The Yankees are heading into the All-Star break with one eye on Philadelphia and another on the future. Cam Schlittler and Cody Bellinger will be in the spotlight next week, but the bigger organizational pivot is already looming: the 2026 MLB Draft, which begins Saturday afternoon in the City of Brotherly Love.
Brian Cashman will have a chance to add more talent to a system that already includes prospects like George Lombard Jr., Carlos Lagrange and Dax Kilby. But every draft class does more than stock the farm.
It can also start squeezing the margins on the big-league roster, especially for veterans who aren’t holding up their end. For the Yankees, that makes this weekend especially relevant for Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and Ryan McMahon.
Wells is the clearest case. The 26-year-old catcher has been one of the Yankees’ weakest bats since Opening Day, hitting .151/.246/.242 with five home runs and 11 RBIs in 63 games and 186 at-bats.
His minus-0.3 WAR is a career worst, and Baseball Savant has him at a .203 expected batting average and .279 expected weighted on-base average, both personal lows. He’s under team control through 2030 and still grades well as a pitch-framer, but that only goes so far when the bat is this quiet.
After last season’s 21-homer, 71-RBI showing, the Yankees have every reason to wonder if that was the outlier. They’ll pick No. 35, and catcher is very much in play.
Tennessee commit Will Brick and Georgia’s Daniel Jackson are among the Day 1 names mentioned, while future Ole Miss Rebel Cole Prosek offers the added wrinkle of third base.
Volpe’s grip on shortstop is looking shakier by the day. Since June 24, he’s batting .143 with a .382 OPS in 12 games and 35 at-bats, with only five hits, one double, three walks and 10 strikeouts.
The timing isn’t helping, either. José Caballero has started to heat up again, slugging .522 with a .261 average, two homers, six RBIs and two steals in his first seven games of July, including four starts at shortstop.
Volpe has made as many starts this month, but he’s slugging just .214 with three hits in five games, and the Yankees are 0-5 in those contests. If New York wants to look beyond Volpe, the draft offers a path to do it.
Mississippi State commit Rocco Maniscalco, Texas A&M commit Trey Ebel and North Carolina’s Jake Schaffner are all names to keep in mind.
There’s also the third-base situation, where McMahon’s recent stretch has at least bought him some breathing room. Since coming back from a throat and ear infection, he’s hit .286 with an .875 OPS, two walks and two RBIs in his first five July games, spanning 14 at-bats.
That’s a nice run, but the Yankees have seen hot streaks from him before, only for the production to cool off again. The trade for McMahon last season hasn’t solved the position, and with the former MLB All-Star set to reach free agency after 2027, it’s fair to question whether New York will want to keep paying his $16 million annual salary for much longer.
If the Yankees decide not to chase another trade-deadline move, the draft could help them map out the next answer at third. Prosek can handle the position, Virginia commit Bo Lowrance brings the kind of power teams like at the hot corner, and Roman Martin may be the closest to MLB-ready after hitting .333 with a .995 OPS in his first season at UCLA.
For now, McMahon’s strong week gives the Yankees a little more reason to believe he can stick. But if Cashman comes away from Philadelphia with a third baseman, catcher or shortstop of the future, the message will be hard to miss: the replacement plan has already started.
In Other News...
Yankees Just Got Linked To A Trade Fans Will Hate Or Love
A speculative trade idea from Bleacher Report has the Yankees in an eye-catching spot, with the discussion centered on whether a utility infielder could be worth parting with a pair of pitching prospects. The appeal on New Yorks side is easy to see: Carlos Lagrange brings big arm strength and starter upside, while Eric Reyzelman has also drawn enough attention to be included in the kind of package that gets people talking.
Lagrange, in particular, has the sort of profile that makes these proposals divisive. The 23-year-old right-hander can reach 100 mph, pairs that heater with an above-average slider, and was effective in Triple-A before a shoulder injury complicated his season. On the other side of the idea sits Zack Gelof, a versatile infielder with years of team control and an .823 OPS, which is exactly why this kind of rumor can split a fan base right down the middle. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Boone Finally Addressed The Anthony Volpe Confusion
The Yankees shortstop conversation has been noisy enough that it started to feel bigger than the actual depth chart, with Jose Caballeros name entering the debate and Anthony Volpe suddenly having to answer for a position he has long owned. Aaron Boone stepped in to calm some of that down, making clear that Volpe remains the clubs shortstop and treating him like the incumbent rather than a player fighting to keep a job.
Boones comments also helped separate the real baseball question from the rumor mill surrounding Volpes role. The Yankees have supported him as the starter, and while the chatter around a possible move has lingered, the team has not asked him to play elsewhere, leaving the focus where it belongs: on how the Yankees sort out the infield behind the guy they still view as their shortstop. [Read more 🡒]
A Forgotten Yankees Prospect From 2016 Is Back For The Worst Reason
A former Yankees pitching prospect from the 2016 system has resurfaced in an unwelcome way, this time in the Rockies Triple-A orbit. At 34, he is still hanging around professional baseball after a career that never quite matched the early buzz, one that took him out of the Yankees pipeline and eventually led to a major league debut with Oakland.
What makes the latest turn notable is less the uniform than the reason for it. The right-handers path has already included the usual grind of a fluctuating career, but now he is back in the news for a suspension tied to performance-enhancing drugs, a reminder that even players long removed from the spotlight can still leave one more awkward footnote behind. [Read more 🡒]