Target of Yankees Failed Trade Claps Back on Injury Concerns

Getty Yankees GM Brian Cashman

The Yankees were certainly active around the MLB trade deadline on Tuesday. But in the end, they were one major move for a starting pitcher away from going all-in on the 2024 season, a move they were apparently close to making—except that, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the team was concerned about the health of their proposed target, Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty was not the best pitcher on the trade market, but he was the best starter to actually be moved (to the Dodgers) in what proved to be a strong seller’s market, as teams came nowhere near the asking prices on both Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and Garrett Crochet of the White Sox. Flaherty, on a one-year, $14 million contract and a free agent after the season, is 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA and a 0.956 WHIP this year.

And, for Flaherty’s part, he’s not quite sure why the Yankees questioned his health.

“All I know is I feel great,” Flaherty said, via the L.A. Times. “I’ve felt great since we got back from the [All-Star] break, or even right before that.”

Jack Flaherty Has Excelled Since Back Injury

Flaherty did have a back issue in early July that caused him to miss a start and raised some questions about his durability for a stretch run. But since then, he has been lights-out, allowing three earned runs in three starts, going 17.2 innings and clocking 18 strikeouts. Flaherty allowed just 13 baserunners (a .197 on-base percentage) in July.

Still, Rosenthal reported after the passing of the deadline that the Yankees and Tigers had a deal in place until New York backed out.

“According to sources briefed on the discussions, the Yankees backed out of a preliminary trade agreement with the Detroit Tigers for Flaherty after reviewing the right-hander’s medical records,” Rosenthal wrote.

While the Yankees added infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm to help ease the team’s woeful offensive production, and also brought in two solid bullpen arms (Mark Leiter and Enyel De Los Santos) to clean up another area of concern, a starting pitcher looked like a necessity.

Gerrit Cole has struggled as he returns from injury and the team has worries about the workload of Luis Gil, who is coming off two mostly missed seasons after Tommy John surgery, and has already thrown 112.1 innings, the most of his career.

Flaherty made sense. Until he didn’t.

“The issue with Flaherty, his lower back, forced him to miss a start at the beginning of July and receive two injections in a span of three weeks,” according to Rosenthal.

Yankees GM: Deal Failure Was About Personnel, not Injury

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, though, would not directly say whether Flaherty’s health had anything to do with the collapse of the trade. But he did seem to refute Rosenthal’s report by saying that the trade did not come through because of the inability to “match up” with the Tigers in prospects.

“I think Jack Flaherty is an exceptional starter,” Cashman said, via MLB.com. “I had difficulty matching up with the Tigers on Jack Flaherty. I certainly would have loved to have him as a choice for us, as well as anybody else that would potentially be an upgrade on our rotation.

“Unfortunately, you get a lot of different reports going out there. At the end of the day, I would have brought Jack Flaherty in if I could have matched up. I had difficulty matching up, and that was the reason I don’t have him. Simple as that.”

Of course, it’s entirely possible that the Yankees and Tigers did not match up because Cashman wanted a lower asking price in the wake of Flaherty’s back issue — both things can be true. But if Flaherty has a successful stretch run and Cole doesn’t return to form, the questions will persist.