The Yankees made a mistake trading Jordan Montgomery
The Yankees traded Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader, who went to high school in the Bronx at Horace Mann and grew up in Westchester, at the trade deadline in the 2022 season. Montgomery was solid and very reliable as a Yankee and has only improved in the season and a half since being traded.
The Yankees drafted Montgomery, who is a tall 6–6 lefty, in the 4th round in the 20014 draft out of the University of South Carolina. He had a solid 3.89 ERA in 29 starts with a 116 ERA+ in his rookie season in 2017, which led him to finishing in sixth place in Rookie of the Year voting. Due to injuries, he only made 18 starts combined in the next three seasons.
In 2021, he was solid and reliable once again as he had a 3.83 ERA in 30 starts with 162 strikeouts in 157 innings and a 112 ERA+. In his last 21 starts with the Yankees before being traded he had a 3.69 ERA with a 3.91 FIP and a 1.09 WHIP. He allowed two runs or less in 14 of hose 21 starts. The Yankees traded him away because they did not see him being a starting pitcher for the team in the playoffs that season.
Montgomery said the Yankees thought his fastball was not good enough and then with the Cardinals and Rangers since being traded they have encouraged him to throw his fastball. On September 8, 2022, about a month after the traded Montgomery said this: “I’ve got a good fastball. They trust me here. The Yankees didn’t … didn’t want me throwing fastballs.”
His 4-seam went from 4.8 percentage usage with the Yankees to 31.4 percent with the Cardinals and his fastball had been generating a .132 average to that point with the Cardinals in his first eight starts. In his first eight starts with the Cardinals, Montgomery very impressively allowed one run or less in seven of those starts. Overall, in his 11 starts with the Cardinals in 2022 he allowed two runs or less seven of the 11 starts and his ERA was 3.11 with one shutout. He had just six homers allowed in the 11 starts with a 126 ERA+, which is a good improvement from the 106 ERA+ he had in his 21 starts that season with the Yankees.
In the 2023 season, Montgomery split the season among two teams once again but with each team he pitched better than he did in his time with the Yankees. In 21 starts with the Cardinals in 2023, Montgomery had a 3.42 ERA with just 12 homers allowed in 121 innings, a 127 ERA+, a 3.73 FIP and a 1.24 WHIP.
Montgomery was even better after being traded to the Texas Rangers on July 30 three days before the trade deadline. The Rangers traded an MLB relief pitcher and two minor league prospects in an effort to improve their rotation down the stretch and that is exactly what they did. Montgomery was able to help the Rangers win their first World Series championship in their 63 seasons as a franchise.
In his 11 starts in August and September with the Rangers, Montgomery, whose nickname is Gumby, had a very impressive 2.79 ERA with six homers allowed in 67.2 innings, a great 160 ERA+ (100 is league average so he was 60 percent better), just 0.8 homers per nine innings, a 3.27 FIP and a low and impressive 1.09 WHIP. He allowed two runs or less in eight of his 11 starts and pitched at least six innings in eight of the 11 starts. In the playoffs he continued to step up his performance and excelled again as he had a 2.90 ERA in six games (five starts), which included two starts and one relief appearance when he did not allow a run.
Montgomery is now a free agent as he was playing on a one-year, $10 million contract this season. It would make sense if the Yankees sign him this off season if they will let him emphasize his four seam fastball like he has been since they traded him away. In 32 starts with the Cardinals, he had a 3.31 ERA with a 127 ERA+ and in 11 starts with the Rangers he had a 2.79 ERA with an excellent 160 ERA+.
On the other hand, Bader, who is elite and very reliable on defense in centerfield but league average to below league average on offense, had a well below league average OPS+ of 50 in his 14 games with the Yankees in 2022 after coming off of the injured list in September and then this season in 84 games before being released in August he had a below league average OPS+ of 75. His highlight in his time playing for his hometown team was that in nine playoff games with the Yankees in 2022 he went 10–30 with eight runs scored, five homers and six RBI. He played very well in the playoffs and really contributed to the Yankees beating the Cleveland Guardians in the 2022 ALDS when he had three homers and four RBI in the five game series. He did better on offense than anybody could have expected against the Guardians in that series.
However, Bader was way too inconsistent on offense and it could be that the pressure of playing where he grew up was getting to him. In 2020 when he played in 50 of the 60 games, and in the 2021, when he played in 103 games, Bader had a above league average 114 OPS+ but in his 98 games across two season with the Yankees his OPS+ was 72. He had a .237 average, a very low .274 OBP to go with seven homers and 46 RBI in those 98 games. He gave good effort and had a lot of range on defense and would make some highlight reel catches but it made sense to move on from him after his prolonged struggles at the plate. Moving on from Bader opened up playing time for Jasson “The Martian” Dominguez, who proved he could perform well before his season ending injury that required him to get Tommy John surgery.
Dominguez, who will not be 21 until February 7, made his MLB debut on September 1 against future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander and impressively hit a homer in his first at-bat. Dominguez became the youngest Yankee with a homer in his first career at-bat and in that same game Aaron Judge reached 250 career homers faster than any other Major Leaguer.
The Yankees went 5–3 in his eight games this season but they went 5–0 in his first five games. In those first five games, Dominguez went an impressive 7–21 (.333) with one double, three homers and five RBI. In his next three games he cooled down going 1–10, which made his average in his eight games .258. It is a positive that he was able to show signs of being a dominant player but it’s unfortunate that he likely will not be available until June or July of next season. The Yankees should sign a free agent centerfielder like Kevin Kiermaier or someone else who can play everyday while The Martian is on the IL and then be a backup when he is ready to play everyday.
The Yankees took a gamble with their trade for Bader but the Cardinals ended up winning that trade since Bader did not even give the Yankees league average performance on offense. It is a positive that he played well when it counted in the playoffs.
