Right now, the New York Yankees are working on fulfilling their promise to Aaron Judge. Last week, New York agreed to a deal with the AL MVP for nine years and $360 million. Hal Steinbrenner closed the deal with Judge while on the phone from Italy.
It’s been reported that during conversations between Judge and Steinbrenner, Judge said that he wanted to see improvements to the team. New York is a step behind the Houston Astros, and Judge knows that. As soon as the Judge deal was agreed to, the Yankees shifted their focus to improvements on the club.
Right now, their top priority seems to be starting pitcher Carlos Rodon. Rodon is seeking a seven-year contract, while New York seems willing to go five or six. If New York was willing to go seven, the deal would have already been done. Jon Heyman of the NY Post reported last night that the Yankees were submitting their formal offer to Rodon.
However, nobody knows what that offer is. I expect that New York will have the best offer on the table at the moment. If Rodon decides quickly, he’s coming to New York. However, if Scott Boras drags this out, there is the potential that another team gets desperate and goes seven years to outbid the Yankees.
Yankees looking at trades?
In addition to looking at Rodon, New York has been fairly aggressive in looking at trades. We all know that it was reported last week that the Yankees were working on something bigger than signing Rodon. They are not in on Carlos Correa, so we know that this something big is a trade.
At the Winter Meetings, the buzz in the lobby was that New York was in on the Bryan Reynolds conversations. However, Pittsburg’s lofty price has turned the Yankees away for now as well as any other suitor who was interested in bringing in Reynolds.
It’s been reported that the Yanks have been in talks with Arizona regarding their outfielders. Daulton Varsho reportedly being their top target. However, I heard from someone who attended the meetings that there were whispers regarding an even bigger deal with the Diamondbacks.
Again, this is not broadly reported or confirmed, but the Yankees supposedly asked about Zac Gallen in trade conversations in addition to Varsho. It would take a massive haul, but Gallen would be a perfect fit for the rotation, and Varsho would slot right into the outfield.
No word on if these talks went anywhere, we just know that the Yankees have continued to talk about the D-Backs outfielders. Another thing I heard was tied to Miami. New York almost pulled off a deal at the Trade Deadline for Pablo Lopez. Word is that the Yankees kicked the tires on Lopez again, but there was another player they were interested in. That player is Jazz Chisholm.
Much like the Arizona conversation, there was no word on if these talks actually went anywhere. The Yankees were unwilling to give up Oswald Peraza and Gleyber Torres for Lopez at the deadline. However, if Chisholm was added to the deal, New York would be willing to give up both players and a bigger prospect haul to secure it.
I want to preface everything by saying that none of this came from people in the Yankees organization. This is all speculation from the lobby of last week’s meetings, and it coincides with a big move. It’ll be interesting to see if anything materializes, but this big move being explored involves multiple players returning to the Yankees. Not just one.