The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports this morning that the Royals “remain interested” in signing Austin Hays, despite having recently acquired outfielders Isaac Collins and Lane Thomas. This lines up with previous reporting suggesting that president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo is still searching for upgrades after his outfielders finished last in MLB in runs scored, RBI, on-base percentage, OPS, wRC+, and FanGraphs WAR in 2025. Heyman first connected Hays and the Royals earlier this month.
Heyman also notes that the Yankees have “checked in” on Hays, although they might only be interested in adding him if they can’t re-sign Cody Bellinger, whom the New York Post reporter describes as their top target. In contrast to the Royals, the Yankees led the majors in most offensive categories from the outfield this past year, including runs scored, home runs, RBI, all three triple-slash metrics, wRC+, and fWAR. Bellinger was a key contributor to that effort, and it’s no surprise the Bronx Bombers would love to team him up with Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham once again. Their interest in retaining Bellinger is hardly breaking news.
This is, however, the first time the Yankees have been linked to Hays. Heyman reported a month ago that Kyle Tucker could be their “backup plan” if they missed out on Bellinger, and needless to say, Hays would not be the same kind of outfield upgrade. In fact, it’s less clear if Hays would be an upgrade at all. The young switch-hitter Jasson Domínguez certainly has a higher ceiling, while Amed Rosario, though limited in his outfield experience, is already on the roster to fill a righty-batting utility role. Whether the Yankees’ reported interest in Hays suggests a lack of faith in Domínguez to become an everyday player, a lack of faith in Rosario to play the outfield, or simply GM Brian Cashman doing his due diligence remains to be seen.
Yesterday, Heyman reported that the Mets’ front office had engaged in conversations about signing Hays. Considering the Mets lost several outfielders to free agency this winter and traded away two more, they could certainly find playing time for the veteran in 2026. Of course, he might be more of a plan B in Queens as well, with the Mets having also expressed interest in signing Bellinger and trading for White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr.
Hays, 30, is coming off a solid season for Cincinnati. In 103 games and 416 PA, he slashed .266/.315/.453 with 15 home runs and a 105 wRC+. He also went 7-for-7 on the bases while playing capably in left field. As usual, he was particularly effective against left-handed pitching (.949 OPS, 155 wRC+). While Hays is unlikely to be an everyday player, at least not on a contending team, he has proven he can be a valuable role player over his eight MLB seasons with the Orioles, Phillies, and Reds.
Looks like a cheap option to platoon with Dominez. Yankee fans demand they do better than Hayes
At this point Hayes is playing at Jasson’s current level.
Hopefully Hayes is Royal-bound. No need for him here. Bellinger should be the lst priority, not Hayes. Easy pass on Hayes.
Whiskey bent and Yankee-bound
It’s amazing how you spelled his name incorrectly 3 times despite it being on your screen as you typed this.
Truly impressive.
Nothing against Hays, as a bench option he could be interesting. Now if it is true he is the second option just behind Bellinger…
I hope my Yanks end up in last place ..then maybe they’ll finally give Cashman the boot.
Nah Cashman is family he isn’t goin anywhere
Trusting a young negative-WAR outfielder going into 2017 worked out really well for the Yankees and their fans. Despite Gardner, Ellsbury, and Hicks all being solid contributors.
If they do better than Hays, they would be replacing Dominguez, not finding a platoon partner for him.
I wouldn’t consider Hays as a platoon partner so much and would see him as more of a bridge to Dominguez. Knowing you overpay him a little on a one-year deal so he absorbs some risk of being cut if Dominguez breaks out. And if Dominguez struggles, you have a bat that can hold it’s own until the deadline.
I keep hoping Hays signs with the Cardinals.
Do I care say bring back Andujar. Haha
You shouldn’t care nor dare to say that.
Yankees and Royals : oh behave!
Sounds like Hays is a pretty popular target all of a sudden.
If that’s Hal and cashman plan B for Belli signing elsewhere good luck cause I can clearly see them sitting near the bottom of the division come October..
Yanks turning attention to Hays bc Mets are likely to sign Bellinger?
Stearns and Cashman in the octagon. Winner gets Bellinger, loser gets Hays.
I really doubt Hays has any bearing on anyone signing Bellinger. Hays will likely be a platoon bat while Bellinger will be a starter everyday.
Sounds to me like a lack of news to report.
Maybe Hays’ agent trying to up his $ leverage – they always use the Yankees this way.
Who knows! This is why it is difficult to read the tea leaves as a fan. Id it the agent? Is Crashman bluffing an agent? Are the Yankees going cheap and this is the announcement? Is BaBoone still lost in the clubhouse?
Raven, totally agree with you. Cashman should take a Yankees attitude and play hardball. He let this get out because he he knows Belli wants to return. I think Cashman wants to force the issue because the Yankees have other pressing matters. You can’t really finish your offseason without knowing what will be the final highest money outlay in your budget.
I liked him on the Orioles. He goes on some hot streaks, and then he gets hurt, and then, because he’s a gamer, he plays hurt, a lot. But if he’s got a healthy year in him, he can be an All Star again, and one of the Central Division teams will be glad they got him.
Here’s wishing Austin Hays a starting gig and a healthy new year!
@toasters
But not a team in the East or West divisions? Those teams couldn’t use someone you say is a potential All-Star?
Royals are serious about replacing their terrible outfielders. Even average players would make a big difference for them
Hays going to the Pirates would make some sense. They have already made some nice upgrades to their hitting this off-season.
That’s what I was thinking. Could use an OF that hits lefties.
Way too many free agents dragging their feet.
Unacceptable.
Or Owners don’t want to loosen their purse strings?
Maybe the Yankees are just tired of waiting for Dominguez to reach that “higher ceiling.” In over 500 PAs he’s been a league-average hitter and a bad defensive outfielder. Okay, he’s young and might improve, though there’s obviously no guarantee.
In JDom’s defense, he’s 22 and has only had 528 PAs, 134 of which was against LHP. It would be foolish to throw in the towel on him this early.
why not its over double what they gave florial total and thats with calling florial up and down like a yoyo where dominguez got regular time.
what did Florial ever show us to question whether he deserved more time? he’s had a .191/.292/.329 career slash. JD had a .257/.341/.388 with good walk rate and SB numbers. He has to work on his defense, lower his ks and hit for more power by he’s still promising.
Correct after he got regular playing time last season but for the first 2 seasons it was not that much better to florial at .207 / .310 / .407. over 100 plate appearances which were continuous september callups and could get into a groove. For Florial’s career with the yankees, he had 134 over 4 years.
Dominguez had a 31% strike out rate where florial was a 36% both pretty bad but in the end a difference of what 2 or 3 strike outs. florial would get usually a week at most two at a time and never really continuous play. Also walk rates werent far off either at 13 for dominguez vs 11 for florial.
I’d be happy with this…. Platoon him & Dominguez until Spencer Jones is ready… platoon Caballero & McMahon at 3B, platoon Wells & Rosario at C & 1B with Ben Rice playing everyday at 1B/C
I’d rather play Jasson and Jones tbh, but I’m not really hating on the idea of Hayes as a fallback. He’d be a one year rental anyway.
Plus, it’s a weird market (mainly because of Boras, imho). It was that the very top-tier guys received incredibly long, expensive contracts and stalled the market (ie, Judge, Harper, Ohtani, etc). But, now, it’s like the second-tier guys want the same. I also think that Xander and some others getting 11-year deals the past couple offseasons created some of this expectation.
Nonetheless, although I don’t care about the Yankees money, and I want them to spend or trade to fill every single weakness, I understand why they would limit what they offer Bellinger.
However, this does not excuse the current condition of the roster because there are players for which they should’ve overspent to acquire: Yamamoto (even though he may have still gone LAD), Harper, Ohtani (again, probably still LAD). There are obviously others, but the Yanks sticking to the spreadsheet evaluation of all players is hurting them. When they get a player that is truly top-tier, they should spare no expense, because the benefits pay dividends beyond the page numbers.
Not signing Seager was the bigger mistake. He’s also better than Harper. Who was the Yankees’ shortstop back then? IKF?
Yeah, Seager was another one. Imagine if the Yankees had simply made the decisions they needed to at the time:
1B: F. Freeman/Harper
2B: Jazz
3B: Machado
SS: Seager
LF: Bellinger/Dominguez/Tucker/Harper
CF: Grisham/Belli
RF: Judge
C: JT Realmuto and Wells
Irony of this list is that while many will claim it would’ve cost a fortune, if we add up all the money Cashman has spent on multiple players for each of those positions that were subpar, or that they eventually cut altogether, their payroll wouldn’t have varied much at all. And they would’ve had some wiggle room at certain positions, as seen above. Just pick one for all the non-catching positions and this team is immensely more adept at making a championship bid.
I dont think any team, even the Dodgers, can spend to have an Allstar at every position. That Yankees lineup would never happen. We think super fondly of the George years, but while they had their share of stars a lot of those lineups pre/during/post Dynasty had a ton of role players.
I do agree that the market is too bananas these days. Too many midtier players receiving contracts that their actual abilities shouldn’t sniff, but at the same time good on the players! Even the trade market is odd. 5 players for Shane Baz still has me scratching my head regardless of the type of prospects.
And while yeah obviously we all want the best team possible, I can’t fault Cashman for working the way he does. He doesn’t always feed into that craziness of the market. That said, a lot of the offers the Yanks have made to players that went elsewhere were very VERY good. Can’t win them all when more teams have that same money these days and players can choose more.
Players have to want to sign with the team, so it’s not just how much money you are willing to throw around, it’s who’s willing to take it
@Yankee @DrCox
I hate feeling like I’m defending the Yanks but damn some of you act as if players don’t have a preference and that a long as the Yanks are offering than every player will say “yes”. Isn’t it crystal clear that the Yanks wanted both Ohtani and Yamamoto were offered huge deals but they wanted to go to the West Coast. Clearly Freeman was holding out wanting to return to the Dodgers, and that should be evident in his words about waiting on the Dodgers until eventually signing two weeks before the start of the session on March 18th. Yanks didn’t sign Rizzo until the 17th after playing footsies with Boras likely coming to the realization that they were just being used to drive up the price. I’m not saying it was the right move NOT to sign Seager but keep in mind had a long history of injuries and missed 100 games in 2018 and another 50 of so in 2021 or 22. Also, the Yanks had Volpe their number 1 pick primed in AAA looking good and he debuted in 2022. I remember thinking that giving Seager a 10 year deal was crazy. Keep in mind he’s missed 150 games in the last 4 years and is still owed 6/$190 mil. Harper was the one legit no breaker imo but I can’t place blame on not getting him. Derek Jeter just came into power with the Marlins and wanted to move Stanton. He didn’t like Cashman and instead went straight to Randy Levine to work out the trade. I always thought how interesting it was that Levine was making all the public comments while Cashman said very little about it. Clearly Jeter went over his head. And I’ve never heard Cashman flat out say he had no interest in a FA but he was very vocal about not going after Harper and I thought that was his way of venting about the situation. It just didn’t make sense to go after Harper vs Stanton. Machado was the FA that Cashman wanted to pivot to but I feel like they weren’t crazy about having two guys for 10/$300 plus luxury tax implications when they need to address the pitching staff.
Of course they have a choice, which is why I noted they would likely been with LA anyway. I was using those names as top-tier guys for which to go all out, irrespective of “valuations” in the market.
Yankees spent so much money trying to save money over the years that they could’ve paid for at least two more superstars in the exact same timeframe, and in positions of need (1B:LF and SS).
It’s also why I contrast that with Belli, for whom I would not pay his $300MM or $400MM asking price. I agree with capping an offer to him at $160MM/5 years or whatever it is.
@Salzilla
Where do the rest of us get the list of losing offers the Yanks made to players that have signed elsewhere?
@Knicks
I’ve never talked about Yamamoto, Ohtani, or Freeman. Especially with Ohtani and Yamamoto, the Yankees were more or less never realistic contenders.
You talk about Seager’s injury proneness, but you don’t mention that Harper was also considered injury prone and still is. 13/330 isn’t much better than 10/325.
then don’t defend them, just move on to whatever team’s bnoards you root for and depart from here
It’s amazing to me that ppl are so down on Dominguez after one year at age 22. I’m happy with what he shown. What’s the point of is clamoring for young prospects if we’re unwilling to go threw a few growing pains. I’m all for bringing back Beli or sighing Tucker. It’s not like Grisham is a guarantee to repeat his ’25 success or that they’ll want/be able to sign him beyond ’26. If Cashman were to give up on Dominguez then this would be a repeat of past Yankee mistakes. I remember when fans were clamoring for them to get off Cano when he Struggled and he went to hand several all-star years. Same with Bernie Williams.
Filter out the noise and look under the hood. They’re not giving up on JDom by sending him to winter ball where he could potentially get hurt.
@Yankee
I never said the Yanks are giving up on him. I said/ meant, I can’t believe that the fans are.
Yankees interested in everybody.
Fans ask for anybody (on a MLB deal)
Yankees sign somebody
But it’s a nobody (on an MILB deal).
Excluding guys they had last year, the Yankees have signed NO ONE to a MLB deal.
IT’S HAYS!…. NO MORE MISSPELLINGS PLEASE!
HIS NAME is only 4 LETTERS LONG. H-A-Y-S. I think there are commentators in here that are intentionally getting it wrong.
Having Hays over Bellinger would be like having Dave Gallagher over David Justice with the ‘90’s Braves. As a Yankee hater, I hope the Yankee$ sign Hays and miss out on Bellinger and Tucker.
The Braves had both David Justice and Dave Gallagher 1994. And like the Braves they don’t have to choose, the Yankees should be able to afford both
The idea that the Yanks are choosing Hays over Beli or Tucker is laughable. A reporter saying Yanks are interested in a guy doesn’t mean they are out give inside info on how they plan to use them.
Easy,Karen
Wow, you’re original.
As a yankee fan I wouldn’t mind hayes to platoon with Dominguez or Spencer Jones that would be if bellinger is resigned and plays 1b every day and rice takes over the starting catching duties… that would make Austin wells available in a trade….
Why the heck did they bother you offer Grisham a contract? He will be back to batting .187 next year.
yankees allegedly interested in everyone, but do nothing.actions speak louder than words
Makes sense for NY. They look pretty full on offense, just a platoon bat for Dominguez is all that they really require.
Hays was a good fit for the yanks last year and he is again this year. I’d really like the signing if it happened. Good defense, crushes lefties, respectable vs rhp
Mets would be prudent to make that happen.
The Yankees and Mets are interested in Hays? All of a sudden, the wallflower at the dance has enough street cred that other teams are looking at him more hungrily, saying “Hmmm… maybe I should ask him to dance after all”. LOL. Seriously, good fielder, decent speed can hit lefties well and good clubhouse guy. A solid Plan B guy. Well, maybe Plan B-.
No WAY !! Come on Cashman
Can’t be serious contender w this guy as a starting OF… pay the $ for Bellinger or get the Slugger, or platoon Jason D again.
The Yanks are a joke. Tucker is their backup plan if they miss on Bellinger lmao. And yet they’re interested in Hays.