One thing has been made clear in the early goings of the offseason, and its that the Yankees will have to be active in order to compete with their AL East rivals.
It appears that both Toronto and Boston will make big additions to their roster, which should prompt Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman to be active on the market.
No players of serious interest to the organization have left the board yet, as the market has moved slow in places where the Bronx Bombers are expected to be active.
With multiple needs on the offense and pitching staff, the Yankees will need to make multiple impactful transactions in order to build an excellent roster for 2026, but will they stomach the costs needed to make such moves?]
READ MORE: The Yankees are shopping backup catcher on trade market
Yankees’ Desire to Improve the Pitching Staff is Real
The sense I’ve gotten with the Yankees in the last week is that pitching is a bigger priority than people think, while the offense does have holes they want to plug, I don’t think they’re lying about their faith in their existing lineup.
Brian Cashman is aware that the offense is lacking firepower against left-handed pitchers, the Yankees would like to add some more balance to the lineup but I don’t suspect that will be with headline-grabbing moves.
Cody Bellinger’s return is probably the biggest move I’d see them making on the position player side of things because they think their run prevention is lagging behind their run production.
Assessing the status of New York’s rotation, their heavy reliance on Carlos Rodon returning at 33 years old from a bone spur and a 36-year-old Gerrit Cole coming back from a UCL tear is concerning.
There’s just too much uncertainty to believe that group, which would roll out with Luis Gil, Will Warren, and Ryan Yarbrough in it if no one gets hurt between now and Opening Day, would be an excellent group.
It’s why their interest in LHP MacKenzie Gore is real, with many inside the organization believing they can get more value out of the left-hander due to their excellent pitching development infastructure.
Gore, who is younger than Luis Gil and just months older than Will Warren, has dealt with a terrible organization operated by Mike Rizzo for years and would get to spend a full offseason with an organization that loves lefties.
Max Fried and Carlos Rodon both improved their changeups and sinkers in their time with the Bronx Bombers and I think we could see the 26-year-old do the same thing.
I wouldn’t rule the Yankees out on Tatsuya Imai either, whom the organization does like and want to make a pursuit of this winter.
For their bullpen, Brian Cashman’s ability to land impact bullpen arms on the margins should come to fruition once again, and the trade market has interesting arms of note.
JoJo Romero is a rental reliever and the Yankees had held some trade talks with the Cardinals during the Winter Meetings, so I could see them landing him in a trade.
A rental reliever from the left-handed side with a big east-west profile who finished in the 63rd Percentile in Whiff% and the 95th Percentile in Groundball Rate.
I’d wonder if J.C. Escarra could entice them given that the Cardinals have Yohel Pozo and Pedro Pages who are light-hitting RH catchers who could be better-served in a platoon role.
On the position player side, the Yankees’ needs are pretty straight-forward and there’s an obvious candidate for them to improve with on the market.
The Yankees Need to Remain Reasonable But Aggressive in Free Agency
Edwin Diaz was a player who both the Mets and their fanbase believed would return to the team if they matched another team’s offer, but he ended up leaving without taking a three-year $69 million deal back to them.
Almost every Mets fan would have told you that they would have matched that number to retain him, they reportedly offered him three-years at $66 million with deferrals to help him avoid high New York taxes.
Cody Bellinger’s potential desire to remain a Yankee should not be a reason for the team to mistreat him in the market, but they also shouldn’t overpay for him and end up with an albatross.
If the Yankees could ink Bellinger on the deal that FanGraphs projects for him (5 years, $135 million) I think they’d be in a spot where they’re fairly compensating the player and aren’t taking a ridiculous risk.
Projected for a 116 wRC+ and 2.7 WAR in 2026, the Yankees could get a good bat with an elite glove in left field for them to improve their run prevention further, but they need some more offense against lefties as well.
Amed Rosario is a low-cost hitter who mashes against left-handed pitching, but if the Yankees were unable to bring back Bellinger I would hope for them to add someone like Austin Hays to work alongside Jasson Dominguez.
Taking the money they didn’t spend on Bellinger to add someone like Kazuma Okamoto to rotate around the infield and DH spot would be a fun way to replenish their lineup.
If they want to get crazy, Bo Bichette playing 3B for the team and moving on from Ryan McMahon wouldn’t be the worst idea depending on the deal that the Blue Jays shortstop ends up landing.
The hope should be that Cody Bellinger returns on a reasonable contract since that gives them a left fielder, more depth to trade out of, and more offense against LHP in one swing.
At the end of the day; should this be considered unreasonable for the Bronx Bombers?
If the Yankees sign Bellinger to the aforementioned deal at $27 million a year and Amed Rosario to a $4 million deal, then their payroll would inflate to around where it was last year (~$310 million).
Trading for MacKenzie Gore and JoJo Romero shouldn’t be ruled out because of these additions, and it might leave enough wiggle room to add some relievers on the trade market who are pre-arbitration as well.
An offseason like this wouldn’t stack up with the Dodgers’ best winters or biggest spending sprees, but it makes them considerably better than they were beforehand.
This should not be viewed as the kind of offseason that’s unrealistic, and if it is, the Yankees will be accepting their fate of Aaron Judge retiring ringless.
More about: New York Yankees
