Betting Impact: Yankees Acquire Frankie Montas
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In one of the biggest moves before the trade deadline, the AL-leading Yankees (70-34) acquired righty starter Frankie Montas and righty reliever Lou Trivino from the A’s.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
With Luis Severino landing on the 60-day IL, the Yankees are bolstering a starting rotation which already boasts Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes. Yankees starters have the third-best ERA in the league at 3.37, behind only the Astros and Dodgers.
The Yankees sent four prospects to Oakland in exchange for the top remaining starter on the market in Montas: lefty pitcher JP Sears, lefty pitcher Ken Waldichuk, second baseman Cooper Bowman and righty pitcher Luis Medina.
Montas has a career 3.71 ERA pitcher with a healthy 9.41 K/9 across six and a half seasons. The righty pitched to a 3.11 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP for the A’s this year.
This trade also helped the Yankees shore up their bullpen following the recent injury to Michael King. Trivino adds another needed piece to Yankees’ bullpen alongside righty Scott Effross, whom they acquired from the Cubs for righty pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski on Monday. Trivino has struggled this season, but has closing experience with ten saves on the year and eight coming since June 25.
The Yankees’ bullpen has a 2.82 ERA—the second-best in the league behind only the Astros. The unit struggled a bit in July with a 3.47 ERA.
The Yankees also landed Andrew Benintendi last week, adding another outfielder with postseason experience to the lineup.
With the best record in baseball and a fortified roster, the Yankees are certainly in a good spot to make it through the postseason.
Aaron Judge, who homered again Monday in a win over the Mariners, continues to produce an MVP-caliber season and is the leader with -500 odds at SI Sportsbook.
The Yankees entered Monday with the best AL odds at SI Sportsbook to win the World Series at +320, ahead of the Astros at +400, despite the fact that the Astros dominated their season series, 5-2. Surely these upgrades are a big part of that.
The Dodgers remain the outright favorites to win it all at +300 odds.
The Yankees and Astros are in an arms race during this deadline and New York had +160 odds to win the AL pennant, while the Astros had +190 odds. The Yankees are 12 games up in the AL East and entered Monday with -10000 odds to win the division.
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