The Yankees have acquired utilityman Jose Caballero from the Rays in exchange for outfielder Everson Pereira and a player to be named later, per announcements from both clubs. Both players were on their respective teams’ 40-man rosters, so no corresponding 40-man moves were needed.
The versatile Caballero adds plenty of speed and defensive flexibility to the Yankees’ bench mix. The 28-year-old is hitting just .226/.327/.311 on the season but is tied for a share of the major league lead with 34 stolen bases (in 44 attempts). He’s played second base, third base, shortstop and all three outfield positions this season.
Caballero draws plus defensive grades all over the infield and in the outfield corners as well. He’s controllable for another four years beyond the current season but will be arbitration-eligible as a Super Two player in the offseason.
The 24-year-old Pereira ranked among Baseball America’s top-100 prospects in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 offseasons. His path to the majors has been slowed by injury, most notably a UCL repair surgery performed last June. Because of injuries and the shortened 2020 season, the Yankees were granted a fourth option year over the Venezuelan-born outfielder. He’ll be out of options next season.
Pereira got a brief big league debut with the 2023 Yankees but looked overmatched as a 22-year-old who’d only played 35 games above the Double-A level. He hit .151/.233/.194 and fanned 40 times in 103 trips to the plate (38.8%). He’s now in his third partial season at the Triple-A level and hitting .254/.357/.507 with 19 homers and nine steals in 314 plate appearances. Pereira has gone down on strikes in 29.5% of his plate appearances but walked at a stout 12.1% clip. He’s averaging 92.1 mph off the bat and sporting a huge 50% hard-hit rate.
Pereira can play all three outfield spots and brings some upside to the Rays, though he’s continually shown a worrying lack of contact skills in the upper minors. He’ll give Tampa Bay some depth in the outfield. Notably, speedy outfielder Chandler Simpson exited today’s game with a hand injury, so the acquisition of Pereira could be tied to concerns that Simpson will miss time. Josh Lowe, Jake Mangum, Jonny DeLuca and Kameron Misner are among the other Rays options on the 40-man roster.
Jack Curry of the YES Network first reported the trade.
MARINERS LEGEND JOSE CABALLERO!
Pereira the goat set free!
It’s a short walk at least.
Interesting
This trade deadline is wild
Geez what are the Rays thinking here?
That they want to trade Caballero for Pereira
That Caballero is arb eligible this winter and after potentially leading the league in Steals two years in a row will be in line for a significant pay raise
He’s first year arb eligible as a super 2. He’s not going to make much in 2026.
This is my least favorite move of the trade deadline. The Rays gave away a nice player with 4 plus years of control left for some washed up prospect. Yuck.
Yall moved an 80 OPS+ for a solid prospect whos pretty much MLB ready what are you complaining about lol
Solid prospect? He’s a 24 year old repeating AAA and not improving while doing so. Caballero can run and play defense. Use WAR not OPS when judging a baseball player. Try it.
Yes solid prospect, 15th ranked guy in the org. And oh you want me to cream over his 1 WAR? The same WAR that overvalues DRS, a terrible advanced metric, in its calculations? Yall got a 15th ranked prospect for a pinch runner you’ll be ok
Pereria is coming off TJ surgery. So upside is there. And since TB is pretty good at getting value out of high upside potential. They very easily could wind with a 25hr -90rbi bat with full years of control.
At best Periera is as good as Caballero. At very best. What a stupid trade.
Cards,
Caballero isnt good at all bro. Everson has more upside. Yankees are literally gonna use him as a pinch runner or defensive sub, stop acting like yall just moved off of Nomar or something
Quit saying yall as if I am a fan of either team. I am not.
Dumb trade
Its not a dumb trade no matter how much you say so lol your dWAR doesnt matter if youre an automatic out at the plate. Rays did good here
He’s a 24 yo at AAA whose year was cut short due to injury. He was at AAA and had no chance to make the bigs considering who was on the MLB roster and the OF at ahead of him. He only played 40 games at AAA prior to 2025 so it’s not like he was struggling to advance. His inability to stay healthy had been his biggest issue as he’s seldom played more than 100 games in a season. But his AAA numbers are solid.
“You want me to cream..?” What??
Carvel its not that confusing of a statement bro lol
It is. Nobody expects anyone to do that over a sport. It’s a jump from to being happy with a move to creaming your jeans over a move.
Although I think a GM that went into the job thinking “how can I make the fans cream?” would make for a great relaunch of a sport base comedy movies
So what you just experienced was a hyperbole. Taking it literally to feign confusion on MLBTR surely is something tho keep it up
Look at Pereira is a former top 100 prospect whose had dominate stretches but has also struggled significantly with injuries. I think it comes down to not wanting to pay Caballero and betting on Eversons upside
That’s what I would like to know. Maybe I’m over-valuing Caballaro but with four more years of control, I would’ve expected a good deal more in any return going back the other way to Tampa.
Were the Rays worried his arbitration salary was about to balloon to an untenable amount? I’m having a hard time understanding this trade for Tampa Bay.
Caballero offers defensive versatility, even if he’s somewhat not that great at any particular position. Doesn’t offer much at the plate with his main attribute being his speed. He’s probably a slightly better David Hamilton.
Yes don’t trip of shock in the dugout!
real question: can he change unis mid-game?
That’s why they took him out
Why are the Rays so willing to help out division rivals? 😂
Holy cow! Love this guy, dude can fly and play multiple positions. The Everson era alas comes to an end…
I’m sorta sad about that… so much promise for a brighter tomorrow,now all turned to dust…
Added some speed. How bout it
I’m guessing that PTBNL is going to be someone fairly significant. Otherwise this is a steal for the Yankees
PTBNL are never interesting.
Every now and then they are. I can’t imagine the Rays would just give the Yankees a perfect fit like Caballero without getting something back. Pereira is the definition of a AAAA player
Shane Baz has something to say about that!
Good call, although I don’t expect a Baz level prospect being involved here
Shane Baz was ptbnl in the Chris archer trade. Rays got a good one once so who knows?
David Ortiz was once a PTBNL.
Has to be, right? Pereira alone seems awfully light.
Volpe’s replacement? Wishful thinking.
The Yankees have acquired Camilo Doval from the Giants.
Looks like Cashman finally realized that Volpe, as an MLB shortstop, is garbage,
Nope.
Caballero sucks bro lol same OPS+ as Volpe. hes not getting sat for him
He was brought in to run for Big G in late innings
Yeah most likely, or to give Volpe more rest days when he looks really bad but def not his replacement
He looks really bad every game … with your logic he’ll be warming the bench everyday
Thats not my logic at all. Im not a Volpe defender but hes a better hitter than Caballero, even if that margin is small. However, Volpe has stretches where hes league average and stretches where hes abysmal at the plate, and the latter is what im referring to when I say “when he looks really bad”. At most Caballero will play a couple games in a row to let Volpe try and reset, but hes not going to completely unseat the kid, and thats because he also cant hit.
Nah, Cab will be a supersub.
Nope Volpe plays in every game no matter what
Man it’s really moving now.
Lol, they’re playing against each other right now. Did they get this done in the rain delay?
thats actually seems likely to me… why the hell not, after all
Pretty decent WAR and base-stealing numbers for a part-time player. Could be a steal (pun intended).
Cash really hated Pereira huh
No room on the roster now or soon.
Even if there was he wouldnt have ever given him a real chance. He gets that way with some guys and it kills their development
You give guys a chance and you get 2025 Anthony Volpe sometimes while trying to compete.
And im fine with taking that risk. Not taking those risks is how the payroll ballooned up to 300MM and somehow full of holes. You end up spending 400 million dollars on Stanton, DJLM, and Josh Donaldson because you never actually see what you got.
Im fine with playing Volpe then realizing hes not it and they need to supplement in FA. Im not fine with creating log jams everywhere and going no we cant play our top prospect because Aaron Hicks is out there
Well, I guess Cashman has learned his lesson as he’s DFA’d DJL and Peraza (more or less). There’s no deadweight on the team right now.
Im not entirely convinced he has. Like I said he does this with certain guys. I remember Andujar was scorching through the minor leagues and instead of giving him a try he trades for Drury. Drury gets hurt and Andujar gets RoY2 and then he goes out and gets Urshela the following offseason to block him again. If he simply doesnt like a prospect for whatever reason he’ll ruin their development and never give them a chance, its odd.
Theyll send a guy up and down from AAA a million times, give them ABs every other games and wonder why theyre not hitting, trade them and all of the sudden theyre a league average bat (e.g. Thairo Estrada)
Okay I think I understand the strategy now. We’ll strike fear into the hearts of the opponent with how much mediocre depth we have on the bench. 4 bench players in 3 days sheesh Cashman really outdone himself now!
Love it. Our play by play radio guy’s Dave sims, who came from doing mariners games, speaks very highly of caballero. He’s an absolute pest in any and every way possible for opposing teams. Great bench piece for any playoff team and I’m glad he’s with us
Maybe Volpe gets sent down….
So many Volpe haters, even after he delivered the clutch HR yesterday. Maybe somebody should fire his manager for not handling his development correctly.
credit where credit is due
this was one hell of a deadline by cashman
Finally, the Yankees added more team speed. Speed kills. We all remember what Dave Roberts did against Mo.
Homer Bush
I agree with this. I would’ve preferred another starter, but the team is a lot deeper on the bench. And, assuming the Yankees make it out of the wild card round there is a lot to like about this staff when you don’t need the last couple relievers/starters.
How good are the collective teaching skills of the Rays staff? Can they unlock hidden skills in players who have struggled in other organizations?
Why deal with the Evil Yankee$? Couldn’t they have given them Walls? You want to make your enemy weaker, not help them out!
I’ve always liked Caballero. Nice add. Maybe they can coax a little out of his bat.
Pereira just another bust. They all eventually bust. Sad times.
Garret Cole is gonna love this
So is Carson Williams getting promoted at some point?
Why the over collection of infielders by NYY? Could have substituted one new RP for a 3/4 type starter.
Nothing’s perfect, I guess
Time to sit Volpe, let him clear his head.
Pirates sould have entertained Pham, Heaney, or IDFK plus cash for Everson Pereira.
Superfluous trade by Trashman.
Slater now DFA candidate when Judge returns in a week.
Yankees weren’t a deadline away from true contender anyway, perhaps.