Yankees Acquire Camilo Doval

The Yankees are acquiring right-handed reliever Camilo Doval from the Giants, reports Jack Curry of YES Network. In exchange, the Giants will receive four minor leaguers: Jesus Rodriguez, Trystan Vrieling, Parks Harber, and Carlos De La Rosa. Curry was the first to report that Rodriguez, Vrieling, and Harbor were included in the deal, while FanSided’s Robert Murray later reported the complete package.  The deal is now official.

In adding Doval, David Bednar, and Jake Bird today, Yankees GM Brian Cashman was able to acquire three relievers with control beyond this season.  That should be useful given the impending free agencies of Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.

Doval, 28, has a 3.09 ERA, 26.2 K%, 12.6 BB%, and 52.6% groundball rate in 46 2/3 innings for the Giants this year.  Doval burst onto the scene in 2021 as one of baseball’s hardest-throwing relievers.

Unlike most baseball executives, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey had firsthand experience with Doval’s talent, having served as his catcher in Posey’s final season.  As a rookie, Doval made three appearances in the NLDS for the Giants.

A few months in the 2022 season, Doval was entrenched as the Giants’ closer.  He had a couple of strong years, including 39 saves and an All-Star appearance in 2023.  However, with his walk rate spiking to 14.4% in 2024, Doval was sent to Triple-A in August as Ryan Walker took over closing duties.  By the end of May this year, Doval had won his closer job back.

Doval has had better results this year with a 3.09 ERA, though his still lives in dangerous territory with a 12.6% walk rate.  Some of that is mitigated by his ability to keep the ball on the ground.  Doval likely won’t be tasked with the ninth inning for the Yankees, given the presence of Williams, Bednar, and Weaver.

Doval is under team control through 2027.  He’s earning $4.525MM in his first arbitration year, about $1.44MM of which remains this season.  Given the Yankees’ 110% competitive balance tax bracket, they’ll spend about $3MM to have Doval for the remainder of this season.  The club has run its CBT payroll up to about $316MM, according to RosterResource.

Posey’s Giants, meanwhile, save money and further stock the cupboard with minor leaguers, having also traded Mike Yastrzemski and Tyler Rogers in the last few days.  According to Baseball America, De La Rosa has the best upside of the four acquired for Doval.  The 20-year-old righty was graded 45/extreme risk by BA, who called him a “fine lottery ticket” who is on the upswing.  BA graded Rodriguez as 40/high risk, suggesting he “could have a future as a second-division regular who takes reps behind the plate and occasionally at third base.”

Though unranked by BA, Vrieling is more highly regarded by MLB.com, who assigned the righty a 40 grade.  They concluded, “he’ll have no more than a back-of-the-rotation ceiling unless he can develop a better-than-average offering.”  Harber, now 23, was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Yankees.  He’s reached High-A this year as a corner infielder.  He may be a bit old for his level, but Harber has a 156 wRC+ in 152 PA and may soon prove ready for Double-A.

This post was originally published at 5:29pm.