Yankees' axed Jack Flaherty trade differs from Frankie Montas deal for key reasons

Depending on whether you trust Ken Rosenthal or Brian Cashman more, the Yankees either backed out of a near-completed trade for Jack Flaherty because of medical concerns, or struggled to match up with the Tigers to begin with.

Regardless of the reasoning, Flaherty ended up in Los Angeles instead, in exchange for an underwhelming Dodgers package, and Cashman was raked over the coals for having a potential issue with Flaherty's back ... after being raked over the coals for not caring more about Frankie Montas' bum shoulder sooner.

If Cashman is truly worried about Flaherty, which he wouldn't admit to on Wednesday through pursed lips, then he showed admirable restraint.

But there are two key differences between balking at Flaherty and happily paying the price for Montas. One? Juan Soto wasn't a rental in 2022. Risk taking is more necessary now than it was back in the day.

Perhaps even more notably, the Montas return was extremely expensive: top-100 prospect Ken Waldichuk, left-hander JP Sears, flamethrower Luis Medina and infielder Cooper Bowman for 1.5 years of Montas' injury troubles and Lou Trivino. More control, heftier price tag. For Flaherty? Cashman balked at giving away far less for two months of a top-tier starter.

Yankees reportedly backed out of Jack Flaherty trade for medical concerns, which we killed them for not doing in 2022

If Rosenthal's characterization is correct -- and the Yankees really "backed out" -- then they must've had a chance to swoop back in as the price fell. After all, the trade package the Dodgers surrendered for Flaherty was unimpressive. It matched up with what a team might pay for a top-tier pitcher with injury concerns. If the Yankees had the opportunity to pull off Jack Flaherty Trade 2: Injured Version, then they should've revisited talks after things calmed down.

On the flip side, the price the Yankees paid for a compromised Montas was overwhelming, and adding Trivino (also now recovering from injury) does not blunt that reality.

If Cashman's answers are more accurate, and the Yankees just "never matched up," the situation becomes far more confusing, given that we know what the Dodgers did "match up" with, and it was highly underwhelming. Reading the tea leaves (Cashman's refusal to directly respond to a question about Flaherty's health), it seems like the Yankees lowballed the Tigers while fearing the worst, injury-wise, and Detroit preferred the Dodgers' lowball.

Either way, Cashman displayed the caution that we begged him for when he cashed in the farm for Montas. Notably, though, this particular deal wouldn't have cost an entire farm, and probably wouldn't even have stung very much. Credit to Cashman for taking medical complications seriously, but this path was probably worth pursuing anyway, given where everything landed.