Yankees: 3 trades Brian Cashman already whiffed big on

1. Starling Marte to the A’s

And finally, the team the Yankees are chasing in the AL Wild Card race, the Oakland Athletics, just got one of the players New York was heavily linked to in rumors.

The A’s traded pitcher Jesus Luzardo the Miami Marlins for Starling Marte, who’s hitting .306 with an .859 OPS and 22 stolen bags. He also plays plus defense in center and left field. Luzardo is an intriguing young arm, yes, but you’re telling us the Yankees couldn’t figure out a way to impress the Marlins more than the A’s did? Luzardo is 2-4 with a 6.87 ERA and 1.63 WHIP in 13 games this year.

Marte was a rental, so those are tougher to negotiate because GMs and execs do not want to surrender premier minor-league talent unless said acquisition is truly going to put their team over the edge through October. Would Marte have been that acquisition? No, but he would’ve gone a long way in helping address the various deficiencies on this team that have been further unearthed by a number of Triple-A guys taking over due to various injuries.

Given that the outfield market is largely barren (and expensive outside of Marte), however, it’s certainly frustrating that there wasn’t one Triple-A-caliber pitcher the Yankees would’ve been willing to part with or convince the Marlins to take given what we’ve seen from Luzardo this year.

We’re praying this whiffs won’t be hurting us at 4:01 p.m. ET on Friday, but it’s always concerning when it feels like the Yankees are sitting back and being reactive instead of proactive.

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