The Yankees need a swing that actually moves the needle, and the trade market may not be offering many clean ones. Tarik Skubal and Mason Miller are the flashy names, but there’s no guarantee either gets dealt.
The catching market already took a blow with Shea Langeliers’ injury, and the outfield pool lost some shine when Spencer Steer went down. That leaves New York staring at a familiar problem: they need impact, not filler.
That’s why the idea of getting aggressive with the Giants is interesting. San Francisco has been described as one of the most desperate clubs in baseball, carrying a bloated payroll and little to show for it.
Buster Posey’s influence has been limited, and Tony Vitello’s first season has been called a disaster. In that kind of spot, a shakeup starts to make sense, even if it looks wild at first glance.
The names at the center of this hypothetical are Rafael Devers and Jung-Hoo Lee. It’s been reported that the Giants want off Devers’ contract, and for the Yankees, the fit is obvious enough: they need another impact bat and should be thinking about life after Giancarlo Stanton. Devers could slide in as a high-end DH for the next five years, and his deal, while massive, is one a big-market team can stomach if it helps preserve the Aaron Judge-Gerrit Cole window.
Devers is owed $28.5 million per year through 2033, a price tag that is ugly but not beyond the reach of a Yankees team built to absorb it. The deal would carry him to his age-36 season, which is roughly when decline would be expected to start showing up. That’s the kind of financial burden New York can at least consider if the bat is worth it.
Lee is a different piece, but he matters here too. He’s not expected to be moved, yet the Giants probably won’t escape a Devers deal without giving up something significant.
Lee is making about $23 million through 2027 before a player option, and he could choose to exercise it as he heads into his age-29 season in search of one more major payday. For the Yankees, that would help shape their 2027 outlook, assuming there is a season.
For San Francisco, it would mean getting value before a possible free-agent problem arrives.
The Giants’ farm system is strong, but it skews heavily toward position players. Six of their top seven prospects are position players, and pitching remains a need.
That makes a broader restructuring more appealing, even if it means moving pieces that are not easy to part with. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames are described as far more untradeable, which only adds to the sense that San Francisco may have to get creative.
From New York’s side, a Devers addition would come with obvious risk. But the fit at Yankee Stadium is better than the one he has now, and the idea is simple: park him at DH, let the ballpark play to his strengths, and keep building around the edges. It would also throw a fresh jolt into the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, which is never a bad thing for a team looking to make a statement.
There may not be many impact moves available. That’s exactly why the Yankees should at least find out how far a desperate front office is willing to go.
In Other News...
Yankees Just Lost A Deadline Target They Could Not Afford To Lose
The Yankees went into deadline season looking for help behind the plate and possibly in the outfield, with Minnesotas Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton among the names that fit what they need. Instead, the Twins have taken those options off the board, choosing to keep key pieces in place rather than entertain offers, which narrows the market for a New York club still trying to add a right-handed bat and some lineup flexibility.
Francisco Alvarez remains one of the more intriguing fallback ideas if the Yankees decide to keep probing the Mets, but the price there is said to be steep. If Minnesota is truly out of reach, New York may have to get creative and look elsewhere in the division for a catcher or outfield help, a reminder that the deadline can turn quickly from target shopping to contingency planning. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Lose Another Deadline Fit As Cashman Runs Out Of Time
Spencer Steers name had been circling the Yankees as a possible right-handed answer for an outfield group still looking for help, but that path has now closed for the moment. Cincinnati put Steer on the injured list with a wrist injury, removing him from the market and forcing New York to keep sorting through a deadline board that has already started to thin out.
Brian Cashman is now working against the clock with fewer clean fits than he would like. The Yankees are still checking on right-handed outfield options such as Lane Thomas, Jo Adell, Jorge Polanco and George Springer, but each comes with some kind of drawback, leaving the front office to balance need, cost and fit before time runs out. [Read more 🡒]