Montas, Trivino to NYY, per reports

MLB Trade Rumors: The New York Yankees have acquired Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino from the Oakland A’s in exchange for pitchers Ken Waldichuk, J.P. Sears and Luis Medina and second baseman Cooper Bowman, per multiple reports.

Montas, 29, is under team control through 2023. Montas had a breakout 2021 season, putting up 187 innings over 32 starts with a 3.37 ERA for the A’s. He’s been similar in 2022, though he’s not worked as deeply into games, and had a brief injured list stint earlier in the year. Montas had never thrown more than 96 major league innings in a season prior to 2021, so there are some questions about his durability, but he’s been a solid rotation piece.

Trevino, 30, is a righthanded reliever who has put up an ugly 6.47 ERA in 2022, but whose FIP of 3.84 is in line with his 3.94 career FIP. He’s making $3 million this year and is arbitration-eligible for two more seasons after 2022.

Waldichuk is #5 on the midseason BA top 30 list for the Yankees, with Medina at #9, Sears at #20, and Bowman not on the list.

Waldichuk is a 24 year old lefty who was a fifth round pick of the Yankees out of St. Mary’s in 2019. He has split the 2022 season between AA and AAA, striking out 116 of 318 batters faced against 33 walks while putting up a 2.71 ERA.

Medina is a 23 year old righthander who has spent the season at AA Somerset. He has a 3.38 ERA in 72 IP, with 81 Ks against 40 walks.

Sears, 26, is a small lefthander who has split the season between AAA and the majors, and has both started and relieved. He has a 2.05 ERA in 22 IP in two starts and five relief appearances for the Yankees this year, and a 1.67 ERA in nine starts and two relief appearances totaling re innings in AAA. He was an 11th round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2017, and was traded that November, along with Juan Then, to the Yankees for Nick Rumbelow.

Bowman, 22, was a fourth rounder in 2021 out of the University of Louisville. He is slashing .217/.343/.355 in 80 games for Hudson Valley in high-A.

Waldichuk is an impressive arm, but overall, not the sort of return I would have expected the A’s to get for Montas. This is, interestingly, the fourth time Montas has been traded — he was originally signed by the Boston Red Sox, and traded to the ChiSox at the trade deadline in 2013 in the three way deal that sent Avisail Garcia to the White Sox, Jake Peavy to the Red Sox, and Jose Iglesias to the Tigers. Montas was part of another three team deal in December, 2015, with the White Sox sending him to Los Angeles in the deal that saw Todd Frazier go from Cincinnati to Chicago. The Dodgers traded Montas at the 2016 trade deadline as part of the package that landed them Rich Hill and Josh Reddick.