Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio is proud of his cousin Harrison Bader, a baseball player who broke into the Major Leagues in 2017. And now he’ll have his cousin a little closer to home, after Bader was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the New York Yankees for left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery. The cousins both grew up in Bronxville, New York, and Bader will now play his home games in the Bronx, the New York City borough where he attended the elite Horace Mann School.
Baio posted a note from MLB about the trade to his Instagram story, captioned with a series of italicized exclamation marks. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Baio for comment.
Baio first saw Bader play in the majors in September 2018, at a home game for St. Louis against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bader has posted 1.5 fWAR playing center field in 72 games for the Cardinals this year, good enough for a 93 WRC+. He won his first Gold Glove—awarded to the best fielder at each position—in 2021. The player he was traded for, Jordan Montgomery, accumulated 1.4 fWAR in 114 innings across 21 starts this season for the Yankees, posting a 3.69 ERA.
Both cousins are distant relatives of actor Scott Baio, who is Chris’ paternal grandfather’s brother’s son. Baio’s last album Dead Hand Control dropped in 2021.