The 2026 Major League Baseball trade deadline came and went on Monday, and the New York Yankees didn’t do enough in the eyes of some evaluators. New York added slugger Luis Garcia Jr. in a trade with the Washington Nationals on Sunday and acquired outfielder Heliot Ramos in a deal with the San Francisco Giants on Monday.
But the deadline still felt incomplete for the Yankees, with the team having a clear need at catcher. Led by Austin Wells, the Yankees’ catchers have combined to put together a .556 OPS that ranks 29th of 30 MLB teams, and they have totaled 0.7 wins above replacement (tied for 23rd-25th) according to FanGraphs.
Tyler Stephenson, for example, sure seemed to think he’d played his last game with the Cincinnati Reds when he got very emotional during a postgame interview on Sunday. Stephenson had been rumored as a potential Yankees target for weeks and was expected to have a reasonable “rental” trade cost as an upcoming free agent. Instead, Stephenson remained with the 53-58 Reds past the deadline, and the Yankees didn’t add a big-league backstop.
On Monday night, WFAN host Chris “C-Mac” McMonigle sounded off about the Yankees’ “miserable trade deadline” and referred to the efforts of New York manager Brian Cashman as a “disgrace.”
C-Mac RIPPED the Yankees trade deadline, saying it could be Brian Cashman’s worst ever!@CMacWFAN pic.twitter.com/FNLc0wbCw2
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) August 3, 2026
“It’s a disgrace,” McMonigle said. “It’s a miserable trade deadline. It’s a failure of a deadline. There’s no doubt about it. That’s the only way to look. They are going to continue to throw out the worst catching situation in all of the sport, and they’re doing it willingly. Bottom line. They are willingly playing the worst catchers in all of baseball… They are now willingly rolling out the worst position in all of sports, arguably. The catcher position for the New York Yankees is the worst position-player group in all of Major League Baseball. The New York Yankees.”
“They also are rolling out arguably one of the worst shortstop positions in the game, and third base ain’t much better,” McMonigle continued. “And now they are willingly doing so. Willingly. It’s unacceptable. It’s a miserable deadline. And Brian Cashman has failed.”
Later, WFAN host Shaun Morash recorded a video of himself to deliver a rant about Cashman.
Morash is DONE with Brian Cashman after a “failure” of a trade deadline:@ShaunMorash pic.twitter.com/RXijwoZZDN
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) August 3, 2026
“When you give general managers lifetime contracts, they tend to operate from a standpoint of no urgency,” Morash said. “I don’t deny that Brian Cashman tried to help the Yankees today. But when your window is closing with Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole, and boy, is it closing. And you are playing old-school National League baseball with eight batters because your catcher is the equivalent of a pitcher hitting. And you watch the Red Sox and Rays, your two biggest competitors, let’s be honest, for the American League, both add the best catchers that got moved today. And you did nothing at that position, and you add a platoon outfielder on trade deadline day. It’s a failure!”
“And if you’re one of these sheep still defending this organization, ‘Well, they win 90 games every year; what more can you want?’ What more do I want? Urgency,” Morash continued. “And for all the talk of no salary cap in baseball, I ask you this. If there was a floor and cap in baseball, and everybody was on a level playing field, do you think Brian Cashman is a really good general manager still? Because I sure as hell don’t. And Cash deserves his flowers for years gone past, but this deadline signifies that we all know deep down. The time has come, man. You need a new set of eyes on this organization.
“This locker? See this locker with my name on it? I got that locker in sixth grade. You know who was the general manager of the Yankees when I was in sixth grade? Brian Cashman. The time has come! I’m bald, old, washed up with two kids, and Brian Cashman is still the general manager of the team. And he’s allowing the freaking Red Sox to get Adley Rutschman! And if I have to hear, ‘Look at the prospects they gave up!’ Great! Great! Outside of George Lombard, give them all up!… Who cares!… They all, for the most part, suck anyway!
“Adley Rutschman is going to kill the Yankees in a Wild Card series! Kill ’em! God, we had dreams! Dreams! We had big dreams! They couldn’t get a catcher! They didn’t get a catcher! Austin Wells is wearing Thurman Munson’s gear! He’s not a pimple on the ass of Thurman Munson! I wish I could cry; can’t help but laugh! I can’t help but laugh! Think about it! The 90-win Yankees have left us more excited for a football team in the Giants that wins four games every year!”
“This is, without a shadow of a doubt, of all the failures, the biggest failure in Brian Cashman’s tenure!” Morash said in his closing comments. “What a disappointing deadline! This team stinks! Congrats to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a three-peat.”
The Yankees are 63-50, which is the second-best record in the AL but puts them 3.5 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. New York’s 27 World Series titles are the most in MLB, but the most recent championship came in 2009.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.