PHILADELPHIA — The Yankees were in on Jack Flaherty up to the very end on Tuesday before the Tigers traded him to the Dodgers.
Searching for an upgrade to his rotation, general manager Brian Cashman tried to land Flaherty but said the Yankees and Tigers could not match up on the right value.
Cashman would not directly answer whether the Yankees had concerns about Flaherty’s medicals, which The Athletic reported was the case on Tuesday night, though that was believed to have altered how the club valued him and how much it was willing to give up to get him.
“I think Jack Flaherty is an exceptional starter and I had difficulty matching up with the Tigers on Jack Flaherty,” Cashman said Wednesday on a conference call after Tuesday’s trade deadline. “I certainly would have loved to have him as a choice for us as well as anybody else that potentially could have upgraded our rotation. All I can speak to is that — unfortunately, you get a lot of different reports going out there.
“At the end of the day, I would have brought Jack Flaherty in if I could have matched up. I had difficulty matching up and that was the reason I don’t have him. Simple as that.”
The Tigers ended up dealing Flaherty — a pending free agent who has a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts and dealt with a lower-back issue earlier this month — to the Dodgers for former Yankees shortstop prospect Trey Sweeney and catching prospect Thayron Liranzo.
The Yankees used one of their top prospects, catcher Agustin Ramirez, as part of the package to land Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Marlins, but ultimately hung on to their most prized prospects in Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr.
“In the end, I could not match up with value,” Cashman said. “All the way to the end, I was talking to the Tigers regarding Jack Flaherty and he wound up going in a different direction. I was certainly in it all the way to the end and would have been happy to be in a position to provide him as a choice too.
“In the end, we failed because we couldn’t match up on value, that’s all.”
That the Yankees were trying to land Flaherty indicates they were not completely satisfied with their current rotation, which had the majors’ lowest ERA through June 14 before faltering over the last six-plus weeks.
Part of the calculus moving forward is how much they can get out of Luis Gil, who is set to blow past his career-high in innings after throwing just 29 ²/₃ over the last two years, along with getting rebounds from the rest of the rotation including Gerrit Cole, who was scratched from Tuesday’s start due to general body fatigue but could return on Sunday.
Still, Cashman insisted he felt comfortable with the Yankees’ starting depth, citing Will Warren (who was solid in a spot start for Cole) and Clarke Schmidt and Cody Poteet, who could both return from injuries at some point next month.
“I do think we have depth, without a doubt,” Cashman said. “It’s important to have that. But it didn’t preclude us from trying to see if we could add further to that.”