The Yankees never got Adley Rutschman, and the reported price from Baltimore makes that miss look even stranger.
According to Jon Heyman, the Orioles asked for Elmer Rodríguez, one of Will Warren/Ryan Weathers, Austin Wells, and emerging top prospect Yostin Pena in return for Rutschman, who was available for a year and a half and was dealing with forearm issues after spending time on the IL. That package, if true, was a steep ask for a player whose recent production had already become a question mark.
The case for holding firm got a little louder in the same stretch of baseball that sparked all the second-guessing. In Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, Boston’s Willson Contreras homered in the sixth inning, one of only two runs the Red Sox scored across the entire series. Shortly after that, Garrett Crochet entered from the bullpen for his first game action since April, while Jake Bennett - described as the lefty who may have owned the Yankees more than any other pitcher this season - never appeared.
That decision backfired fast. Crochet opened by throwing a slider into the dirt for a strikeout, then watched Spencer Jones turn a chance into chaos.
Jones was not thrown out at first, then raced to second and advanced to third on Rutschman’s overthrow. Crochet then retired none of the next three hitters and left his playoff run with an ERA of infinity.
Rutschman’s own series didn’t do much to change the conversation. He did manage a single after a 10-pitch battle with Cam Schlittler, and the broadcast praised the at-bat heavily, but that was about the extent of his impact.
The bigger issue for the Orioles’ reported ask is what they wanted on top of the obvious pieces. Wells would have been a meaningful inclusion for Baltimore, especially with his defense and his late-season surge - .746 OPS in August and .830 in September. But Rutschman’s numbers over that same span were much thinner, sitting at .500 and .845.
Then there was Pena, the kind of throw-in that turns a deal from expensive to outrageous. He has been one of the biggest risers in the minors, tearing through the system from the DSL to Tampa and putting himself on a path toward Top 100 consideration. He may even be the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect.
For the Yankees, that’s a package worth passing on. For Baltimore, it was apparently the price of doing business.
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