Revisiting The Harrison Bader Deal
- Paul Semendinger
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
by Paul Semendinger
August 12, 2026
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NOTE - This article has been in queue for a while now. Other articles have been more timely and important so the news here is a little old.
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One of Brian Cashman's worst trades ever came in 2023 when he traded Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader - who wasn't even healthy at the time of the trade.
Recently, the following information came out....
"The Giants announced they will suspend payments to Harrison Bader after the outfielder reinjured his left foot over the weekend in a scooter accident."
"(Bader) has been on the injured list since the end of May with plantar fasciitis. The team announced that he’d suffered new injuries in a scooter crash in the early morning hours on Sunday."
It seems Harrison Bader has some problems with making good decisions.
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Of note, this isn't the first time that Harrison Bader has had a scooter accident like this. The following is from the Gainesville Sun (February 4, 2014):
Outfielder Harrison Bader has been suspended from the Florida baseball team indefinitely after he was involved in a scooter accident early Sunday morning in which alcohol may have been involved.
According to a Gainesville Police Department incident report, Bader was southbound on Southwest 10th Street when he hit a curb on his scooter and then struck a parked Ford F150 pickup truck. Bader was found on the ground next to his scooter and was unresponsive. According to the report, there was a strong odor of alcohol. Bader was transferred to Shands Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
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The following recaps the Harrison Bader trade and what happened following...
At the 2022 Trade Deadline, the Yankees traded starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery to the St. Louis Cardinals for an injured Harrison Bader. Bader hadn't even appeared in a game since late June of that season. In short, the Yankees acquired an injured player who had been out over a month with no return in sight.
I hated that trade at the time it was made and it hasn't looked any better in the years since.
After the trade, Jordan Montgomery went 6-3, 3.11 down the stretch for the Cardinals- and then the next year he helped pitch the Texas Rangers to a World Championship.
As noted, Harrison Bader was injured when the Yankees acquired him. The trade was made on August 2. Bader didn't even appear in a game for the Yankees until September 20. I noted at the time that this was a player who was continually injured. When he did finally play, he batted .217 with an OPS+ of 50.
Bader's supporters will note that he hit five homers in the 2022 postseason for the Yankees. That was what the Yankees got out of Bader - a nine game hot streak for two postseason series - one the Yankees won, the other that they lost.
In 2023, Bader appeared in only 84 games for the Yankees. He batted only .240. His OPS+ was 75. By the end of August, he was placed on waivers and picked up by the Cincinnati Reds.
Bader didn't do well in the 14 games he played for the Reds. He hit .161 with an OPS+ of 17. (Read that again... 17.)
In 2024, he played for the Mets. He played in 146 games, but batted only .246 with an OPS+ of 86.
In 2025, Bader split the year between the Twins and the Phillies. (It seems that he can't seem to stick with any team.) He actually hit well enough batting .277 with an OPS+ of 118.
This year, he has played in only 30 games for the Giants (his sixth team since leaving the Yankees). He was batting .170 with an OPS+ of 54. As noted above, he hasn't played since May, and yet he was driving around on a scooter in the week hours of the night.
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The Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader deal was one of the worst moves Brian Cashman has ever made. That was obvious at the time and it has only proven to be more so in the years that have followed.
I'm going to bring an unpopular opinion. It wasn't that bad of a deal. Of course clearly when we add 2023, the Cardinals got the better end of the trade. Remember the primary Yankee outfield at the time of the deal - Judge in mostly CF flanked by Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks. They dealt Gallo and separately got Andrew Benintendi, but Hicks and his about .200 average was still bound to get regular playing time. They also needed a CF to move Judge back to RF. What they had was abundant starting pitching - six average-plus starters. Monty was a 1-WAR pitcher two thirds into the season with a 107 ERA+ - basically an average pitcher. I liked Monty,…
Bad trade, and what appears to be even worse booze fueld decisons by Bader. I wouldn't pay him either. Maybe this will wake him up before he hurts someone.
That whole trade was awful. From Cashman's reasoning, to how he handled it behind the scenes, to how it hit the clubhouse. But BC made 2 other deals at the deadline that were just as bad, plus he moved Luis Severino to the 60 day without even giving him a heads up, and that led to another unnecessary clubhouse issue. I said it then, and what has transpired proved me right - none of the 3 deals really ever helped the Yankees.
For some reason, the Yankees had it in for Montgomery. He would have a lot more valuable in the ALCS than Schmidt or Cortes.
the Yankees needed a centerfielder and Bader was the best that they could get for Montgomery.
it was the desire to dump the pitcher ahead of his approaching free agency that was the real impulse of the trade.
he was, simply, not the type of pitcher that the team wanted to keep and to pay over the long term.
not enough strikeouts, too many gopher balls.