023 when he posted a 3.20 ERA between teh St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers \u2014 helping propel the Rangers to their first and only World Series championship \u2014 he could be a valuable pickup who could help solidify the Yankees\u2019 rotation in Cole\u2019s year-long absence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Gerrit Cole The New York Yankees starting rotation entered Spring Training as potentially one of the strongest in the American League, and with Opening Day less&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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