Latest report makes Brian Cashman look even worse for passing on top bullpen options at trade deadline

The New York Yankees made one of the best moves of the entire trade deadline, acquiring Jazz Chisholm Jr., who has not only played a solid third base, but has a 1.006 OPS in 26 games since the trade.

Chisholm has been an awesome addition for the Yankees, but even with his arrival, their deadline was far from perfect.

The Yankees had to address their bullpen at the deadline and did so, but they took an easy way out. Instead of going all-out to land game-changing bullpen help, Brian Cashman traded for Mark Leiter Jr. and Enyel De Los Santos. It's safe to say that the Yankees got what they paid for.

Leiter has a 5.79 ERA in 15 appearances as a Yankee, and De Los Santos struggled so mightily to the point where he was DFA'd after making five appearances with the team.

What makes matters worse for New York is that Brian Cashman had a chance to land at least one of the impact relievers that he should've been interested in, but Jon Heyman of the NY Post notes that he balked at a high asking price.

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Brian Cashman passing on bullpen options comes back to haunt him

"Though the Yankees did try for [Tanner] Scott, a Marlins request was deemed too much (it included Miami product George Lombard Jr.). They showed little interest in Carlos Estevez, who went to Philly. In both cases, contending teams surrendered considerable packages."

Prices for the premier relievers were as high as we've seen in recent memory. Guys like Tanner Scott and Carlos Estevez, both rentals, went for crazy hauls in the end. As unfortunate as it would have been for the Yankees to have given up a talented prospect like George Lombard Jr. among others for a rental reliever, adding someone like Scott or Estevez (who they didn't even want for some reason), it would be worthwhile considering how talented those pitchers are.

Scott had a 1.18 ERA serving as the Miami Marlins primary closer this season, and has a 2.12 ERA since the trade as the San Diego Padres primary set-up man. The Padres gave up a ton to acquire Scott, but their bullpen has been mostly incredible with Scott playing a major role. Estevez has a 1.72 ERA in 14 appearances with the Phillies, blowing just one of his five save opportunities.

Since the trade deadline, New York's bullpen ranks 21st in the majors with a 4.66 ERA. The only team below them currently in a playoff spot is the Kansas City Royals who have struggled lately. Clay Holmes has been so bad to the point where the Yankees are considering removing him from the closer's role, and the rest of the bullpen is subpar to the point where the Yankees have taken this long to consider removing Holmes, a reliever with 11 blown saves this season, from the closer's role.

It would've hurt the Yankees to give up strong prospect capital for a rental reliever, but their goal should be to win right now, in the one year they're guaranteed to have Juan Soto. Holding onto a guy like Lombard, when they could've fixed arguably their biggest hole by acquiring Scott looks bad, and the fact that the high-end relievers that they should've pursued have pitched well on their new teams hurts even more.