LAS VEGAS - The Yankees may spend the offseason hunting for bats, but Brian Cashman made it clear Wednesday that the club’s biggest headache sits somewhere else entirely.
Not third base. Not second base. Not even the middle of the lineup.
It’s the bullpen.
During a guest appearance with Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on SiriusXM MLB Network Radio, Cashman put the issue in plain terms: “What bullpen?” he said.
“I don’t have one now. I’ve got to figure it out.”
That’s the reality facing the Yankees after a season in which the back end of the relief corps is suddenly full of holes. Left-hander Brent Headrick is back after a breakout 2026 season, but beyond that, the list of potential departures is long.
The Yankees have five free agent relievers, and David Bednar would become a sixth if he turns down a $23.15 million qualifying offer by Nov. 17.
The group includes right-handers John Schreiber, Michael Fulmer and Paul Blackburn, along with left-handers Tim Hill and Ryan Yarbrough. On top of that, the team still doesn’t know what next season will look like for right-hander Fernandez Cruz, who missed the final month and the postseason with a partially torn UCL.
That’s why Cashman kept circling back to relief help when he spoke Tuesday as well, spending 75 minutes answering questions and stressing the same point.
“That’s probably our biggest need because we have so many vacancies of certainly important people that did a great job for us,” he said. “Headrick’s still here, obviously, but with Timmy Hill and Bednar and Blackburn all free agents, those guys were a really nice bridge for us late in the game and they were consistent throughout the whole year.
“So we gotta rebuild that, repackage that. It doesn’t mean we don’t have answers from within that can handle it somehow, some way, but you’re always wondering.
You don’t know. There’s no certainty until you play it out and let it play out.”
The Yankees would love to keep Bednar and Blackburn, and Cashman’s comments made it obvious those two matter a lot to what comes next. He also said the club is “casting a wide net,” though he acknowledged the market for leverage relievers is thin and the trade options aren’t exactly easy to pry loose.
The dream scenario would be to bring back Bednar and Blackburn and still land the best reliever available. One name the Yankees like is Padres left-hander Adrian Morejon, whose four-seamers and sinkers average 99 mph and can touch close to 102 mph. The catch: he’s off limits for now because of a qualifying offer.
Hill is another possible target to return, though he’s coming off a down year and has drawn interest from multiple teams, including the Dodgers. That makes sense for more than one reason. Hill is a suburban Los Angeles native, and he lives in San Diego with his partner, Nicole, and their 22-month-old son, Xander.
For the moment, the Yankees are penciling in left-hander Ryan Weathers as their fifth starter, which could push Will Warren into a full-time relief role if the front four stay healthy: newly crowned AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler, 2023 Cy winner Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon.
Money, of course, will shape how aggressive the Yankees can be. MLB Trade Rumors projects Morejon for a five-year, $80 million deal if he reaches the open market.
That would make him the second-richest reliever in Yankees history behind only Aroldis Chapman’s five-year, $86 million contract in 2016. Bednar is projected at four years and $68 million, while Blackburn is projected at two years and $15 million.
Cashman said he isn’t afraid to pay for relief help if the fit is right.
“I’ve done it before,” he said. “I’m not afraid to do it.
It just comes down to allocation of resources and the opportunity, what’s in front of you and how realistic it is and do we like it enough to play those numbers and all that stuff. But I’m not opposed to putting numbers on players at whatever position.”
For now, though, the Yankees’ offseason starts with a simple, messy question: who’s actually going to pitch the late innings?
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For a team that expects to stay in the thick of the race, the urgency is obvious. Catching help and infield stability remain obvious pressure points, and the Yankees are being mentioned in conversations that could address both, even if none of it has been confirmed by official sources. With the market now shifting from meetings to real negotiations, New York looks like a club worth watching closely as the winter gets moving. [Read more 🡒]