The Winter Meetings kicked off this evening and the Yankees are already in the news. While the expectation is that Aaron Judge’s decision could come at anytime, the bombers are wasting no time addressing other potential needs to turn themselves into a World Series contender.
The news broke yesterday that All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds was requesting a trade from the Pittsburg Pirates. The Yankees have always been seen as a team that would be interested in Reynolds, but talks never got serious enough to get excited about.
However, Pirates beat writer Jason Mackey said this evening that the early buzz going around the meetings is that the Yankees are very much in on the discussions to acquire Bryan Reynolds. It appears that New York is arriving at the Winter Meetings with purpose.
Yankees motive?
Now, I’ve seen many say that the Yankees must not be confident in Aaron Judge re-signing if they are getting aggressive with Reynolds. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. I don’t think that the potential Reynolds acquisition has anything to do with Aaron Judge outside of providing at the very least insurance.
I think the Yankees would love to have them both and shift Reynolds to left field. Aaron Judge wants to win a World Series and he wants to see a team do anything they can to make that happen. Bringing in Bryan Reynolds just brings New York one step closer to that.
From what I’m getting, I think they Yankees would love to re-sign Judge, trade for Reynolds, and sign a starting pitcher like Carlos Rodon. Could that be a pipe dream? Quite possibly. However, a trade for Reynolds could open the door for another offseason that includes losing Aaron Judge.
Let’s say that Aaron Judge does decide to go to the San Francisco Giants. Well, if you trade for Reynolds, you can put him in right field. Pivot to signing a shortstop like Carlos Correa along with signing a starter like Carlos Rodon. Now, you’re looking at a situation where you lost Judge, but added the likes of Reynolds, Correa, and Rodon.
Things are very fluid right now and nobody should get ahead of themselves at the moment. However, it’s a really good thing to see the Yankees being aggressive with a guy like Reynolds being available.