New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees were close to completing a trade with the Chicago Cubs for pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel until the Oakland Athletics offered shortstop Addison Russell. New York is likely to continue searching for a trade to add depth to their pitching rotation, CBS Sports reports.
Chicago traded Samardzija and Hammel on July 4 to Oakland for Russell, pitcher Dan Straily and a player to be named later. Cashman told WFAN's Mike Francesa on Monday the Yankees were in contention for Samardzija and Hammel but ultimately were unable to match Oakland's offer.
"I think we were certainly in the arena," Cashman said, via CBS Sports. "The fact that (Cubs general manager Theo Epstein) was engaging me as much as he was, I know he likes our players. I know there's packages that had interested him for one or both combined that could have worked, but he always measured every conversation with me with 'there's a headliner player that if I can get, and I think I might be able to do so, it trumps every deal I could do in this game.'"
Cashman added, "I don't think (Chicago) could've done a better deal than what they did in terms of that haul."
The Yankees' pitching rotation has been decimated by injuries. Ivan Nova is done for the season, CC Sabathia could be sidelined with a knee injury and Michael Pineda is still trying to return to form after suffering a back injury.
Cashman said the Yankees would continue to look at trades but acknowledged it would be difficult to find a quality pitcher to bring in.
"It's tough," he said. "It's definitely a seller's market ... It's a very thin market for starting pitchers right now. Hopefully we will be able to fix this as we are currently constituted and then wait and see what shakes out."
