As youngsters Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe make strong cases to take over the Yankees’ starting shortstop role, there’s been plenty of speculation over the future of Isiah Kiner-Falefa. That speculation has only intensified as the Yankees have announced a series of injuries that’ll affect their roster over the opening few weeks of the season and beyond.
Kiner-Falefa is owed $6MM this year, and does appear to be lagging behind in the race to win the shortstop job. The Yankees have been giving him time at second and third base, and plan to work him out in the outfield this spring, which suggests they may view him as more of a utility player at this point. Yet the team already has the highly impressive Oswaldo Cabrera capable of bouncing round the diamond as a utility option, and he’ll only earn the league minimum in 2023.
Now, with the Yankees dealing with rotation, bullpen and outfield injuries to Carlos Rodon, Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino, Tommy Kahnle and Harrison Bader, it would make some sense for the team to deal from their infield depth to address other areas. According to Brendan Kuty and Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, the Yankees have had conversations with the Dodgers and Rockies over Kiner-Falefa. It’s not known the exact timeline or extent of those conversations, but it’s worth noting the Dodgers checked in on Kiner-Falefa early in the off-season prior to acquiring Miguel Rojas from the Marlins.
General manager Brian Cashman addressed the trade market to reporters, and while he didn’t specifically name Kiner-Falefa (or any other infielders), he certainly didn’t close the door on a deal involving their infielders before the start of the regular season.
“I would say typically trade conversations usually are a bit more serious in the second part of camp than the first part. I do know that’s an area of strength for this franchise right now in real time. So if somebody is looking for help, we wouldn’t be surprised if they’re knocking on our door,” Cashman said.
A trade could help them address their thinning rotation and bullpen stock, but even with Bader on the shelf for a while, it doesn’t appear the outfield is a pressing need. As Kuty notes in a separate piece, Bader’s injury likely means a temporary return to center field for Aaron Judge. That would allow the Yankees to give Giancarlo Stanton more at bats in right field, with Cabrera and Aaron Hicks likely to handle left. Rafael Ortega and Estevan Florial are other candidates to fill in with Bader out, but it appears Hicks – a career center fielder who moved to left last year – is not among them, with Kuty noting it seems the Yankees prefer to keep him in left.
Speaking of Judge, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic sheds some more light on the high profile free agency of the new Yankees captain. While it’s been widely reported that the Yankees’ decision to tack on a ninth-year and take the total value of the contract to $360MM sealed the deal, there’s been a little bit of uncertainty over the extent of the Padres late interest in the slugger. According to Rosenthal, the Padres put forward a deal in the range of $415MM over at least 12 years.
I don’t see why whatever the Padres did or didn’t offer Judge matters now.
Yeah, I can see why Judge would choose $40m over $35m a year. With inflation there’s no way he’d be able to make ends meet on what the Padres offered him.
Looool
It’s not always easy to make the minimum eight paragraphs when reporting minor news.
Blue Baron, it provides insight to the SD front office’s and ownership’s willingness to spend which could come into play going forward.
It does nothing of the kind unless you have accurate, verifiable information, which we as fans generally don’t. We only know what teams and agents are willing to disclose.
This is MLB Trade Rumors, not MLB Accurate, Verifiable Information.
But unverified rumors are just speculation. They don’t provide insight into anyone’s front office.
MLB Trade Speculations…sorry, just not as catchy.
MLB Trade Musings 😛
MLB Fans Bullsh*tting
MLB Rumor-Mongering
Xavier or Judge. Padres picked their man. Both players are signed into their 40s. Let’s see how their contracts age 5 years from now.
See who’s on the face of new $1,000 bill ? The Padre
At least these injuries are at the beginning of the season. With the new playoff format that lets in half of the league, wins and losses aren’t as important any more. Hopefully they’ll be in good shape for the second half of the season.
Yankees just need to rollout w Volpe. He’s done enough this spring in comparison to be given the nod
I hate to phrase it this way, but it may be more beneficial to have the injuries in the first half. The reason is because it should notably affect their performance, and for once, Cashman may actually make the moves needed.
Cashman reminds me of a guy who is going to take a cross county trip in a car. Prior to the trip he notices he has a couple bald tires, but instead of ensuring he gets new tires, or has at least one spare, he decides to hope for the best because the tires are usually reliable (and he just put Armor All tire shine on them). To make this more analogous, he takes this trip annually, and every year gets stuck because he gets a flat tire, therefore he never makes his destination. This year, he’s confident no flat tire will occur – based on pure hope.
Time to start the journey! He pulls out of the driveway and notices……he already has a flat tire. Cashman can’t understand how this happened, but he’s going to fix this by hoping the tire bounces back to new………
Donaldson is the one who needs to go. IKF isn’t in anyone’s way.
I was surprised that the Yankees couldn’t do any better than IKF. I saw him play for the Rangers and didn’t think he was very good.
Did you watch the playoffs last year? Yankees aren’t going anywhere with IKF at shortstop. He’s a liability in the field and a black hole in the lineup and he’s blocking their two best prospects from getting consistent playing time. Both Donaldson and IKF need to go, or more accurately, should never have been acquired in the first place.
IKF is not the starting SS, he’s a utility player. Peraza is the starter. Only a Peraza failure/injury will result in significant playing time for IKF. Neither he or Volpe will be on the MLB roster and sit the bench, that’s IKF.
To be clear, I’m not saying that IKF needs to stay just that he has utility as a plan B or C SS and backup. Donaldson has none as long as he looks like he did last year at the plate, which he has so far.
Teams no longer hope for one multi position player. Having Cabrera does not make IKF redundant.
“That would allow the Yankees to give Giancarlo Stanton more at bats in right field”
He’ll get the same at bats, and none of them will take place in right field.
He’s gunna be playing pepper down the line before the game
No Pepper
Most ABs are taken at home plate.
Haha, but that’s just “baseball talk.” It’s exactly as described in the box score, which is a universally recognized gane summary format.
I can’t wait for Gerrit Cole’s inevitable “forearm tightness,” with the usual slow roll out of worse news daily until the final reveal (shocking!) he will need TJS. Please let this be the year, and please let it happen soon!!!
The Yankees lead all of MLB in trombones. Whether it’s Boonedoggle or the Cash Man, it’s always, “Wah wah wah wah”.
Rodon already breaking down is not a good sign for the Yankee’s. They need their pitching to be elite. They just don’t have the sticks anymore other than Judge, who is always an injury waiting to happen.
Pitchers only go 4+ innings nowadays so it doesn’t matter if they don’t have a rotation. Just throw 100+ for those innings and take a rest. Just beef up on the bullpen.
Sure, there are dozens of unsigned pitchers that throw 100+. Cant believe no one has thought of this before.
You are down two starting pitchers and a center fielder. You aren’t sure who is starting in left or shortstop. The guy you got penciled in to fill right field is as fragile as a prom queen. Get ready, this is the Yankee Bust of 2023.
Down 3 starting pitchers. Montas and Rodon, plus Fat Nestor!
Why the Yankees paid IKF 6 million dollars is a true mystery
Hedging their bets in case none of the kids ran with job during the spring. In a way this is sort of reminiscent of the early 90’s when the Yankees had guys like Mike Gallego, Randy Velarde, Alvaro Espinoza, Andy Stankiewicz, and Dave Silvestri competing for the SS job.
I’d sell IKF into slavery at this point if it means I don’t have to watch him noodle arm another ball from the hole.
IKF has logged games at C/2B/3B/SS in his career and with the Yankees recent spate of injuries and the fact that spring training isn’t even half over yet they should probably take advantage of that versatility because it could definitely be a blessing by the time opening day arrives
Yankees trade IKF for a player who arrives in camp, slips on some ice near the Gatorade cooler, fractures his arm, and, while it’s being set, admits to the doctor some discomfort in the forearm the predated the trade. An MRI reveals ligament damage, and TJ surgery is scheduled for six weeks (give the break a chance to heal). The player, who had two years left on his contract, might be ready by the All Star break–next season.
We’ll trade him then everyone else will get injured.
Bringing back IKF reminds me of Kitchen Nightmares whenever chef Ramsay finds moldy vegetables inside a refrigerator. The owner would say that they were going to throw them out, but Ramsay would say, “why is it still there?” I felt the same when they brought back Urshela for $6mill in 2022 and IKF for about the same in 2023. Why? Even if he lost his spot in the starting lineup is he worth $6mil??? Waste of money and illustrates Cashman’s inability to assess value of his own players.
Where are the Padres getting this money from?
Tatis – 340m/14
Machado – 350M/11
Xander – 280M/11
Darvish- 108/6
Musgrove -100/5
Judge. – 415M/12
Soto. – God only knows
Ohtani. – I’m sure they’ll be in on it
He wants to win. Padres are destined to flame out after a half decade or so.