It was perplexing at the moment when the New York Yankees traded away Jordan Montgomery, and it's even more baffling three weeks later.
The Yankees dealt the solid 29-year-old left-handed pitcher to the St. Louis Cardinals just prior to the Major League Baseball trade deadline earlier this month for outfielder Harrison Bader.
It's been a completely one-sided trade up until this point with Bader having yet to appear in pinstripes due to plantar fasciitis. The sixth-year pro had the ailment prior to the Yankees acquiring him and now it looks like Bader won't return until at least September, per reports.
Meanwhile, Montgomery looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball, especially after twirling a one-hit shutout in his latest outing Monday against the Chicago Cubs. Montgomery also struck out seven and walked none in the 1-0 win.
But that hasn't been Montgomery's only spectacular performance since joining the Cardinals. He's won all four of the starts he's made with the Red Birds and hasn't given up an earned run in three of them. Montgomery even exacted some revenge on the Yankees, as he made his first start after the trade against his former club, holding them to two hits and no runs over five innings.
Since the trade deadline, Montgomery has a microscopic 0.35 ERA, which is second-best among pitchers in the league who have thrown at least 20 innings over the three-week span, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.
While pitching hasn't exactly been as big an issue for the Yankees as their offense has been, they have to be missing Montgomery. New York has struggled mightily in August without him, with the team losing 14 of its last 20 games along with the pitching staff posting their highest collective ERA out of any month this season.
It surely doesn't help matters that they have received absolutely nothing from Bader, too. All the Yankees can do is watch from afar as Montgomery makes them regret the trade with each outing he makes. And if this move comes back to hurt New York in the playoffs, where extra pitching is always needed, the Yankees won't hear the end of it.
The Yankees will have to learn a harsh lesson from this, as sometimes the best trades are they ones that aren't made.
