The Yankees were known to be one of the teams talking with the Marlins about a possible Edward Cabrera trade, but with Cabrera now in a Cubs uniform, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reports that the Bronx Bombers are looking elsewhere for rotation help. The NY Post’s Jon Heyman reiterates that the Yankees continue to have trade interest in the Brewers’ Freddy Peralta and the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore, and the chances of a Tarik Skubal trade with the Tigers seems remote due to Detroit’s huge asking price.
As per offseason norms, the Yankees have been routinely connected to several major players on the free agent and trade markets, though the club has yet to swing a big transaction. New York did bolster its pitching depth by re-signing Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn, but those aren’t the types of arms that would provide the certainty or the upside of a true front-of-the-rotation arm.
Sherman outlines the situation facing the Yankees’ rotation, as technically the team has enough starters between Max Fried, Luis Gil, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Yarbrough to cover innings until Carlos Rodon is back from elbow surgery (in late April or early May), and Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt are back from Tommy John surgery. Of course, any injuries to the healthy pitchers or setbacks for the injured pitchers could throw this entire plan awry, and Schmidt’s availability for any of the 2026 season isn’t a sure thing since he underwent his TJ procedure last July.
Bringing in not just a depth starter, but a pitcher that could conceivably start a playoff game would naturally be a nice boost to the rotation picture. Such an addition provides cover against not just injuries, but (as Sherman notes) the possibility that Schlittler might struggle in his first full Major League season, or that Fried might feel some wear after a career-high 195 1/3 innings pitched in 2025.
Interestingly, almost all of the starting pitchers linked to the Yankees on the hot stove this offseason have been trade targets, rather than free agents. Given how Cody Bellinger seemingly remains New York’s top overall priority, it would seem like the Yankees are allocating their free agent dollars in that direction….or perhaps towards another top-tier option like Bo Bichette if a deal can’t be reached with Bellinger.
While the Yankees were reportedly interested in Tatsuya Imai earlier this winter, Heyman writes that the team was looking at Imai more as a reliever than as a starting pitcher. As such, the Yankees didn’t make Imai an offer, since presumably the bidding got beyond New York’s comfort range for a relief pitcher. Imai’s market ended up being narrower than initially thought, and the righty ended up signing with the Astros on a three-year, $54MM deal that includes opt-outs after each of the first two seasons.
Heyman also provides some details on the Cabrera negotiations, as such New York prospects as right-hander Ben Hess and outfielder Dillon Lewis were mentioned, along with “a third lower-level prospect.” It isn’t specified if these three players were all included in one offer to Miami, but the Marlins instead opted for the Cubs’ three-prospect mix of Owen Caissie, Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon. The highly-regarded Caissie is the highest-ranked prospect of the group and he has already made his MLB debut, so he could be in Miami’s outfield as soon as Opening Day. It is easy to see why the hitting-needy Marlins might’ve preferred Chicago’s offer, especially since the Yankees weren’t willing to include their own top hitting prospect in George Lombard Jr.
In what might be an interesting tidbit to file away for any future Yankees/Marlins trade talks, Heyman writes that “Miami loves the super talented Lewis,” a 13th-round pick in the 2024 draft who finished his first full season of pro ball at high-A Hudson Valley. Baseball America ranks Lewis as the eighth-best prospect in New York’s farm system, with Hess clocking in fifth place.
Framer?
Chamber
Framber… I don’t work for NYY obviously
If ever a player wasn’t meant for the Yankees, it’s Framber.
Gore, but no Peralta
Peralta’s a better pitcher. Shorter window of control though.
Framber, I hardly knew her
Here is an idea draft and develop players NY
Like Cam Shlitler, or Gil, or Judge, or Volpe, or Wells, or Warren, or Spencer Jones, or Dominguez. You mean like that?
If you can only come up with a list of 8, with 2 of those players not being drafted by the Yankees, it’s not a great sign.
(Dominguez was an IFA and they got Gil in a trade with the Twins)
There’s no difference between drafting and signing a 16 YO from the Caribbean. And they got Gil when he was at low A of below, so as I said, they developed him.
And try looking around. 8 guys on the active roster is a lot for about any club not in a rebuild like yours
Actually Gil was in the DSL when they traded for him.
There’s a difference between ‘draft and develop’ and just develop. Also, a development success typically implies that the player has succeeded at the MLB level. Jones hasn’t debuted yet, Dominguez hasn’t succeeded yet and Volpe’s success is debatable.
Red Sox had 11 players last season signed as IFA amateurs, or drafted by them, who were regular starting position players or starting pitchers who are still on their roster. That’s almost double the 6 Yankees listed (clearly Jones and Gil don’t qualify).
6 is likely at/near the worst in baseball.
I got bored with the list and stopped. “Drafting” them is the hang-up for you? Their scouts identified and signed/acquired them, and they were developed in their system. They were not established MLB players that the Yankees signed with their big bad check book. Don’t be jealous.
The Red Sox suck.
I just looked at Lombard’s stats for the first time. What a disappointment! He looks like a low average, high strikeout, Volpe clone. Hopefully he’s a good fielder. Certainly doesn’t live up to the hype.
I’m not sure why MLB fans think this is 1970 and the Yankees are hyping their prospects with some sort of hype man?? They are graded and ranked by independent entities. Whatever ranking or grades Lombard has is not from the Yankees “hype”. It is from independent talent evaluators grading and ranking him.
Not sure why anyone would be jealous of the Yankees – my post pointed out how much better the Red Sox have been at drafting and developing players than the Yankees. Judge is great, but otherwise the Yankees have been amongst the worst teams in baseball at doing this.
There seems to be confusion regarding how the top lists are put together. It’s not made by individuals who personally scout every player throughout the season, but of people who get feedback from others within the baseball industry regarding these prospects. They scout when they can, but it’s just not feasible. So it’s quite possible that Yankees employees or writers are hyping up these prospects – whether they are or whether doing so is useful is debatable.
Well…you would be jealous because they haven’t had a losing season in over 30 years.
It’s not possible. They are using the same advanced metrics to rank players in the Yankees system that they are using to rank players in the Red Sox system. There is no secret overhyping Yankees employees “stuffing the ballot box”. This is baseball, not politics. There is no place for your unsubstantiated conspiracy theories here!
he also hit AA as a 20 yr old barely out of his teens. Way too early to say he hasn ‘t “lived up” to anything at this , that’s not TBD for awhile yet.
The Yankees haven’t won a world series since 2009. Sorry to disappoint you, but nobody is jealous of the Yankees. Yankees are more of a sad story of what once was. Plenty are jealous of the Dodgers, I’m sure many Yankee fans included.
The Red Sox and Yankees are absolutely not ranking their players the same way, and neither are the other teams. Each team value each metric differently and have their own scouting departments. Public lists are their own things entirely and don’t reflect these lists either. But public lists suffer from substantial group think which doesn’t exist with the individual teams as they aren’t sharing their information with each other (although personnel changing teams certainly would add to it).
You say all this like the Red Sox are loaded with homegrown talent. Anthony has the tools to be a star but after him it’s a mixed bag. Bello is the only decent SP the Red Sox have developed in years and he’s a No. 4. This idea that their some developmental powerhouse is laughable
Also Ben Rice and Clarke Schmidt too. Though I wouldn’t count Spencer Jones. He just made it to Triple-A last year, and had a 41.5% whiff rate, the 3rd highest of any Triple-A batter with 250+ plate appearances.
And the most HRs in the minor leagues.
It’s the 19.7% swinging strike rate that should be most concerning. There hasn’t been a qualified player with a swinging strike rate that high since Javier Baez in 2021. 17.1% was the highest in MLB in 2025 (Lowe).
Closest MLB comp offensively is probably Christopher Morel and he hasn’t figured out how to make it work yet in 3.5 years.
I’m not trying to argue, but Christopher Morel never had spencer Jones type power. Come on dawg! I think he might be a Joey Gallo type player at worst. Gallo had a good career.
after watching baseball for many yrs, and having watched Jones in a few games and has serious doubts about him, I actually think the swinging strike rate, as bad as it is, won’t necessarily doom him.
what I’ve noticed about Jones in games is his pitch recogniton looks pretty god, he didn’t look like a guy who was hopeless against breaking pitches.. I’m betting the guys with high swinging KO rate were really bad at pitch recognition. I haven’t checked the other metrics but I’m guessing his swing decision % is pretty good. With his long arms & swing it makes contact hard even if he’s got coordination. If he continues to work on that I think he has a chance to be something, though the odds are against him
It’s possible Jones will turn out like Gallo, but even Gallo had a career 17.6% swinging strike percentage. So Jones would still have to make significant improvements to reach even that level.
The upside for Jones is quite high given the speed & power, but the floor is below Gallo.
I think the ceiling for Jones is Joey Gallo, but I don’t think you understand how rare it is for a player to have a Joey Gallo-esque approach. Gallo still remains the only player in baseball history to have a sub-Mendoza line batting average with an OPS+ 100 or better and have at least 2500 career plate appearances in MLB. Gallo is still very much a unicorn, and asking Spencer Jones to be that at the very least is an extremely tall task.
How about we sign gallo to a minor league deal for pitching depth………… After all he is a strikeout machine LOL
Ben rice is pretty good.
6 position players and 4 starting pitchers (Gil developed, not drafted) fit that description, but yeah, they don’t do that.
They trade those guys.
The Yankees do quite well when they are always picking at the end of rounds due to always being above .500 and going over the luxury tax.
If Lombard is the Yankees #1 hitting prospect, they are in trouble
Yanks: More accurate to say he’s their most well rounded prospect. So far he’s looked like a guy who can play SS, be a pretty good hitter, have some pop, and steal 30 bags per year. He got handled by AA pitching but he’s very young. If he hits his ceiling he’d be a very good supporting player who could peak with a few all-star seasons.
Lombard had a .695 OPS in the Eastern League, the league AA Somerset plays in. Average OPS for the Eastern League was .680. Pitching is usually more advanced than hitting at AA. Lombard was above average despite being one of the youngest players at the level. Not only did he not get “handled” but he more than held his own. This is easy to info to find out but people choose to parrot nonsense instead
He isn’t and they aren’t,
I’d say Jones is their best hitting prospect by far, Lombard jr has a good glove and good middle infield range from what I’ve scene, but he hasn’t shown he can hit any. I personally think Jones is their best non pitching prospect. They do have some really good pitching prospects.
You are only saying that because Jones lead all minor league players in home runs last season!
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They may still be in their “checking in” phase.
Obviously starting pitching is a concern….but what concerns me is that unreliable bullpen that imploded as the season went on and cost them the division.
Williams, Leiter, Hamilton, and Weaver (who all were wildly inconsistent) are gone, so it’s going to be interesting to see if the Yankees make a few trades to address the bullpen.
They just need middle innings guys. Bednar and Doval still be the 8th and 9th guy. Cruz, De Los Santos and Hill are the middle guys. One more lefty and a swing guy righty would be great.
LaGrange and Elmer look like legit pitching prospects, the Yankees should roll with them until you get the big guns in June. What they need is a bat, whether it be Bichette or Bellinger. Dominguez needs more seasoning to learn how to play LF and how to hit right-handed.
I can’t imagine that Heyman report that the Yanks wanted Imai as a reliever are true. That sounds like a ridiculous evaluation.
As for ECab, of course the Cubs offer was better, but yeah I wouldn’t have traded Lombard for him either. I wonder if they truly like Dillon something could be swung for Sandy instead?
Of course, signing say Bassitt would more likely cost either slightly less or the same without giving up the prospect capital. To me that would be a no-brainer.
The Yankees propspect value? Zero. Their only chance to get people is to outbid themselves for players who are merely trying to maximize income. “Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Exxon to raise their gas prices.” – Lewis Black
It’s not your fault that they hover
I mean no disrespect
It’s my right to be hellish
I still get jealous
Nick Jonas
You are a sad human troll that has nothing better to do. Hate is so pathetic.
Thank you. Sorry but they have no prospects, just over hyped “talent”. They’ve ruined Volpe with ridiculous expectations. The Martian is exceedingly mediocre in all aspects. Jones? Nothing but strikeouts. Gil, they burned him up to a crisp with overuse. Schmidt? Same. They overhype and overuse and spend billions on players who cheat (Cole) and basically outbid themselves for Error in Judgement. They are sad. Sorry.
Envy is a deadly sin. Your boring takes on a team and players you clearly don’t follow only hurts you.
Every team over values prospects… some guys are fits for stadiums and others aren’t. Take boston they like their young hitters partially because of the green monster it makes a .210 hitter a .250 hitter same for a yankees lefty with the short porch. But to say Gil, and others aren’t good ? Every team in baseball would call on gil if he was made available. And Cole you say cheats? Who is your team? Red sox? Apple watches, coral caught with astros, caught with red sox… Astros? Banging trash cans or getting wired like altuve did. How did cole exactly cheat?
Sorry you are like this. Get help.
Bassitt was great out of the pen in the playoffs and always stymied the Yanks, so that’d be a good move.
Cabrera, meh, he is what he is, inconsistent and 130 IP. with trips to the DL and already has had some elbow and shoulder issues.
Sometimes the best moves are the ones not made. The Marlins aren’t the same Marlins they’ve been; their return on trades has been quite stellar the last few years, so I’d be a little nervous when they ask about certain players.
True, but Hess and Lewis wouldn’t be bad for Alcantara, though aain just going for Bassitt for like 15-17 mil isn’t bad at all.
Sal- The trusted Jon Heyman? (Arson Judge signing with the Giants) Unforgettable! Lol.
Heyman is fine, tbh. He get s a lot of flack, but has broken a ton of news of over the years.
A lot of teams thought that. Why he went so cheap. It wasn’t because he always wanted to live in Houston.
To me it’s just an oddity. The dude is a starter and a good one at that.
Bass-man would be much easier to get rid of once all their better starters get healthy too.
I think is time we stop looking at top 100 list as the end all be all. Ironically, it seems like the non- Top 100 guys tend to get a lot of interest from other teams.
It is not. Only about three prospects a team at most.
100%. Top 100 lists may give fans an idea of what a prospect is like, but in most cases, every team has a different way of evaluating their prospects and other teams’ prospects if they’re looking to make a trade for one. Every team, player R&D and player analytics department likely values different things in their models, that is unless you have a microscopic R&D/analytics dept. like the White Sox or Rockies.
Yeah I was thinking the same, that list is changing all the time. It’s ridiculous to go by it. You really don’t know with these prospects, who are really suspect until proven otherwise.
Yankees should go get Mackenzie Gore.
Yanks have 6 starters controlled through ‘28 or more plus Schmidt rehabbing and controlled for ‘27. And 4 of their top 10 prospects are starters that have reached AA, 2 on the 40 man already. Plus Brendan Beck in AAA as further depth.
They are a bit short to start the season with Rodon maybe missing 3-4 starts and Cole not back until May but they have a couple of bridge guys (Yarbrough, Blackburn) to cover that too.
Gore’s only controlled through ‘27 himself. Wouldn’t give up the required prospect capital or big $ to fill a short term need. A gap filler & reliever option like Bassett or Nick Martinez on a 1 year deal would probably suffice for depth.
They definitely need another starter from the outside. They don’t have to be a superstar and you don’t have to empty the wallet or the farm to get him. I refuse to believe the Yankees are going to start the season with Will Warren as their 3rd best pitcher on the roster.
I really like Imai. I never looked at him as a reliever. I expect him to be a starter, have an excellent year and opt out after the season.
Yeah. I still don’t get why the Yankees looked at Imai as a reliever. I could see why you think Kona Takahashi is a reliever though.
No brainer for Miami to take the Cubs trade package over the Yankees.
Thank god they did. Cubs definitely gave up too much unfortunately. Smh
I would not want to give up that much prosepct capital for either Shane Baz or Edward Cabrera. Holy cow.
I agree with Astros 71 Gore would be a score. Who said you can never have enough pitching? Time to call his bluff and make a move. Yes, that’d be you Mr. Cashman.
Btw… NYY just claimed Kaleb ORT to add some righty relief to the ‘pen.
The Yankees are badly needing pitching help. Otherwise, young and unproven guys will have to succeed. Sounds like a stupid plan to me as a Yankee fan.
Could just be a way to rub the Astros’ cat’s fur the wrong way.
Assume Chris Bassitt is another arm of comparable value to Yarbrough’s possibly on NYY FA pitching acquisition radar?
The Yankees don’t seem like they’re exactly going for it this year. They seem like they want Cole and Rodon back healthy before they make big moves again.
Maybe trying to hold out until Cole and Rodon get back? As an Astros fan, that is not a smart move and you should add and not wait for them. One of the biggest reason we missed the playoffs and Yankees if you don’t want to miss the postseason, make some moves.
Yeah I agree but the Yankees are showing they have spending limits, even after losing out on Juan Soto last year. They don’t seem to be in the running for Bellinger anymore. And it hasn’t been reported they’re interested in either Valdez or Suarez for the rotation. It’s possible they will land one of Bichette or Tucker, but if so things have been quiet so far. Right now it seems like they’re more interested in trading for a starter than signing one of the free agents. The Yankees just don’t drive the market the way they used to. The Dodgers drive it now with the Blue Jays (at least for this off season) close behind.
Yankees are protecting prospects. They’ll trade for a starter, but only if it doesn’t touch Lombard. Until then, it’s duct tape and depth.