a busy offseason
Kevin Bunk
Impending UFA Juan Soto.
The Yankees have an offseason ahead of them that may feel overwhelming for a World Series participant. They have to re-sign one of the league’s most coveted free agents of all time, while filling out holes on a roster that felt, at times, overmatched, especially in the World Series. In order to improve a team, you must first look at where your holes will be.
DEPARTURES
I’ll keep this section brief, but there’s a handful of players, both UFA’s and guys under contract that need to be cut loose.
MUST GO: Gleyber Torres (UFA), Anthony Rizzo (6M buyout), Alex Verdugo (UFA), D.J. Lemahieu (2/30m left on deal), Jose Trevino (1 yr of arbitration remaining)
SHOULD GO - Clay Holmes (UFA), Tommy Kahnle (UFA)
POSITIONS OF NEED
FIRST BASE - Brian Cashman will first have to decide on a few players futures with the club. Starting at the team’s weakest offensive position this season, first base.
The Yankees have had quite possibly the least productive first basemen in the league the last two years. Don’t just take it from me:
First base is one of the stronger groups in this free agent class, but the group of available players isn’t deep. Cashman will need to pounce on the top of the class in order to revive the position for his team.
THIRD OR SECOND BASE - New York has flexibility here in terms of which position they’d like to upgrade. Jazz Chisholm gives them a borderline star and good glove at each position, depending on which one they’re able to fill. My guess though is that it’s more likely Jazz remains the team’s third basemen.
Corner Outfield - Jasson Dominguez should get the chance to be one of the team’s starting outfielders. With Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo in free agency though, it’s still possible that the Yankees must fill a corner outfield spot, even if Dominguez is playing. Retaining Soto and Verdugo is no guarantee.
Backup Catcher - The Yankees need to upgrade defensively at backup catcher. Jose Trevino provided some good times, but those are gone. You need a well rounded defender in the backup role, offense doesn’t matter.
Pitching - With four starters that are set to be in the rotation (Cole, Rodon, Schmidt, Gil), the Yankees will need to make a decision on Marcus Stroman and/or Nestor Cortes. You also need to consider moving someone such as Luis Gil or Clarke Schmidt in order to upgrade in any of these listed areas. The bullpen is as much of a hole as any, you need to add some flame throwers to this pen, which the Yankees lacked this past season.
PLAYERS TO RETAIN
Relief Pitcher Luke Weaver.
The list of players I think the Yankees have to retain isn’t too long. Here it is with projected contracts:
Juan Soto (UFA)(13/650M, 50M AAV).
Jonathan Loaisaga (UFA)(1/2.5M)
Tim Hill (UFA)(2/8M)
Luke Weaver (Accept 2.5M Team Option) (Yankees did pick up his option)
Gerrit Cole (Add final year at 1/36M to avoid opt out)
This is 59 million dollars allocated per year, not including Gerrit Cole’s salary as it’s not an addition to the teams payroll entering free agency. Let’s say the Yankees would be comfortable increasing that number a decent amount, but not substantially, here’s what I’d anticipate from their offseason.
Free Agency
I’ll reiterate and elaborate on the Soto signing here. First off, it’s very unlikely that Brian Cashman would’ve pulled the trigger on a trade involving two very valuable arms in Michael King and Drew Thorpe, along with a handful of other players, if he didn’t have the assurance from ownership that they were ready to do what it takes for Soto long term. A 13 year deal feels inevitable for the 25 year old slugger, and 50M annually feels right.
For the rest of the Yankees free agency, I’ll give my expectations when factoring in projected spending and overall rationale. I estimate they’d be comfortable spending roughly 90M dollars this offseason based on the amount of money being freed by departures.
RF - JUAN SOTO, (13/650M, 50M AAV).
No further explanation needed. Steinbrenner and Cashman will have to re-sign an MVP candidate who they gave up a haul for.
SP - NICK MARTINEZ, (2/38M, 19M AAV). The Yankees should add an arm in this price range. Martinez is coming off of a nice year in Cincinnati and will provide them a more dependable bottom of the rotation arm than they already have. It’s not exciting, but the reality is the Yankees likely won’t be adding a premiere arm after signing Soto, while also having Cole and Rodon.
RP - A.J. MINTER, (2/6M, 3M AAV).
The bullpen desperately needed another lefty in their bullpen, and Minter provides them one. He also provides some strikeout stuff and is coming off of a good year in Atlanta, but it ended abruptly when Minter got hip surgery in August. For the price, the Yankees can pull off a much needed high-risk high-reward signing.
RP - AUSTIN ADAMS, (1/1.5M).
Adams is a right handed bullpen arm who posted an ERA just above 3.9 last year with the A’s. He’s another guy with an arsenal of strikeout pitches that New York should be taking low-risk chances on.
C - Austin Hedges, (1/1M, 1M AAV).
An underrated position of need is backup catcher. Hedges is a good defender, and fine for an every third day catcher. Jose Trevino will need to be moved, which shouldn’t be too hard to do as his salary will be very low.
Starting Pitcher Nick Martinez
TRADES
MLB writers are anticipating a very active and aggressive trade market this offseason. I’d argue Brian Cashman has done his best career work via trade, as opposed to free agency. With the model used here, Cashman has about 18 million dollars to work with on the trade market.
1B - Nathaniel Lowe (10.9M projected). The Yankees will probably have to look into the trade market for their next first baseman. Josh Naylor has been a possible name, but feels unlikely for a variety of reasons. Lowe is a player who seems to have reached his ceiling as a good - not great player. He’d be a great add for New York, who’d probably have to give up a middle of the pack Major League pitcher, which is offset in this scenario with the signing of Martinez. Of course, prospects would go to Texas as well.
2B - Brendan Rodgers (7M projected). The Rockies second basemen would give the Yankees a massive upgrade in the field. You’d take a slight hit at the plate though, as Gleyber Torres was the better hitter in 2024. Considering the rest of this projected offseason, Rodgers would be a nice upgrade for the Bombers.
Players on the Yankees that may be used as sizeable trade bait are Clarke Schmidt, Luis Gil, Nestor Cortes Jr., Jose Trevino, Will Warren, Spencer Jones, Ben Rice, and Jasson Dominguez. The Yankees are in the most win now season of the Aaron Judge era, as he and Stanton continue to age. Brian Cashman needs to have one of the best offseasons of his career, which is a very high bar.
