The New York Yankees suffered a gut punch on Sunday night. They lost a player who had a huge influence in their 2024 World Series appearance in Juan Soto, even after offering him $760 million reasons to stay. It’s part of baseball, and they needed to move on.
The Yankees are looking for ways to upgrade their roster post-Soto sweepstakes
Moving on, they are. The Yankees announced an eight-year deal with left-handed starter Max Fried on Tuesday, they are heavily pursuing Christian Walker to play first base, and they are among the teams rumored to be trying to entice the Houston Astros to trade All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker.
Tucker is one year away from free agency, which is why the Astros could entertain the possibility of moving him. They would reportedly want reigning Rookie of the Year pitcher Luis Gil, possibly Ben Rice and more from the Yankees.
If the Yanks can pull off a move for Tucker, a lot of the pain that losing Soto caused will go away. It will be painful from a cost acquisition perspective, but it will be worth it because Tucker is the definition of an underrated star and would keep the Yankees World Series hopes alive.
Yankees will not surrender in their pursuit of top free agents
The Fried signing, the Tucker negotiations, and the pursuit of Walker signals one thing: the Yankees are not demoralized. They are not in mourning mode. They are trying to put together a World Series-caliber roster. General manager Brian Cashman said the perfect words to illustrate the Yanks’ current approach.
“Brian Cashman on @MLBNetwork a moment ago, on his team’s aggressiveness after losing Juan Soto: ‘From the Yankees’ standpoint, no retreat, no surrender . . . ‘” MLB insider Jon Morosi posted on X.
Cashman also explained that “we’ll get back after it, we want to get back to the World Series and try to win it.”
In addition to the aforementioned open negotiations, the Yankees are paying attention to the relief pitching market and are open to bringing in an outfielder. The Yankees might be a fully operational death star after all. At the very least, it would be wise to wait until after the off-season is over to evaluate if they have a championship-caliber roster in place.
