The Yankees were surely glad to have some catching depth when Jose Trevino needed season-ending wrist surgery just after the All-Star break. Kyle Higashioka took over the starting role, while Ben Rortvedt earned a call back to the majors to serve as the backup. When Rortvedt struggled to hit big league pitching, the team had more depth at Triple-A in the name of Austin Wells, who ended up earning the bulk of the starts behind the plate over the final month of the season.
With Trevino progressing well in his rehab, the Yankees are set to have four catchers competing for playing time next season. Trevino will likely return to his regular role, and Wells played ably enough to merit a spot on the Opening Day roster. That leaves Higashioka and Rortvedt on the outside looking in. Higashioka has been a capable backup in New York for several years, but he is a finished product and a known quantity. Rortvedt, meanwhile, will be 26 next season, and he hasn’t shown an ability to hit at the MLB level.
Therefore, it comes as little surprise that the Yankees could look to deal either or both of Higashioka and Rortvedt this offseason. According to Andy Martino of SNY, the team is “signaling” to other clubs that both catchers are available in a trade.
Higashioka is the longest-tenured player on the Yankees, having joined the organization in 2008 and played for the club in every MLB season since 2017. The 33-year-old has earned more regular playing time over the past two years, appearing in 175 games and starting 143 behind the dish. While his bat is below average, even for a catcher, his terrific defense makes up for his offensive shortcomings. The metrics from Baseball Savant, FanGraphs, and Baseball Prospectus all agree that he is an excellent pitch framer, saving several runs with his glove in each of the past three seasons.
The veteran is eligible for his final year of arbitration this winter and is projected to earn $2.3MM. That’s hardly more than a drop in the bucket for the Yankees, but still, they might try to trade him before the non-tender deadline, to avoid making a decision about tendering him a contract for next season. He would be a good fit for a team in search of a veteran stopgap to fill in behind the plate until a top prospect is ready to take his place. The White Sox, who have already expressed interest in trading for a veteran catcher (namely Salvador Perez), could be a match.
Rortvedt made his debut for the Yankees this past May, after coming over from the Twins last March as part of the deal that brought Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to New York in exchange for Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela. While the Yankees intended for him to compete for playing time with Higashioka and Trevino, he spent the first four months of the 2022 season on the injured list before he was optioned to Triple-A without having played a game. The 2023 campaign marked his third and final option year, and thus, he cannot be sent to the minors next season without being designated for assignment and placed on outright waivers.
Like Higashioka, Rortvedt has demonstrated an aptitude for pitch framing, but unfortunately, his bat has been nonexistent at the big league level. In 171 plate appearances across 2021 and ’23, he has hit just .146 with seven extra-base knocks, good for a career 38 wRC+. The offensive bar is low for backup catchers, but he’ll need to hit more if he wants to stick around in the majors. He would fit in best as a backup on a rebuilding club that can afford to give him a chance to prove himself, despite his substandard offensive production so far. The Mets will need a backup catcher if they choose to move on from Omar Narváez, as will the Tigers if they don’t exercise their option on Carson Kelly.
Martino also mentions that trading Trevino or Wells isn’t off the table for the Yankees, although it’s much more likely they deal Higashioka or Rortvedt instead. Wells would net the most valuable return, while the team could move on from Trevino if they think Wells is ready for a full-time role.
Straight-up for Juan Soto?!? I don’t think the timing of this right after the Soto news is a coincidence…
Package deal: Higoshioka and Rohrveldt for Juan Soto and Manny Machado TRADING CARDS ( but of course not their Rookie Cards ).
If they aren’t rookie cards they better have the jersey pieces
Not straight up. They will of course have to add Clint Frazier, Andujar, and Florial.
No, straight ip for Gary Sanchez.
Higgy and Rortvedt have almost zero trade value. You might have argued Higgy had *some* value around the trade deadline… but the Yanks couldn’t decide if they wanted to buy or sell (when it was apparent to most people with at least half a brain that they should SELL on several players).
Higgy is gonna be non-tendered. Rortvedt is somehow out of options so he’s probably gone too. I think he has some hope with the bat, but the Yanks horribly mismanaged his options.
I just don’t know how anyone can look at the past few seasons of botched trades, signings, and hesitancy to commit on younger players (outside of Volpe) and say with a straight face that Cashman should be retained. The fact MLBTR is even reporting the Yanks think they have trade chips here is just more indication that Cashman and his vastly overrated analytics team are just way in over their heads.
They could probably dump Higashioka on a team. $2.5MM isn’t bad but might not be worth the aggravation to trade. Return will be next to nothing.
@Brian I think the thing though is that he seems so likely to be non-tendered, why wouldn’t a team just wait until he’s a free agent and sign him instead of trading away an asset (even if that asset stinks)? Higgy is fine enough for a C2, but backup catchers grow on trees in free agency–and several of them probably have much better gloves.
It mostly feels like a Cashman is a kid that walked into class five minutes early and remembered they have a test, scrambling in the few waning minutes to look like he’s prepared when he’s not.
Because if a player becomes a free agent, he can go anywhere. If you give up scraps and don’t mind paying his anticipated salary, you lock it down.
Are you aware that low stakes trades like this are very common every offseason? Not every trade has to be a blockbuster one involving big name prospects. Why do people always get bent out of shape whenever an article is written about the Yankees making potential trades?
@Ronk of course there are low stakes trades often. But it’s pretty clear both of these guys are gone in a couple of weeks. They might be able to flip Higgy for a similarly soon-to-be-non tendered LF/CF, but there is a snowball’s chance in hell that Rortvedt finds a trade suitor.
Team might just want to cut the line and get Higgy for his arb rate.
I think it’s a fair rate for him. I just don’t think you get much of anything back. Some lotto ticket with a .01% chance of making it is something for the Yanks though. I think it could go either way though. If a team calls—deal him for whatever. If not, non tender.
Higgy is a non-tender candidate. To keep him through arbitration is to value him too much.
There are currently 2 free agent catchers you could sign for about $1M who had better years last year than Higgy:, Chad Wallach and Francisco Mejia. If you value his glove, then sign Michael Perez who would be glad to take $900K to get to the big leagues again.
Keep following the MLBTR. There will be more.
The NY Yankees have been a PR machine over-valuing their own players/prospects for years. So unless Gerritt Cole says he can’t pitch to any other catcher than Higgy, $2.5M is too much for him.
You never know. The Yankees traded JR Murphy for Aaron Hicks. The extension for Hicks didn’t work but the trade worked out fine.
They also got Luis Gil in exchange for Jake Cave a few years back. More often than not, these trades are inconsequential, but you never know
Even at a $2.3MM projected salary, Higgy has trade value – a solid defensive backup vet with some pop. With that said, he doesn’t have a place on the team next season. They need to sell what Austin Wells got. Rortvedt was emergency backup so I fail to see how his options were “mismanaged”. He was used as intended.
Looks like the Yankees found their players to trade for Soto.
That’ll sure change the balance of power in the division…
Wells needs to be playing 3/5 days
Cashman taking a play from the Mozeliak playbook. Classic pool all garbage for a plus player trade. Solid hamster wheel brain.
Prediction: Kyle will hit 10 homers in 2024.
You guys are ridiculous, Higashioka and Rortvedt are an overpay for Soto! Its clear and obvious that Rortvedt for Tatis and Soto make more sense. The Yankees practically eat all of Tatis’s contract, the Yankees are basically getting robbed at this point!
If I’m the Padres, I’m asking for Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier instead.
Oh man Higgy and rortverdt!? Preller just from 6 to midnight. Soto is his way to NY!
higgy is the perfect backup catcher hopefully he lands on a contender
Now that most of the players have moved on, is it fair to call the Josh Donaldson / Gary Sanchez deal a lose-lose trade? Minnesota got a little value on their end, but basically washed their hands of both players after one year. Donaldson had a decent 22 season and we are all aware of his 23 struggles.. IKF is basically the same story without the Anderson antics. In effect, the Yanks SHOULD have washed their hands of both players after one year.
Maybe I am being too harsh because all four players had one good year for their teams. At best, it was a push deal.
No way, Twins won this trade easy. They didn’t have to pay Donaldson’s contract which probably allowed them to extend Pablo Lopez.
That’s a variable that shouldn’t count, If Pablo Lopez blows out his arm next year and never pitches again, does that mean the Twins lose the trade again? Anything can be an indirect result, I am just talking direct results.
Direct results = Twins shed garbage salary.
Win.
Shedding salary is a variable that shouldn’t count? When you’re a small market team like the Twins, $21.75m on one player is crazy. He was paid more than double the next highest player in 2022.
Don’t forget this is how Twins afforded Correa who put up 5.5 WAR in 2022 prior to opting out and re-signing him.
Not what I said. I said that what you did with that saved money in a separate transaction should have no effect on the deal being discussed. If you want to include someone else’s pile of money in the comparison, feel free. But I honestly don’t care if the Twins owner saves on his payroll. I don’t watch baseball in order to see who can make the most money or which billionaire can spend their money more efficiently.
@Hiflew you might not care what owners are saving or spending $, but if you watch baseball those moves and the freeing up of $ has a direct impact on what you are watching. So when discussing these trades especially for a team such as the Twins the $ that they moved is a crucial aspect of analyzing the trade.
For the Yankees the $ aspect of the trade means little. They can suck it up and still fill their needs. So I’d call the trade ultimately a win for the Twins and a wash for the Yankees.
I wouldn’t call JD’s ’22 season decent. Gio Urshela had a better season. MIN shedding his contract alone makes it a win for them. IKF was a utility player making a big salary. Same production could’ve came from another player making the league min.
I miss the days when players were judged on what they did on the field alone instead of how much money they make. I see ABSOLUTELY no reason why anyone’s salary should ever be made public. Would you feel comfortable if people that had nothing to do with paying you knew how much you made yearly?
That’s part of our entertainment culture now for better or worse. Hollywood, athletes, musicians, etc.
Hiflew has the worst takes on everything.
Teams are built on budgets. Players should be judged on production v cost. That’s the world.
I miss the days when players were judged on what they did on the field alone instead of how much money they make.
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No. Over 162 games, success is based on the most WAR/$$$. Sale delivered a solid 1.7 bWAR. But if we had 5 SPs like that, we’d have 8.5 WAR for $137.5M, have no money left over for anything else, and would’ve lost 100+ games.
It’s PR for the team, generates interest and gets them in the news.
Advertising.
That’s part of our entertainment culture now for better or worse. Hollywood, athletes, musicians, etc.
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No, it is the same for everything in life. I can get to work perfectly fine in my Civic. But if I spend $100k on a Porsche, perfectly fine” doesn’t cut it. The more you get paid, the more that is expected from you, even for a lowly accountant.
Considering the 1919 White Sox threw a World Series over feeling under compensated by a cheap owner, $ has been a part of the game long before any current fans were alive. Babe Ruth was traded for $ to make up for owners losses in other business ventures. The list goes on and on.
It’ll be Higashioka traded. Wells and Trevino on the MLB roster, and Rortvedt in AAA as backup. If they trade Rortvedt, then they’d basically lock Wells in AAA for the year, and that’s not what they want to do.
They’ll be a market for him. He’s projected to get $2.3MM in arbitration. For perspective, Luke Maile just got $3.5MM from the Reds (wut?)so the Yankees won’t have any issue finding a home for Higgy.
Rortvedt has no options left so he can’t be stashed in AAA. He’ll become a FA instead.
The Tigers would be errant to trade for any prospects that are not a slew of top, top prospects. They (the Tigers), have proven the can carry a contract like Stantons’. But…Yankee fans tell me that contract is not a hinderance to the deep pocketed Yankees. Ok.
The same Yankee experts indicate prospects due after ’25 would be no importance to Cashmsan if he does not win soon….like RIGHT NOW.
$11M per top, top prospect. The Yankees would be making a profit on several of those guys. Consider how much Mayea, Jones, Thorpe, Arias or Selvidge cost them to aquire
Higgy would be the perfect back up for Contreras in Miami.
Wells is untouchable.
I really did not need to see Josh Donaldson’s name mentioned again….
A lot of people in here assuming Cashman is actually an idiot and you guys are assuming these asinine lopsided trades that never actually happen-unless the other team purely wants to shed payroll by any means necessary- are just caved into.
Cashman makes plenty of bad bets, but he isn’t an actual idiot and other teams have their own uneven logic about trades, too.
*coughs Mets, Pirates, Angels, and Tigers* I couldn’t agree more with you on this. There is no perfect GM, just some do it better than others. I am not sure if Cashman is being on a leash by Hal Steinbrenner, is affecting his ability to add quality players. When Hal’s father (RIP George) lead the organization, Cashman had a longer leash and made some smart moves. A-Rod is one move that was under Cashman and Levine. Cashman also brought in guys like Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Ricky Henderson, and so many more. They were winning and/or in the World Series from 1998 to 2012 with several repeats. Not saying they made every World Series in that time frame, but majority of that time frame, had the Yankees in the World Series. George gave Cashman more of a leash than what Hal allows.
Since Hal runs this organization, I don’t see the “gutsy” spending and trading for teams superstars yearly. They have gotten older and it looks like everyone is just there collecting their paychecks. If George was alive, he would be irate and be demanding improvements immediately. If it meant to trade players to eat salary for a player(s) who can make immediate impact, he gave Cashman the green light. I don’t see Hal having George’s backbone when it comes to cashman
The financials of the game have changed quite a bit since George’s time. Now every team is benefitting from TV deals, revenue sharing, streaming, etc… In George’s time he could spend others into submission. Not to mention with PEDs many players were carrying much more value and producing alot more in their free agent years. In today’s game, all teams can afford a large contract or a few(some such as the A’s just choose not to). And of those large contracts players stayed productive far longer with the benefit of PEDs.
Don’t get me wrong spending to win is still a viable strategy, but look at teams such as Rangers, Braves, Astros, Phillies. They have spent adding around young talent they developed or acquired and free agent additions were meticulously selected. Yankees and Mets chose the opposite approach in regards to their rotations and how did that work out??
So if George was around he could throw all the fits he desired, but it would not change reality.
Lol. Rickey Henderson was acquired by the Yankees in 1985…….
He also made a return late in his career to the Bronx. One of his final seasons in the MLB
No. He did not. He played for the Mets in 99-00. The last time he wore pinstripes was 1988.
Higashioka would look very good in a phillies uniform for a couple years. Just not sure what they would have to give up for a c in his final year of arb and then FA?
Phillies could use a solid reliable backstop to give Realmuto MUCH needed breaks during the season or even a few starts @1b (has said he prefers NOT to DH), where he has stated he loves to play….
Realmuto has averaged over 130g started since he became a starter 9yrs ago (I know 2020). If the Phils can acquire Higashioka, it would allow JT to still be in the line-up for 130+g, but maybe only 110g @c…..
C’mon Dombrowski, make that initial call…
Trade for and extend him for an extra year. $5.5MM/2 would be hard to turn down for a backup catcher in a competitive org. Can we have Harper?
(Insert Team) Could Look To Trade (insert Scrub Players)
Who is Leo Morganstern and why would anyone care about these 2 nobody catchers? They were backups to Trevino. And Trevino is garbage.
Dream on!
We all know those small pieces won’t make much difference so go ahead and do what you need to do, just make sure you get Cody along the way.
Back-ups, they are more like James McCann than Travis d’Arnaud!
So the last two Yankees articles are being interested in Soto ( who isn’t?) and willing to move 3rd and 4th string catchers (again, who isn’t?).
Is there a quota on Yankee articles?
I always thought it was humorous that immediately following the rortvedt trade from the Twins, Yankees media was touting how much they won the trade, hyping rortvedt….
Twins fans already knew he couldnt hit his way out of a wet paper bag….
SUCK IT SPANKEES!!!!!!!
This would be like the RS trading McGuire. There will always be a team looking for a #2 catcher, but this would be a very low-level trade.
Rortvedt is as useless as a fart in a wind storm.
Have you found good use cases of farts?
“Meanwhile” should not come in the middle of a sentence. It needs to be at the start, and at the start only.