Yankees make rare Rule 5 selection, add 100 MPH flamethrower

For the first time since 2011, the Yankees have made a pick in the Rule 5 draft as they plucked Cade Winquest from the St. Louis Cardinals.

The rules of the draft stipulate that the team must place him on their 26-man roster during the 2026 season or on the injured list, and if they don’t, he’s returned back to his original team.

It gives the Yankees flexibility since they would have until the start of the 2026 season to make that decision rather than during the offseason.

Winquest struck out 110 batters at the Double-A level with a 3.95 ERA, working primarily as a starting pitcher, but he could be an intruiging weapon for the Yankees in a relief role.

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Cade Winquest Brings Flashy Velocity and Upside to the Yankees’ Bullpen

The Yankees very rarely make moves in the Rule 5 Draft, often losing players instead of adding them to their roster, but in the case of Cade Winquest they’ve broken a 14-year drought of selections.

His fastball has tons of velocity, sitting around 95 MPH but relies more on a low release height than good vertical movement in order for it to succeed.

As a reliever, the Yankees could help him add some more velocity and potentiall more ride on the fastball as well since he wouldn’t be pitching as deep into games.

The swing-and-miss stuff is there, and if he doesn’t make the roster out of Spring Training the Yankees would just have to return him back to the Cardinals.

One of the Yankees’ biggest needs in the bullpen is more velocity, and the fact that Winquest can hit 100 MPH makes you wonder whether that will help address that issue.

The lack of risk makes this an intruiging addition for the Yankees, who are concerned about their run prevention at the moment and hope to add impact pitching this winter.

We could see the team take an unconventional approach to this offseason depending on how big the Cody Bellinger market gets, especially considering that they don’t want to give out a gargantuan contract to retain him.

Pitchers such as MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Megill are of interest, but they’ve yet to pull the trigger on a big move as the final hours of the Winter Meetings go by.