3 trade deadline deals we can't believe the Yankees couldn't pull off

Brian Cashman made it evident over a month ago that the New York Yankees' catching situation wasn't stable enough. Despite a league-best ERA, the Yankees bullpen's recent work made it painfully clear that adding reinforcements would be the kind reward they deserved.

Somehow, neither of these obvious needs made it across the finish line, as Cashman instead acquired sluggers Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos, as well as a 64-pack of band-aids that look like bacon and a fake mustache tattoo that's supposed to go on your finger.

If the prices around the league were absurdly prohibitive, that's one thing. But we saw the prices around the league. They were not.

We're not asking Cashman to surrender three of his top five prospects for Adley Rutschman and his funky wrist. We're not asking him to pull off rumored trades that never came to pass for anyone, like Adrian Morejon or Henry Davis. We're just asking him to match a few reasonable packages we can't believe he didn't get in on.

Honorable Mention: Jonah Heim of the A's. No one traded for the switch-hitting backstop with 11 homers and a 95 OPS+. What are the A's, uh, doing?

3 MLB trade deadline deals Yankees and Brian Cashman clearly should've made

Lake Bachar, Miami Marlins to Pittsburgh Pirates

The most infuriating part of Cashman's deadline was how much he underrated the aid that two live bodies would've brought to the bullpen. Bachar cost the Pirates Brandan Bidois, one of their breakout high-minors relievers, as well as Brian Sanchez, an unranked outfielder the Yankees traded to finish the David Bednar deal last year, and infielder Hyun Seung Lee. None of the three made an early dent in Miami's system.

Bachar has a 3.84 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 61 Ks in 58 2/3 innings. He's been somewhat overworked, but haven't we all? You can't convince us that Harrison Cohen and two low-minors lottery tickets couldn't have gotten this done.

Joey Bart, Atlanta Braves to Chicago White Sox

Shoot for the moon. Even if you fall, you'll land among the Barts. This is the least aggressive catcher ask we possibly could've hoped for from Cashman, and he still managed to fall short of acquiring a right-handed former No. 2 overall pick who's got an 86 OPS+ this year (.289 batting average and .826 OPS against righties). Guess that's why he wasn't obtained — he mogs Austin Wells too ferociously (and, yes, doesn't solve their platoon issue).

The total cost on Bart? A DFA'd guy: Duncan Davitt, a pitcher who had been shucked off the roster earlier in the day as part of the Brenton Doyle deal. They literally just plucked a man out of purgatory and said, "Uh, take him." Cashman could've beaten that by accident with an involuntary motion in the middle of a long nap.

Craig Yoho/Blake Perkins, Milwaukee Brewers to Cleveland Guardians

Perkins, a former Yankees farmhand, is outfield depth having an awful year, but he's previously held value in Milwaukee, worth 1.9 bWAR in 2024. Yoho, who once felt like the prize of the Brewers' young bullpen after they traded Devin Williams, never quite made himself indispensible, though he and his huge sweeping breaking balls allowed just nine hits (and eight walks) in 20 innings in Milwaukee this year, good for a 3.15 ERA and 0.81 WHIP.

Is regression coming? His 4.75 FIP indicates yes, without some needed tweaks. This is the Jake Bird/Scott Effross profile the Yankees have loved so much in recent years, and he only cost fading ex-catching prospect Bo Naylor and reliever Codi Heuer, flipped to the Orioles before the deadline buzzer hit.

Kudos to the Yankees for resisting another archetypical controllable reliever, I guess, but this wouldn't have been an overpay, and any addition would've been better than subtracting a trio of 'pen arms from the 40-man before killing Angel Chivilli — your fifth-best reliever — on live television.

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