Harrison Bader excited for playoff push with Reds, but loved time with Yankees

DETROIT – Harrison Bader said he was “excited” about the prospect of playing “meaningful” games in September, something he was not going to be doing with the Yankees.

But the centerfielder, claimed by the Reds Thursday after being put on waivers Tuesday, did not mean that as a shot at his now former team.

Far from it.

The 29-year-old Bader, in fact, teared up when discussing his brief tenure in the Bronx, which began when he was brought in at the 2022 trade deadline from the Cardinals in exchange for Jordan Montgomery (although his Yankees debut was delayed until Sept. 20 because of a bout with plantar fasciitis). 

“Growing up in Manhattan…I never thought I’d ever play in the big leagues, let alone in the Yankees' uniform. I have no idea what’s to come for the future and I certainly hope it’s in a Yankees' uniform again if that’s an option,” Bader said as he left the clubhouse during Thursday afternoon’s 4-3 Yankees' loss to the Tigers, on his way to catch a flight to Cincinnati. “With that said, it just means so much to me to be a New York City kid playing in the Bronx for the Yankees. It’s just really special for a lot of reasons. There’s just a lot of good moments and I’m just really excited because, regardless of the situation, no one can ever take the fact that I put that uniform on growing up in that city. Man, that was special.”

Bader, a free agent after this season, will be back in familiar territory when he joins the Reds, who came into Thursday 69-66 in the National League Central, one game out of the league’s third wild-card spot. Bader, who hit .240 with seven homers and a .643 OPS in 84 games but whom Gerrit Cole called “one of the best centerfielders I’ve played with,” spent the first six seasons of his career in the NL Central with the Cardinals.

“It means a lot because it’s a long season,” Bader said of joining a team in playoff contention. “I’m just excited to join those guys, some young players, I know [manager] David Bell. On that front, I’m very excited.”

But the Bronxville native, who went to Horace Mann School in the Bronx and made quite the postseason impression when he hit five home runs in nine playoff games last October, will never forget his experience with the team he grew up rooting for.

“Sept. 20, when I debuted as a Yankee and the first time I took the field, the game was about to start and I told myself, ‘everything from this exact moment on is just the cherry on top,’” Bader said of his professional career. “Because, it’s all good. At times the game speeds up, you get frustrated here and there but looking back on it, man, it was the cherry on top and I stuck to that every day.”