It’s been a frenetic week-plus for the Yankees, who over the past ten days have watched Juan Soto sign with the Mets and quickly pivoted to bring lefty Max Fried, closer Devin Williams and first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger into the fold. There’s still more on the Yankees’ short-term to-do list, but Williams also offered a glimpse at a potential conversation that could be had in the coming months. Asked by the YES Network’s Jack Curry about the possibility of signing a long-term contract in the Bronx, Williams replied that it’s “definitely an option.” As it stands, he’s heading into his final season of club control before free agency.
Williams has been one of the game’s most dominant relievers since making his debut. The 2020 National League Rookie of the Year ranks in the top-three of all big league pitchers (min. 200 innings) in both ERA (1.83, second) and strikeout rate (39.4%, third) since coming into the league.
Detractors might point to Williams surrendering what was effectively a season-ending home run to Pete Alonso against the Mets in the NLDS, but it’s rare for the righty to falter in that manner. Since 2020, his first full big league season, no pitcher in baseball has a higher win probability added than Williams. He’s been placed into 138 save/hold situations in his career and only blown the opportunity 10 times. Broadly speaking, Williams has done his best work in high-leverage spots, that lasting memory from the ’24 postseason notwithstanding.
A pitcher with Williams’ stuff and track record should have the opportunity to command one of the largest deals ever for a reliever next winter — provided he maintains that standard in his first season with the Yankees. Williams will pitch nearly all of this season at 30 years of age, turning 31 in September. Age and perhaps some health questions — he missed three months in 2024 with multiple stress fractures in his back — might keep him from quite reaching the same heights that Edwin Diaz (five years, $102MM) and his former teammate Hader (five years, $95MM) reached in free agency. Diaz was 29 in the first year of his contract. Hader was 30.
Still, Williams could reasonably expect to command at least four years, if not five, and he’d be able to push into the rarefied air of $16-20MM average annual values for relievers that have only been attainable for the game’s truly elite stoppers over the past few years. Diaz, Hader, Wade Davis, Liam Hendriks, Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman are the only relievers to command multi-year deals with AAVs of $16MM or more.
Whether the two sides will actually get into serious negotiations is an open question, but Williams’ ostensible openness is of some note. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $7.7MM in his final arbitration this coming season, and one would presume he and his reps at Klutch Sports are eyeing an annual salary of $18MM or more for his free agent seasons. It’d be a costly endeavor, but the Yankees have been willing to make huge commitments to the bullpen in the past (e.g. Chapman, Zack Britton).
Elsewhere in the Yankee bullpen is another potentially dominant arm: righty Jonathan Loaisiga. The Yanks more quietly re-signed the Nicaraguan-born righty this month. He’s currently eight months removed from an internal brace procedure to repair a UCL tear in his right elbow. Pitching coach Matt Blake told reporters today, including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, that the aim is for Loaisiga to be back in the Yankees’ big league bullpen by late April or early May.
The 30-year-old Loaisiga has only reached 50 innings in one big league season but has been excellent when healthy enough to take the ball. Dating back to 2020, the oft-injured righty sports a 2.98 ERA with a below-average 20.3% strikeout rate but a strong 6.5% walk rate and an elite 58% ground-ball rate. Since largely shelving his four-seamer in favor of a sinker, Loaisiga has averaged a blazing 98.1 mph on that sinker, also employing a changeup to help keep lefties off balance. It seems the current expectation is for Loaisiga to open the season on the injured list, but it may not be a particularly lengthy stay, based on the current trajectory of his rehab.
Of course, the headline-grabbing news of the week in the Bronx — beyond finalizing their eight-year deal with Fried and introducing him at a press conference today — was the Yankees’ completion of a trade to bring Bellinger to the Bronx. Rumors of talks between the Yankees and Cubs were plentiful, particularly once Soto signed with the Mets. The two teams finally lined up on a deal yesterday afternoon.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweeted not long after the trade that the Yankees had informed Bellinger he’ll be utilized in center field. General manager Brian Cashman pushed back on that today following the Fried presser (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com), stating that there’s no firm decision on Bellinger’s defensive home. He could play any of center field, left field or first base for the Yankees next season, and that decision will be contingent on what the Yankees are able to accomplish throughout the remainder of the offseason. FOX Sports’ Deesha Thosar adds that manager Aaron Boone spoke to Bellinger last night, and Bellinger informed his new skipper he’s open to playing wherever needed.
That flexibility, plus the flexibility provided by Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s ability to play multiple spots, leaves Cashman a vast array of possibilities for the remainder of the offseason. The Yankees are reportedly intrigued by several free agent first basemen but could look to the outfield market and also have other areas of depth from which they could trade. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com suggests that catcher Jose Trevino, for instance, could find himself on the trade block in the weeks ahead.
There’s been some speculation that the Yankees could deal from their catching depth this winter, and they’ve already moved one of the five catchers they had on their 40-man roster, sending Carlos Narvaez to the Red Sox for a minor league pitcher and some international bonus pool space. With Austin Wells emerging as the starter behind the plate and backstops J.C. Escarra and Jesus Rodriguez joining Trevino on the 40-man roster, there’s still a good bit of depth. (That doesn’t even include catcher/first baseman Ben Rice, or catching prospect Rafael Flores, who’s not on the 40-man but just had a big season in Double-A.)
To be clear, there’s no indication that Trevino is expressly being shopped. But catching depth is always at a premium around the league, and this offseason’s market is particularly thin. The Yankees are a surefire luxury payor, and while Trevino’s projected $3.4MM salary (again, via Swartz) isn’t excessive, moving him could cut the Yankees’ spending by around $7MM after accounting for the CBT.
The 32-year-old Trevino hit just .215/.288/.354 in 234 plate appearances last year but graded out as a plus-plus defender. The 2022 Platinum Glove winner is a free agent after the season, and with a wealth of young catching options in Wells, Escarra, Rodriguez and Flores, it’d be understandable if the Yanks leveraged that depth by moving Trevino for some bullpen help or depth in another area of need.
Yankees let a guy without facial hair walk and signed three guys with facial hair. Coincidence, I think not!
To say Fried’s patchy face art is ‘facial hair’ can only happen in the season of giving.
Cashman’s conquering all MLB beards one offseason at a time!
Time to offer Brian Wilson and Dallas Keuchel more money than they’ve ever seen to make beardless comebacks!
The Yankees are making all the moves and the other teams are like us watching, ooing, and awing.
It’s been a very nice pivot from Soto. If they snag Christian Walker on a 3 year deal I think Yankee fans should be very happy overall. They probably still won’t be, but they should be.
rct I like Walker but as it has been pointed out before, he’s getting up there in age. The Yankees would probably be better off to get Profar if he can be had at a reasonable price and years. Or they could trade for Lowe from Texas or Naylor with Cleveland.
RCT: If Cashman gets one good player for 1B, whether that’s Lowe or Walker, or even acquired a SS (like either Kim, although I think this option is far less likely), I will consider this an A offseason for Cashman. I didn’t think it was going to be possible with losing Soto, but you’re right, I think most Yankees fans expectations have been exceeded.
Yankees certainly cannot be accused of having a quiet off season- and again I reiterate that no one player makes or breaks a club’s prospects, so losing out on Soto could wind up being a break even prospect or possibly even a blessing, a boost, as they spread that cash around and balance the team better than it would have been if Soto had signed with them long term.
I highly doubt Trevino gets traded. Sophomore Wells can still use his guidance. If traded and Wells goes down, the Yankees will have to use Ben Rice and two catchers on their 40-man with no MLB experience.
There are almost always defensively minded catchers available should Wells go down for an extended time….not advocating trading Trevino, but if a trade brings back a necessary player, be it offensively or pitching wise, then do it Yankees…..he’s good with the glove, but a weak hitter with little power….
@rocky7 I don’t think Trevino alone can get much back besides a warm body and possibly int’l pool money. He’s not even good defensively anymore. It’ll take another team’s catcher injury to happen.
@rocky
Trevino isn’t going to bring back anyone that can’t be had for minimal prospect cost or cash. He’s Cole’s preferred C so I would rather keep him.
Might be Rice’s only chance at PT tbh. I don’t think he’s our 1st Basemen of the future. We’re most definitely signing a long term solution this year or next.
Bold prediction
Devin finishes with 50 saves, sub 1 era
Top 3 in cy voting
And gives up series winning home run to the Mets in the World Series.
To Brandon Nimmo hitting clean-up protecting $1B worth of players.
So, Mets fans are howling about Alonso’s HR off Williams as if Williams was some mook of a reliever that a .198 opposite hitter took yard…..Alonso, is a big guy with lots of power….but he still is a .240 hitter…..even the greatest of them all….Mariano did surrender game winning hits….and he’s a HOFer….so Mets fans, revel in the fact that Alonso’s HR did propel them into the next round, but if you duplicate that situation with both these guys 10 times….guess who I think dominates…….
Your Los Angeles Dodgers
Nope the Mets own Cole and now they will own Williams. Both hall of fame players.
I wonder if all Mets fans are this delusional.
Like the guy sitting behind me at Citifield during the NLCS screaming MVP every time Lindor stuck his head out of the dugout.
That was a ridiculous statement. Did Lindor not just finish 2nd in MVP voting? Is Cole’s career ERA against the Mets not 6.99? Is Devin Williams career ERA against the Mets not 4.93? Or are you just a delusional Yankees fan?
Lindor couldn’t even get all of the 2nd place MVP votes. And he finished so far behind Ohtani it wasn’t remotely close. As for the Cole and Williams thing, who cares? You won’t get any trophy for being better than the Yanks cause the Mets won’t ever get past the Dodgers. Not to mention that the Yanks (no I am not a Yankees fan) have a better squad than the Mets.
Mets fans will never shake that little brother syndrome.
Dream on…dream on…
Y’all need to make some more significant moves ahead of declaring for the WS. Yanks had a better team behind Soto last season than the Mets currently do.
No they didn’t. The Yankees lineup was horrible besides Judge and Soto.
So tired of these silly arguments when the Yanks made it the WS. And I said overall team, which isn’t even remotely arguable.
Devin Stinks in the playoffs. Enjoy Yankees!!
Love this! Mad1 is the perfect anti-data guy. Who needs WHIP and OOP? Just go with the “stink” factor.
Wow, I think we’ve set a new record for “let’s create content about the Yankees without actually having any content”. Can y’all do a speculative summary about the other 29 teams too? Not a bad idea as we’re halfway through the off-season!
Reds please
Why? It’s the Yankees world & the other 29 teams are just living in it. Ahahahaha!
Comments like this always confuse me. Do you expect a rumors site to not talk about the team in the biggest media market in the country? Especially after they’ve been the most active team in recent weeks
It’s totally worth talking about, but not much is said here that hasn’t been said in previous rumor or completed trade/signing articles very recently.
Yanks had a presser today, that’s indeed news.
@Seam
Tell the other teams to do something worth talking about.
I like Williams and believe he will have an excellent season next year – barring injury – but I certainly wouldn’t sign him for multiple years at $16+ million per. That’s completely ridiculous for a pitcher who throws 65 innings a year.
Yanks got burned by giving long-term, high $ deals to Britton and Chapman. Let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson.
Yeah there’s only been one Mo Rivera. It’s not ‘Enter Sand Men’ it’s ‘Enter Sand Man’ singular.
Mariano was the only guy worth the money he received. He was lights out for 15+ years.
Another note about Williams that is worrisome…he walks a lot of batters. 4.3/9 for his career. Sounds a bit like Clay Holmes. Another reason not to give him gigantic $ long-term.
I say lets just see what happens…
The funny thing about Yankees closers the last few years was that Clay Holmes and Aroldis Chapman had long stretches where they’d regularly walk the bases loaded, throw insanely wild pitches and yet somehow wind up with 0.00 ERA’s for a good long stretch- so, technically perfect results, but horrifically ugly path to those 0.00 ERA’s… and then they truly fell apart and got these bloated ERA’s that revealed their true value or lack thereof.
I hope Williams is not that…
Also, much as I love Mo Rivera, he had a few horrific moments that ended seasons for the Yankees.. so… nobody is perfect.
Mo could get a full spring training in and probably still be the best relief pitcher on the planet. I’m only barely kidding.
Yeah you look at his track record and I bet he very truly could have played another 2-5 seasons without dropping off… but then again you look at various baseball careers and realize that when guys walk away on a high note- a final season that aligns with their career averages- they’re simply avoiding that inevitable season or multiple seasons where they hang on but their numbers crater and look terrible and hurt their overall career averages, etc.
Better to walk away on a high note with something left in the tank than to risk an extra season or multiple extra seasons that tarnish their legacies.
@YBC Agreed…plus, nobody wants Trevino. I’m sure most teams would rather take a gamble on one of the two young catching prospects in any trade.
@Dog
other teams wouldn’t want one of the best framers in the game? every team should want him is just a matter of how much?
Williams might want to take the time to get a beak full of Yankees fans before signing any extension. Ask Soto.
Oh, he’ll get a snoot full. Ahahahaha!
I know everyone is fixated on the Deferral Dodgers these days but I don’t understand why other teams think it’s their job to improve the Yankees. Embarrassing returns on those trades for Devin Williams and Cody Bellinger, especially by two teams who also have playoff aspirations in the Brewers and Cubs.
Uhhhh, because they’re the Yankees. Ahahahaha!
They were 2 teams desperate to move payroll and the easiest moves were to move Williams and bellinger. The payroll flexibility is what will help them compete, in theory, as they have more pressing needs to use that money on
They still have to add to their offense. Soto had a big impact. Just his presence in the lineup was huge. Gleyber was solid. Just one player on the current roster had a good postseason offensively (obviously Stanton). I don’t think that you can count on DJ or Jazz to stay healthy, or Rice to perform well. They have to add at least one good bat.
“USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweeted not long after the trade that the Yankees had informed Bellinger he’ll be utilized in center field. General manager Brian Cashman pushed back on that today following the Fried presser (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com), stating that there’s no firm decision on Bellinger’s defensive home.”
Bob Nightengale wrong? Surely this can’t be!
Thank you, this is what I’ve said since yesterday. They wouldn’t reveal their plan yet when they have more moves to make. Bellinger’s versatility gives them more options and leverage, both of which they need since there’s still 2-3 spots (not 100% convinced they’re outright giving Jasson a starting role) yet to fill.
Yes. Bellinger told Cashman and Boone that he’ll be fine wherever they slot him.
Yanks better today than they were last year and last year they went to the series so I’d say they’ve done well thus far.
rotation is better but without soto and second-half gleyber the line-up is scary thin. if jasson is a bust and/or wells/volpe don’t improve and/or stanton has a serious injury the offense will be below average at best
If and ands run through all teams. All the things you say are true but I don’t think they’re done and I also think they’ve left themself some room to add at the deadline
agree on both points but the entitled yankee fan in me is frustrated that a team with a 300M payroll has so many ifs and ands
Last year Trevvy showed the worst “throwing for a catcher” i’ve ever witnessed. I wonder if his arm grew back this off season?
Unlikely the Yankees will move Trevino. He remains one of the top pitch framers, and that’s way more important in catcher contributions than arm strength. Both Fried and Williams will be helped by the Yankees catchers.
the catcher position is evolving. auto-zone will soon make framing obsolete, most games are called from the dugout and the disengagement rule has juiced the running game. in a few years arm strength and pitch blocking might be the only tools scouts evaluate
Soto leaving will have a significant negative impact. The Fried signing is an overpay, but if he stays healthy, it’s just an overpay, not anything existential. The Bellinger trade I dislike, but it’s still just an overpay, and while empirically a lot of money, a max two year overpay. Next step is to see if they can find a cost-effective answer for the rest of their hole. But if you are just looking at Fried and Bellinger vs Soto for 2025+2026, the money is roughly equivalent (without the Soto signing bonus). I’d still rather have Soto than Fried and Bellinger, but it’s 2027 and beyond that gets interesting.
Just got off the horn with Cash ninja. He’s been pretty busy but I gave him an earful. This is how the convo went in regards to the direction of the team.
The Yankees should now look to trade for Nolan Arenado who will add some needed leadership, top end defense, and attitude. Big hiccup is the 74m owed him at his age of 34.
The Yankees can use one more left handed bat which the Cards have a plethora of.
The trade recommendation is as follows:
Arenado entire contract and Brendan Donovan 28yo (2025 contract 4m) a lefty batting outfield/2nd baseman to the Yankees.
Cards will have to take money back in DJL (30m over 2 years) and Stroman (18m next year with a player opt in if he pitches more than 140 innings). Also Grisham (5m).
So the Yankees are taking on 78m from Cards and Cards taken on 53m from the Yankees and saving 25m.
On top of that the Yankees will send 2-3 prospects.
Some combination of:
Will Warren or Chase Hampton top pitching prospects
Oswaldo Cabrera super utility young infielder
Everson Periera top 100 outfield prospect last season on BA before hurting his elbow and requiring surgery.
I think it’s a fair deal as it gives the Cards 3 prospects and salary relief and they can spin Stroman off at the deadline if he’s pitching ok and DJ has a chance if healthy to maybe give them some production during a rebuild?
Now the Yanks still have some wiggle room left to stay under the 300m luxury met tax to sign Goldy for first base to a 1 year deal to platoon with Ben Rice and resign lefty Hill for the bullpen and possibly add 1 more starter, Walker Buehler on a 1 year pillow deal or Roki Sasaki which is even better as he will not be making much and the Yankees can utilize a 6 man rotation for parts of the season and use one starter to fill in certain games if they need the work. The bench will be much more versatile and will not need an extra player so 3 position players off the bench. Dominguez or Peraza which ever one deserves to make team, Rice, back up catcher.
That’s a championship caliber team people.
Quality over quantity, I;m going after Bregman or a Walker/Alonzo, .. Yanks have about 40 million to spend to meet last years, so I can see them signing 1 more player, and adjusting at the deadline if needed.. DJ is making good money, maybe he gets another chance at 3rd and 1st.
Soto and the Mets did the Yankees a huge favor.
Wisely, the Yankees are doing what they should have been doing all along, spreading their funds around landing multiple players to fill their needs instead of blowing most of the money in one place on Soto.
Bellinger will be a very good fit @ 1ba and all 3 OF positions.
The new closer and starter will improve the team
INF upgrades @ 3B and and some OF and 1B depth would round out a very competitive team for 2025.
Remember, the Padres won more games and were a much better team
AFER THEY TRADED SOTO.