MLB trade rumors: What stopped Yankees from adding bat?

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explains why he didn’t trade for a slugger with Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Clint Frazier on the disabled list.

NEW YORK — The Yankees didn’t get everything they wanted.

As the trade deadline neared and finally passed 4 p.m. Thursday, general manager Brian Cashman was unable to add a bat to supplement a Yankees lineup that won’t have Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez until late August or early September.

The problem?

Cashman said the prices were too high for a player the Yankees might use sparingly before his two big bats return from the disabled list.

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Here’s Cashman’s full explanation as to why he didn’t trade a hitter:

“We kicked the tires on a lot of different things. As I say that, though, you have to at the same time understand that the price tags, whatever htey are out there, for the category of potentially importing somebody while Judge is down, while Clint Frazier is down, is right now, if things stay as they are, you’re looking for someone — a spot start maybe, One of these guys … is it once? Two, three times over the coming weeks while we wait on Judge’s return and Frazier’s return? … What do you pay for that? We were not able to match up in a comfortable way with what we were importing, whether it was their salary trying to fit into our luxury tax issues or the prospect value we’re going to have to give up. And, so, we made the determination based on all those things involved that we’ll tread water on that and the optimism of Frazier’s eventual return to play sooner than later and Aaron Judge’s eventual return, obviously, a little bit shortly thereafter. We kicked the tires on so many different things to be honest, in every which way. It’s your job to try turn things upside down, inside out and play on the present and evaluate future value that could be of value to you, we brought in a lot of international slot money over the last few days, I think it was a total of $3.75 million.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.