Cody Bellinger is back on the rehab trail, and that puts the Yankees right where they expected to be: staring at a roster squeeze they can’t dodge for long.
Bellinger went 1-for-3 on Thursday night and nearly left the yard, sending a fly ball to right field that looked like it had a chance to clear the fence. New York badly needs more bats in the lineup, and an All-Star outfielder returning would give them exactly that. But once he’s ready, someone has to come off.
The obvious answer is Spencer Jones, who would be the easiest player to option to Triple-A. That’s the cleanest path, but it’s not necessarily the best one. Jones hasn’t lit up the stat sheet, yet he has held his own and brought some much-needed power to a lineup that has lacked it since Aaron Judge went down.
There’s another route, and it runs through Amed Rosario.
Rosario gave the Yankees an early-season spark and deserves credit for that. But the best version of him hasn’t shown up in a while, and his overall line reflects that: .226/.269/.425 with a 90 wRC+. His defense has also been a problem.
His role was supposed to center on punishing left-handed pitching, but that hasn’t really happened. Against lefties, Rosario is hitting .193/.240/.370 with a 67 wRC+. He’s actually done better against righties, where he’s batting .284/.319/.522 with a 133 wRC+.
That split sounds useful on paper, but in practice it doesn’t change the bigger issue. Unless injuries pile up again, Aaron Boone isn’t likely to keep running Rosario out there against right-handed arms. And even if that production holds, regression could be coming, which brings the conversation right back to Jones.
Jones has been steadier than the raw numbers might suggest. In 167 plate appearances, he’s slashing .227/.305/.407 with a 100 wRC+, along with six homers, 19 RBI and seven stolen bases. That’s not flashy, but it is league-average production, and for this roster that matters.
He’s also heated up recently. Over his last 42 plate appearances, dating back to a two-hit game against the Atlanta Braves in which he mashed a triple off Chris Sale, Jones is hitting .289/.357/.500 with a 141 wRC+. During that stretch, he has added a homer, two doubles, a triple and four stolen bases.
His three-hit night against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, which included that homer, played a big role in helping the Yankees sweep the series.
If New York decides to move on from Rosario and keep Jones, the roster math changes, but not dramatically. Bellinger could slide into Ramos’ outfield spot, which would tighten up the defense. Ramos would then head back to the bench, where he was originally expected to be as the lefty-mashing option.
The Yankees would be short one right-handed bat, but the player they’d be replacing doesn’t hit southpaws well anyway. If that was a major concern, Brian Cashman and the front office had a chance to address it at the trade deadline. Rosario’s struggles have been around for a while, so this wouldn’t be some sudden surprise.
In Other News...
Jasson Dominguez Is Giving The Yankees A Tougher Outfield Decision
After the trade deadline, the Yankees sent Jasson Domnguez back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to clear space for Heliot Ramos, a move that underscored how unsettled the outfield picture had become. Domnguez has been one of the organizations most watched young players for years, but his major league season never really found a rhythm, and the clubs patience has started to look a little more complicated as other outfield options keep moving into the conversation.
The next part is the part the Yankees have to sort through. Domnguez has not seized the opportunity in Triple-A, where his offense has been slow over the first stretch of games, and that only adds to the uncertainty around his role going forward. For a team trying to line up its future outfield, the issue is no longer just whether Domnguez can hit at the big-league level, but whether the organization still sees him as the answer it once did. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Already Have A Luis Garca Jr. Trade Problem
Less than three weeks after swapping Luis Garca Jr. and Yovanny Cruz with Washington, the Yankees are already dealing with the kind of early returns that can make a trade look far messier than it did on paper. Garcas bat has gone quiet since arriving in New York, a sharp dip from what he had been doing with the Nationals, while the move has not exactly stabilized the other side of the deal either.
Cruzs transition in Washington has been bumpy as well, with the young pitchers results sliding the wrong way and a rough ERA and blown saves adding to the concern. The saving grace for both clubs is that neither player is a finished product, and both remain under team control, which leaves plenty of time for the deal to look very different later on, even if the present tense is uncomfortable. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Take A Flier On A Reliever Who Wasnt This Bad Before
The Yankees have added another arm to the organizational pile, signing right-hander Eli Morgan to a minor league contract after he elected free agency following his designation for assignment by the Royals. It is the kind of low-cost move New York likes to make around the edges, especially when a pitcher still has some recent track record to lean on. Morgan was effective with Cleveland in 2024, enough to suggest there may still be something to uncover here.
His rough 2026 season pushed him out of Kansas Citys plans, but the Yankees are clearly willing to see whether a trip to Triple-A can get him back on track. The appeal is obvious: the raw pitch data still points to a reliever with usable traits, and New York will have time to sort through whether he can become more than just another depth add. If he does show enough in the minors, a late-season promotion would not be out of the question. [Read more 🡒]