Frankie Montas admits Yankees made a big mistake trading for him

New York Yankees pitcher Frankie Montas admitted he was injured when the team acquired him at the trade deadline last season. Brian Cashman’s move has backfired.

Thankfully, Aaron Boone’s group has a solid enough starting rotation without a pitcher like Frankie Montas, who at his best is All-Star caliber. Unfortunately, the Yankees haven’t seen that side of Montas, who has been dealing with a shoulder injury since before New York even acquired him.

Montas, who will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the majority if not all of the 2023 season, admitted he tried to play through pain with his new team.

“I was trying to push through. I got traded to a new team and wanted to show what I could do. Things didn’t go the way I was expecting,” Montas said, per Bryan Hoch.

Yankees news: Frankie Montas knew he was hurt when NYY traded for him

While it would have been nice had Montas informed his new team how he was feeling when acquired, it was on the Yankees to check in the first place. New York reviewed Montas’ medicals, and did know that he left a start with his previous team, the Oakland Athletics, early because of the same shoulder injury.

Unfortunately, nothing stood out to them.

The arthroscopic surgery Montas underwent has a typical 12-week recovery period. The Yanks will be safe with Montas rather than simply throwing him into the fire of an AL East race upon his arrival, but a late-July, early-August season debut isn’t out of the question if everything goes according to plan.

“No doubt,” Montas said, per NJ.com. “For sure. I think I have like 9-10 more weeks until I start playing catch. I’ll for sure be back this season.”

The Yankees traded four players for Montas — left-handed pitchers JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk, right-hander Luis Medina, and second baseman Cooper Bowman.